Online Retreat: 1 Day - Mindfulness for Challenging Times

Holly Rigby

Holly Rigby is a teacher, writer and activist whose practice is influenced primarily by the Plum Village Tradition founded by the Vietnamese monk and peace activist Thich Naht Hanh.

Holly has also undertaken a series of courses with the Centre for Mindful Self-Compassion led by Kristin Neff and Chris Germer, and draws on heart-centred approaches across all her teaching and activist work.

She believes that practising in community is a powerful way to integrate mindfulness into the joys and challenges of our interrelated daily lives. 

Martyna Raczka

Martyna is a qualified MBSR, MBCT-L and Finding Peace in a Frantic World teacher. She has delivered online and live courses and retreats to adults and children. Martyna spent a year at the Coach House as a volunteer mindfulness and nature connection retreat leader.

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. 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. 

Miguel Rodríguez

Miguel’s passion for spirituality started at a young age. His inquisitiveness first landed in literature
and art, and later moved onto psychology and philosophy. He was introduced to meditation practice
by his older sister more than twenty years ago and since then has written and published a number of
books that rely on this subject from the perspective of Western as well as Buddhist philosophy.
Miguel’s experience has drawn from contemplative traditions East and West as well as from artistic
practices that work with the imagination. He loves to be on retreat as soon as he gets the
opportunity. He is currently the coordinator of The Sharpham Trust’s online programme.

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.

Nicky Mason

Nicky has over 20 years’ experience of practicing meditation, initially influenced by Mahayana Buddhism. She is a qualified mindfulness and compassion practitioner and integrates this with her work as a counsellor. She is also a nature connection facilitator.

Nicky spent 18 months living at Sharpham as a volunteer coordinator, facilitating mindfulness and nature connection retreats at the Coach House. In her free time, Nicky loves travelling, yoga and spending time with animals and in nature.

Patti Summerville

Patti Summerville has been cultivating a personal meditation practice for over 25 years in both Buddhist and secular settings.

She volunteered as a co-ordinator at The Barn Retreat Centre, an Insight Mindfulness Meditation Retreat centre at Sharpham in 2013. She went on to complete Mindfulness Teacher Training Level 1 and 2 with Exeter University and is a Hatha Yoga teacher and Occupational Therapist. From its opening to 2024, Patti was the manager of The Coach House.

On a personal level, Patti has found great benefit integrating mindfulness practice into her everyday, private and professional life as an Occupational Therapist and Sharpham Trust retreat leader. She is passionate about supporting others on their journey towards more contented, peaceful and compassionate lives.

Uz Afzal

Uz is a mindfulness teacher, trainer and author. She is known for her enthusiastic and welcoming approach and has enjoyed leading a range of mindfulness courses including retreats, eight-week MBSR courses, sessions at the Women of the World Festival and popular walking meditations at the V&A Museum. 

She first discovered the transformative powers of meditation while at university in the1990s and has been practising mindfulness and meditation in one form or another ever since.

She is a lead trainer at the national mental health charity, Mind, where she was part of a team that developed a ground-breaking Radical Self-Care course. She is particularly interested in welcoming all the intersecting aspects of people’s identities into mindfulness courses.