Leaders

Amanda Tyler

Amanda has had a long-standing interest in meditation and Buddhist practices. Her interest in teaching mindfulness began in 2011 as she came aware of the growing evidence base of the benefits of this practice on our wellbeing and the link to her work as an educational psychologist. Amanda has trained to teach mindfulness with Exeter University and teaches MBSR to adults.

Amanda has trained with the Mindfulness in Schools Project and occasionally works as their trainer on courses for teachers who want to deliver mindfulness to children. Amanda enjoys bringing mindfulness into school settings for teachers and children and values helping teachers to recognise the link between their own mindfulness practice and how this can have a positive impact in the classroom. Amanda has taught mindfulness to over 1000 children in schools. On a personal level Amanda’s mindfulness practice has supported her to be with difficulties that may arise and to notice and appreciate joyful moments and she has a passion for supporting others who wish to learn mindfulness.

Armel Wraight

Armel Wraight (they/he pronouns) is the founder of Stillpoint Mindfulness and has been teaching mindfulness to individuals, groups, and business for 13 years.

Their training to teach mindfulness is wide-ranging and includes MBSR and MBCT at Bangor Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice, The Mindful Self-Compassion programme with Kristen Neff and Chris Germer, Dot b. with the Mindfulness in Schools Project and Finding Peace in a Frantic World with Chris Cullen at Oxford Centre for Mindfulness.

A psychotherapist in practice for 25+ years, Armel holds group space with safety, skill, humour and compassion. Armel also facilitates LGBTQIA2S+ international mindfulness spaces and co-wrote a curriculum for the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion specifically for a queer audience.

Armel is especially interested in self-compassion and trauma-informed mindfulness teaching. Their personal practices of meditation, queer intimacy and nature connection bring deep support to their facilitation work.

Barn Coordinators

Our Barn Coordinators will be co-leading this retreat, providing support and holding the space for your experience with us.

Find out more about the team at The Barn on this page

Barry Thurgood - Coach House Manager

Barry has a long term connection with Sharpham - he was a volunteer Retreat Coordinator at The Barn and has lead many retreats in the House and the Woodland Campsite.

He feels a deep connection to the land, especially Dartmoor, and so is delighted to be the Coach House manager with its nature connection ethos. He says "Sharpham has been a big support to me over the years and it is an honour to offer that same support to others".

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.

Bernat Font

Bernat Font teaches with a combination of scholarly rigour, everyday examples, and a playful sensibility.

He met the Dharma at a very early age, and has been mainly influenced by Stephen Batchelor, Sayadaw U Tejaniya & the Thai Forest tradition. 

A faculty member at Bodhi College and a founder of Espai Sati in Barcelona, he has a PhD in Buddhist Studies, translates Pali texts into Catalan and Spanish, and is also a jazz pianist.

Brigit-Anna McNeill

Brigit’s fondest childhood memories are of being with her grandmothers who were both eccentric artists and storytellers with a deep love for the natural world. Heavily inspired by their presence, Brigit grew up with a passion for exploring the wild and expressing the love of it through writing and art. Nature and creative expression have always been Brigit’s refuge and love, and they were her ally through her own journey of recovery. 

She achieved a BA in fine art and photography from Brighton university and went on to do an MA in Art psychotherapy at Goldsmiths, London. 

Brigit always enjoyed bringing nature, the seasons and elements of the wild into her work with people whether through art, writing or therapy and has loved using art and writing as a way to connect to both inner and outer nature. 

She went on to train in wilderness psychotherapy and ecotherapy, exploring such things as re-wilding and restoration of the land and the human condition along with vision quests and solo work. Through her life she has always had a deep love of plants, trees and fungi and apprenticed in foraging and herbalism for many years.

She is currently writing a book about nature, recovery and re-wilding the human psyche which will be published in spring 2024.

Bryony Middleton - Head Gardener

Bryony has just returned from maternity leave to co-manage the gardens with Frances.

Caroline Low - Qi Gong Teacher

Caroline Low first encountered the Buddhist Teachings at Gaia House in 2006 whilst she was undergoing treatment for cancer and found them to be a real game changer in her quest to restore health and vitality. Since then she has attended many retreats and has trained as a Buddhist Mindfulness Teacher at Sharpham House with Martin Alyward and Mark Coleman in 2015. 

