Retreats at Home: Mindfulness for Challenging Times - 1-day online retreat

Nina Jankelson

Nina began practising mindfulness in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, attending retreat in Northern India and Nepal and later drawing inspiration from the Insight Meditation tradition and the teachings of Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh.

A former residential coordinator - and now Assistant Manager - at Sharpham's Barn Retreat, Nina has been facilitating meditations, ceremony and retreats for the past five years. Her practice is grounded in a connection to the land and in contacting moments of ordinary beauty and grace in the every day.

She is interested in exploring how contemplative practices can open up our experience of the world and is passionate about creating opportunities for others to do the same. 

Barry Thurgood

For over 10 years, Barry has been guiding meditation groups and coordinating retreats at Lam Rim Buddhist Centre in Bristol, The Sharpham Barn Retreat and also online. He has also worked as the Sharpham Woodland Camp Retreat Manager and is a qualified Integrating Mindfulness & Compassion (CPCAB accredited) teacher.

Barry is inspired by sharing his passion for deepening a sense of connection with ourselves, each other, nature and something bigger than ourselves, all in a spirit of kindness.

Nadia Abdel-Karim

Nadia Abdel-Karim has practised mindfulness and meditation since 2015, influenced primarily by Insight Meditation and Mahayana Buddhist traditions.

As a freelance mental health worker, she spent several years facilitating support groups and offering one-to-one crisis support across London for the mental health charity Mind.

After training as a Mindfulness Practitioner in 2019, she began co-facilitating 8-week Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction courses specifically for people experiencing depression and anxiety.

Nadia relocated to Devon to live at The Barn Retreat Centre, where she spent almost two years co-leading meditation retreats. Alongside leading retreats for Sharpham, she works as a Focusing Practitioner and facilitates spaces for people to connect with their grief.

Her journey continues to be guided by her love for exploring and understanding spiritual traditions and practices.

Martyna Raczka

Martyna is a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Teacher who trained at Bangor University. 

Her background in education allowed her to develop and deliver mindfulness courses for children and young people at schools and charity organisations in Poland and the UK. She has trained and delivered courses based on the Mindfulness in Schools Project Curriculum and ‘The Present’ Approach.

As a certified mental health trainer, Martyna draws upon and uses a wide range of approaches to help each individual bring the benefits of mindfulness into their daily life. 

She is a trained Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy for Life (MBCT-L) teacher. She has delivered these courses to the general public, charity organisations and schools. 

Martyna is passionate about supporting participants as they begin to make conscious steps towards transformation and discovering their full potential. She has a genuine compassion and empathy for the challenges that bring people to mindfulness and through her experience and teaching she aims to pass on tools that will help others alleviate their own suffering. 

She is an advocate of openness and awareness as the first steps towards realising one’s full potential as we begin, without judging ourselves, to recognise how the consequences of long-held habits might hold us back.  

Martyna has a deep sense of connection with nature, mountains and trees in particular. The simplicity, yet profoundness of these connections offers her a space for clearer and sharper focus and understanding as well as humbleness and compassion towards herself and others.