From 2016 until the present day she has been offering service in Retreat Centres - including Gaia and Sharpham. Her interest in Qigong began whilst pregnant with her Daughter, Chi, now 26, and she has studied in Australia and the UK, and is currently on a Teacher Training Programme with Lee Holden whose Teachers include Mantak Chia amongst other Qigong Masters.

Her wish is to make Qigong more accessible to people of all ages and abilities, to help people de-stress and increase their own internal energy so that they experience more health and harmony in their lives.

Claire Greenland

Claire has deep roots in Devon, arriving in 1981 as an art student at Dartington College, where she first connected with Sharpham, then a Buddhist community. There she met her qigong teacher, Max Weier, beginning a lifelong practice of embodied awareness and meditation.Claire has recently graduated from the CDL (Community Dharma Leader), training at Gaia House, the local Insight Meditation centre. She serves there as volunteer coordinator and facilitator for the Sunday Sangha, and also teaches on qigong retreats at Sharpham. Before returning to Devon, Claire taught in international schools across six cities worldwide. Her experiences of cultural change deepened her understanding of mindfulness, leading her to qualify with the Mindfulness in Schools Project (UK) and Mindfulness Schools (US). Drawing inspiration from nature, Claire also teaches Watsu (water shiatsu), encouraging learning from nature’s rhythms. She invites reflection: “Whatever happens, this beautiful planet will always support me,” helping others find steadiness, connection, and renewal in the living landscape.

Coach House Coordinators

Our Coach House Coordinators will be co-leading this retreat, providing support and holding the space for your experience with us.

Find out more about the team at The Coach House on this page

Colette Power

Colette combines compassion-based approaches and enquiry in her group and one-to-one work. She is a meditation teacher, mindfulness trainer and supervisor. She trained with Bangor University (MBSR/MBCT) and Breathworks CIC in 2011, and has worked for many years with people experiencing anxiety and depression, and chronic pain and illness. She is a Certified Mindful Self Compassion teacher and supervisor. She qualified as an integrative therapist in 1995 and regularly leads retreats in the UK and Europe.

Colette began exploring Buddhist teachings in 2005. She is a Community Dharma Leader authorised by Gaia House Teacher Council and is currently a student on the Bodhi College Committed Dharma Practitioner Programme. She has been a student of the Diamond Approach for several years.

Through her work and writings, Colette utilises the dharma as a framework for understanding social, political, environmental, and economic injustices.

Daverick Leggett

Daverick Leggett began studying and practising Qigong in the mid 80’s and has taught Qigong for over three decades. He practises the Hua Gong style which emphasises self healing and includes meditation, various moving and standing practices, sword and animal forms. The essence of this qigong is to open and deepen our connection to life. He began his working life as a smallholder and still grows much of his own food as well as being involved in communal growing projects and conservation management. In the summer he runs camps on Dartmoor with a focus on community building and immersion in the natural world. This reflects his belief in the deep medicine of belonging and connection with nature. Daverick is also a writer with two books on Chinese medicine and two books of poetry to his name. He lives in Dartington, Devon and is in love with the south Devon coast, the river and the moors, landscapes from which much of his poetry emerges.

David Perkins

David is an experienced bushcraft and firecraft leader, who also works for The Sharpham Trust in maintaining the House and grounds.

Dene Donalds

Dene is a lay Ordained Dharma Teacher in the Zen Buddhist Tradition of Zen Master and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh.

Dene offers Buddhist and mindfulness retreats across the UK and Europe, with a focus on engaged Buddhism and social action.  He has been a student of Zen Buddhism since the mid-nineties and joined The Order of Interbeing in 2007.

He is based in the North of England where his work includes offering Buddhist chaplaincy within Prisons and Mental Health Hospitals.

Emily Ings, Head Gardener

Emily has been gardening since she was a toddler.

Emily Roblyn

Emily is an experienced voice teacher and performer. She has been running community choirs for over 10 years and belongs to the Natural Voice Practitioners Network. She has been exploring "embodied presence" and mindfulness through the 'Movement of Being' work in Devon for the last 5 years, and has used singing as a meditation throughout her life. She is passionate about sharing her love of music and its potential for supporting connection to ourselves and each other.

Emma Capper

Emma is an Certified Nature and forest therapy guide, an artist with a passion for weaving and workshop facilitator with over 25 yrs of experience delivering workshops in the expressive arts. In 2013 she founded Creative Journeys in nature, weaving her love of art and nature together to curate workshops and forest therapy walks to connect adults and children with their innate creativity and our natural world.

Intuitive or expressive art is the process of creating, guided by what feels interesting and good to you in that moment. It is an adventure where there are no goals to make 'art'. Rather, it is allowing yourself to be open to the curiosity, magic and delight of being present on the journey.

She offers her Creative Journeys' and regular Wanders for Well-being on the Dartington Hall Trust Estate and in other local woodlands in Devon. She is a provider for Dartmoor National Park Authority, Teignbridge Council, Age UK, Devon Carers, WEA and the Woodland Trust.

Emma Dibben

Emma's gardening journey began when some friends gifted her an allotment in 2005. She fell in love and has been gardening ever since.

Emma Thom

Emma has worked in mental health for over 20 years. She has a Post Graduate Diploma in Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (University of Exeter). She works at the AccEPT clinic in Exeter teaching mindfulness courses to adults with depression and health and social care staff. She also teaches mindfulness to adoptive parents, teenagers, and families with learning difficulties. Emma’s life has benefitted in many ways from mindfulness. She first discovered mindfulness during an extensive period of ill-health and has no doubt that mindfulness gave her what she needed to recover.  Emma loves sharing what she has learned with others and is particularly interested in the ways that mindfulness supports wellbeing and flourishing along with increasing capacity to manage stress and ill-health.  Emma especially enjoys practicing mindfulness in movement, through yoga and walking.

Ethan Pollock

Ethan has been facilitating mindfulness groups and retreats for over a decade.

He spent five years training at Plum Village with the internationally-recognised mindfulness teacher & Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh.

He is a qualified Mindful Self-Compassion teacher. He facilitates and teaches around the UK, including at the Sharpham Trust, Schumacher College, The Royal Drawing School and local meditation groups.

Gavin Milne

Gavin has been practising the Dharma since 2004, and teaching at Gaia House Meditation Centre since 2015. He is particularly interested in the role Dharma teachings and practices can have in responding to our unfolding ecological situation in a transformative way, and turning towards and awakening to the interdependent nature of our collective crisis. 

He originally trained as an aerodynamics design engineer, studied sustainable development, and has been influenced by the holistic perspectives of Charles Eisenstein and Ajahn Sucitto.

Hannah Woolley

Raised as a wild child, Hannah grew up in or on the water.

She carried her adventures into a career as an outdoor instructor and now with 30 years of experience, is passionate to encourage people to embrace nature and discover their wild self through adventurous activities.

Working regularly with children and young adults, Hannah is especially interested in the development of resilience, and respect to self and others that these journeys offer. 

More recently Hannah has discovered the symbiotic power that activity and meditative practices can create whilst on the river Dart working as a canoe guide at Sharpham.

Honor Wolf Moon

Honor Wolf Moon’s fortuitous meetings while travelling led her to study bushcraft, minimalist outdoor living and nature immersion. During that time she met the Fungi and began a deep dive into the Mycoverse and the study of Mycology.

She has spent years of peering into the undergrowth, taking courses in mycology and myco-remediation with some world renowned teachers and organisations. Her focus is promoting human-fungal relations and collaboration through co-facilitating workshops and projects that team with fungi.

Her vision is a collective awakening, empowerment and flourishing through right relationship to ourselves, the Earth and all beings.

Jack Skuse

Jack was accepted onto an Ambios trianing programme called Kingfisher in 2005. His placement was with Ambios, whereas most placements were hosted by other NGO’s in Devon, including Exmoor National Park, Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust, and the Marine Biological Assocation. He spent 9 months in Taunton, and it was during this time they applied for project funding for a residential nature conservation volunteer programme. They approached Sharpham Trust to ask if they would like to host the project, and the rest is history!

At the time, Jack had a burning desire to learn about nature conservation, having not previously studied it, and was considering an MSc in Falmouth when this training position came up. His interests were around rural regeneration, partly eco-tourism, partly nature conservation, partly sustainable development. He was looking to find a career path that linked him to the land, but where community was integral. He had spent the previous 2 years, after graduating from university, working in the countryside – hedge laying in the winter, gardening in the summer, and playing lots of cricket. Jack had spent some time travelling and seeing amazing parts of the world that he was fully inspired by, and wanted to create something similar here in his home of Devon.

Jan Gentaku Mojsa

Dr Jan Mojsa is a UKCP registered psychotherapist and has worked within the field for over 30 years as a practitioner, supervisor and teacher. She is a Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University focusing on health philosophy and well-being. Jan also contributes to the CPD online series of Psychotherapy Excellence in the UK.

She runs a compassionate community project in the UK which provides mental health support for people through counselling and mindfulness meditation. She enjoys being outdoors – walking, running and climbing high mountains.

Jenny Wilks

Jenny Wilks has practised in various Buddhist traditions for over 30 years, focusing on Insight Meditation. She has an MA in Indian religions and has studied Pali, the language of the ancient Buddhist texts. She has taught regularly at the Barn since 2004 and at Gaia House since 2008. 

Jenny worked for many years in the NHS as a clinical psychologist. She has taught mindfulness-based approaches to staff and patients in healthcare settings and worked as a mindfulness supervisor and trainer at Exeter University. She is also a trained teacher of the Mindfulness Self-Compassion course. 

In recent years her practice has included exploration of deep ecology and nature-based approaches to psychosocial and spiritual well-being.

Jess Stein

Jess offers retreats that combine mindfulness, nature connection and creativity. She has been facilitating mindfulness spaces since 2012, initially as part of the Plum Village tradition and for the last six years at Sharpham Barn, House and Woodland. 

Reverence for nature informs all that Jess does. Initially trained as a yoga teacher all that she teaches takes its inspiration from the organic shapes of the human body and the forms and patterns of the natural world. She offers practices that awaken each person's unique capacity for awareness, creativity and connection. The spaces she holds are welcoming, intuitive and gently transformative.

Alongside retreats, Jess is a palliative care nurse and holds a degree in English Literature. Eternally curious, she has completed training in Dru Yoga, Scaravelli Inspired Yoga, Creative Writing and meditation, Embodied Anatomy, Nature Connection and Cultural Repair, Qi Gong, Adaptive Yoga, Yoga for Women’s Health and much more

Jilna Shah

Jilna is a craniosacral therapist and community movement and meditation facilitator, working mainly with racialised and LGBTQI+ folks and groups.

She is also a mentor on youth mindfulness retreats with Inward Bound Mindfulness Education UK.

A lot of her political consciousness has been shaped by learning from the struggles and resistance of Dalit and Adivasi communities in India, as well as from Black feminist traditions and disability justice movements. She facilitates movement and meditation in community settings to create spaces for solidarity and
collective care, including with refugee youth, migrant women and for elders.

Jilna is concerned with how we can relate to the body-heart-mind in a way that cultivates more care, freedom, ease and joy and explores this through practices rooted both in stillness and in movement.

Jon Howell - Fermented Food leader

Jon is a nature connection guide, mentor and facilitator.

Teaching fermenting is one of a series of "How to" courses that Jon has developed in response to the question "What can I do?".

This is the burning question as we awaken from the cultural slumber and wish to become more active but don't know where to start.  Jon has been keeping his family as healthy and as active as possible by making and eating fermented foods as a staple part of their diet.

Jon is also a wood carver, photographer, rock climbing coach and loving father and lives with his family in Devon.

Julian Carnell - Trust Director

Julian is the Director of The Sharpham Trust which owns and cares for the 550-acre Sharpham Estate.

He originally trained as a teacher before working in international development overseas. This has led to a career in environmental education, conservation and estate management.

Kanada Gorla

Kanada Gorla is a facilitator, guide, mentor and executive coach of 25+ years’ experience, a long time meditator and an embodiment practitioner. Through her purpose-led consultancy shine, Kanada facilitates transformative change; builds collective resilience; deepens connection with self, place and the natural world; and contributes wherever she can to the creation of human cultures worth coming home to. Kanada is adept at working in many different cultures, countries and contexts, and with people from a wide range of backgrounds and life experience - from seasoned leadership teams to students, from grassroots community workers to the most privileged in society.

In 2015 Sharpham Trust commissioned Kanada to co-create a retreat for people at risk of, or recovering from burnout. In the midst of the polycrises we are facing – climate disruption, biodiversity loss, mental health, cost of living and the ongoing impact of a dominant business culture that requires people to be available 24/7 – sustaining ourselves becomes an ever more important practice.

Recent and current projects include guiding Riverford Organic Farmers on a leadership & culture transformation to align with their transition to 100% Employee Ownership; Hardwick Estate, South Oxfordshire, mentoring the aristocratic family, operations team & community as they transition the 900-acre Estate from private ownership to become the first community led charity in England; Kin Hill CIC, Cumbria, facilitating & coaching this small but potent community in their endeavour to ‘live into our interdependence with all beings remembering that we are a beneficial species growing with the land’; with Bore Place, Kent, Kanada is working closely with the CEO co-designing & facilitating a collaborative design process to develop a long-term Estate Strategy in the context of climate disruption and biodiversity loss; and with Common Purpose Charitable Trust, Kanada is an executive coach working with both emerging and experienced leaders in the nature recovery and new economy sectors. Kanada co-founded Connect Kin CIC to mentor and skill up community workers and place makers who do so much to lift up the communities they support. 

Kareem Ghandour

Kareem (he/him) is a Lebanese/Palestinian teacher, facilitator and artist. His teaching is inspired by the intersections of social justice, sacred activism, ritual and contemplative creativity.

He discovered meditation as a teen and has worked with youth and in mindfulness-based education projects for the last decade. He has also supported building dharma communities for people of colour in the UK and internationally, including Colours of Compassion and the SWANA+ Sangha for people from Arab and North African heritage.

He now serves on the collaborative staff team at Sacred Mountain Sangha and is a graduate of the Dharmapala training held by Thanissara and Kittisaro.

Laura Bridgman

Laura Bridgman was a Buddhist nun in the Theravada tradition from 1995 to 2015. Her main teachers within this school have been Ajahn Sumedho, Ajahn Sucitto and Sayadaw U Tejaniya. She has been offering retreats since 2007, most recently mainly at Gaia House where she is also the staff support teacher. Her practice orientation is the Buddha’s teaching of the Five Spiritual Faculties (trust, balanced effort, mindfulness, composure and wisdom). Alongside her Vipassana (Insight) practice she is a student of the Diamond Approach (Ridhwan).

Lindsay Alderton

Lindsay has been practising meditation since 2003, studying with teachers from the Tibetan and Insight Meditation traditions.

She lived and worked at the Ecodharma centre in the Spanish Pyrenees, and helped launch the Ulex Project in 2016, a European training programme which supports activists to navigate burnout and build impact across social movements. Prior to this she was involved in full-time climate activism.

Trained in Mindfulness-Based Compassionate Living, Lindsay is passionate about how meditation can open up views of identity to support greater intimacy with all life, and how compassion can be a vital resource for navigating ecological anxiety and grief.

Currently completing her clinical placement hours as an integrative counsellor, since 2021 Lindsay has been a part of the Barn Retreat team, helping design, develop and deliver their LGBTQIA+ strand of retreats. What motivates her is a deep commitment to a culture of awakening and care for all beings.

Lisa Carnell

Lisa has many years’ experience teaching ecology, natural history, wild plant identification and foraging in the field, across the seasons.

Lisa says "When people tune in, nature has the incredible ability to bring awe and wonder, to calm, to heal, bring perspective and stimulate the intellect in many ways".

Lisa’s passion for plants was ignited during a windy but wonderful university botanical survey on Cader Idris Mountain in Wales. It developed deeply during her plant survey training across a great range of Somerset Wildlife Trust nature reserves. She started on her path of teaching outdoors with the Field Studies Council in Wales and knew from then on that she always wanted to work sharing knowledge about plants and the natural world to people of all ages.

She says: "I feel exhilarated and alive when I am with people and am able to ignite their interest and open up a new awareness of our local nature through first hand experience in our life-enhancing countryside".

Lisa is The Sharpham Trust's Education and Events Coordinator. Previously she worked with the Torbay Coast & Countryside Trust for many years, and as a Biology teacher before that.

Luciana Edwards - Barn Gardener

Luci first took up gardening aged three, when she had a carrot patch on her mum’s allotment. Since then she has gone on to train in permaculture design and has a MSc in Sustainable Agriculture focusing on soil health, which is her number one passion.

Luci has worked on organic and agroecological farms in Portugal, Nepal, Thailand and the UK. She has worked at The Barn as a kitchen gardener since January 2019, and enjoys producing food in close harmony with nature.

Luci also has experience of mindfulness, having undertaken an 8-week mindfulness course, as well as longer retreats at Sharpham, and continues her own practice at home.

Luci loves all things natural, so when she’s not in the garden you can find her exploring wild spaces with her family.

Lucy Chan

Lynette Robinson

Lynette is a qualified Breathworks teacher and accredited life coach who has been practicing meditation for over 20 years. She teaches mindfulness in a diverse range of settings that include residential complexes for elder’s, prisons and residential retreats in both Devon and Yorkshire.  With a previous career in the public sector, Lynette is a mother and grandmother who lives the second half of her own life as a space to explore new possibilities, creativity, and self-discovery. She is the author of ‘Reclaimed- turning an uneventful life into an adventure’ and re-located, at 56, to live at the Barn Retreat Centre as a Co-ordinator (initially for a year) and liked Devon so much she stayed!  Lynette facilitates mindfulness retreats in Sharpham House and also a Totnes group for over 55’s – established 5 years ago, for residents to learn and practice mindfulness and meditation; as they age mindfully - a theme very close to Lynette’s own heart and practice, as she enters her 64th year.

Lynne Holmes

Lynne has a background as a nurse, health visitor and also trained as a psychotherapist at Metanoia in London in the early 1990s. While training as a therapist she became interested in meditation and has practised for the last 15 +years.

She has trained as a Mindfulness Teacher at Oxford Cognitive Therapy Centre, Bangor University and Exeter University. She teaches MBSR groups for the Mood Disorders Centre at Exeter University and also mentors and supervises students taking the Mindfulness Diploma.

She is passionate about teaching Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction to people suffering from stress and brings a depth of experience and compassion to her work. She has a daily meditation practice, receives regular supervision and attends regular silent Insight meditation retreats. 

Lynne Roberts

Lynne was an NHS physiotherapist for 30 years until she retired due to a long-term health condition. She has been practising mindfulness meditation formally and within everyday life for about 20 years. Her practice came out of her own personal suffering and her ongoing practice has allowed her to flourish since.

She has taught mindfulness within the NHS for staff, to patients with long-term conditions, in education, to carers in the community and to the general public at Sharpham and within other community settings.

Lynne’s training has taken place at Bangor and Exeter University, through Breathworks and the Mindfulness in Schools Project.

She has a deep desire to share the potential this work can offer having gained so much personal benefit and witnessing the support it can give people who commit to this work.

Maite Alonso

Maite has a background in general and psychiatric nursing, and Movement and Drama Therapy. Since 1990 she has been practising meditation and attending retreats in different traditions, mainly Insight Meditation and Zen, in India, Europe, the UK, and the USA. 

She has trained in Sivananda Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, and Shakti Dance and has been working for the last 12 years as a yoga teacher and massage therapist. In the last 6 years, she has been co-leading retreats at Sharpham.

Maite's passion is co-creating spaces where people can find insights through connecting with their bodies, with nature, and with each other. Embodiment practices and using the body as a source of wisdom are also her passion.

Maite as a Mindfulness through Yoga retreat leader

Maite's style:

• incorporates slow, flowing stretches coordinated with the breath, softening and opening up the body and letting the energy flow through freely. 
• focuses the mind in the subtle changes happening in body-mind moment by moment, opening and expanding into deeper states of awareness beyond the physical. 
• helps rediscover and embody the joy of movement, breath and awareness.

Marc Biddle

Marc's fascination with practices from the East began as a teenager. His yoga practice evolved into a deep love of Taichi, Qigong and internal arts. Marc then spent 10 years travelling through Asia and Australia, doing paid and voluntary conservation work which brought him into a deepening relationship with wild nature and diverse human communities.

Marc eventually returned to the West Country and where he brought up his beloved family. Since 2013 March has been involved in running Deer Wood - an eco-venue in Devon. He now shares what he learned with others, through Qigong Devon and Monthly Meditation in the Woods and therapeutic carpentry.

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.

Mike Cooke - Ecologist

Mike’s career in conservation spans 30 years, with specialisms in wildlife surveys, habitat assessment and ecological evaluation. 

He has worked with nature conservation training organisation Ambios since 2005 and has played a central role in the development of its programmes over the last 10 years. 

At Ambios, he oversees training in species identification, wildlife monitoring techniques, field ecology and ecological restoration approaches. He  also provides continuous residential support for trainees as they progress through their placements.

Mike Langman

Leaving Art College in 1983, Mike worked for the RSPB at their headquarters in Bedfordshire for 9 years. His work can be seen on nearly every RSPB reserve used as identification cards, murals in information centres and hides as well as on the RSPB website.

A full-time bird illustrator since 1991, Mike has worked for many book publishers, organisations and his work regularly appears in the all of the UK’s birdwatching and BBC Wildlife magazines. To date, he's illustrated 53 bird books. He contributes work as voluntary Art Editor for the Devon Bird Watching and Preservation Society and for 8 years served as County Bird Recorder. His opinion is regularly sought on bird identification problems both at county and national level. Mike travels the SW giving lectures, running birdwatching courses and walks as well as leading foreign birdwatching tours.  

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.

Nina Jankelson - retreat leader

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 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. 

Ollie Frame

Ollie Frame works as an integrative therapist, mindfulness teacher and retreat leader. He is a co-leader on the Mindful in Nature programme at Sharpham, for which he has produced a large range of meditations and resources. He teaches the eight-week course in various settings, including to the general public, to teachers and students in schools and colleges, and to various other client groups on behalf of Devon County Council. Also trained to teach the Mindfulness-Based Compassionate Living (MBCL) course, he is especially enthusiastic about self-compassion, Metta meditation and other heart-based approaches within the world of mindfulness. As an integrative therapist, Ollie has a particular interest in Psychosynthesis, depth psychology, inner journeying and the therapeutic use of meditation and the imagination. 

Orlaith O’Sullivan

From Ireland, Orlaith (pronounced Orla) is a Dharma Teacher in the Thich Nhat Hanh / Plum Village tradition. She teaches internationally and supports research into how mindful living helps us to take care of ourselves, each other and the planet. Orlaith practices with children, teens and adults and loves creating practice pathways that meet us just where we are. Orlaith’s book on the gratitude practice Flower Watering - ‘We Are All Flowers’ - is available from Parallax Press. Orlaith has practiced in the Plum Village tradition since 1998. Her Dharma Name is True Garden of the Nectar of Compassion. Sitting in circle and listening to wisdom from across cultures is one of her deepest joys. She also loves gardening, poetry, art and writing.

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.

Professor Katherine Weare

Katherine is a keen and committed member of the team of teachers at Sharpham, teaching on the secular retreats and 8 week courses, and regularly delivers dharma talks at the Sharpham Barn Retreat Centre. She was drawn into  mindfulness 15 years ago when she found it a personal lifesaver during a major health crisis and trained to be a secular MBSR/MBCT teacher at the University of Exeter. Since then she has reframed her life around mindful awareness, with a daily vipassana practice supported by regular silent retreats, and was inspired by following the Committed Practitioner Programme at the Bodhi College on "early Buddhism for a secular age". She has also long been inspired by close contact with Plum Village and recently co-authored a best-selling book with Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh 'Happy Teachers Change the World' which has been translated into 6 languages.  

She is further nurtured by a daily practice of yoga and pilates, and close contact with animals and nature, enjoying the outdoor life with her family in south Devon.

Her practice and teaching is based within a long professional career in Universities and in policy work to promote wellbeing and mindfulness across the UK and Europe, all of which helps her keep up with current thinking and practice on mindfulness in the wider world. She is Emeritus Professor at the University of Southampton, and Honorary Professor and Associate at the University of Exeter. She is currently leading work with Mind and Life Europe to help their mission to bring together modern science and contemplative wisdom, heading up a growing Community of Contemplative Education of experts and practitioners across Europe.  She is also co-lead for Education for the Mindfulness Initiative, set up by the All Party Parliamentary Group on mindfulness and wellbeing to develop evidence-based secular mindfulness across the UK.

Romilly Keen

Romilly Keen has a deep love for the natural world, particularly the stories told through rocks and the ways they invite us into a deeper connection with the earth system we are part of.

Holding a degree in geology, Romilly is passionate about reading the landscape and helping others engage with the earth in ways that are both grounding and insightful.

As an integrative counsellor, Romilly brings this sense of awe and connection into her work, supporting individuals in uncovering their own resilience and transformation. For her, the Earth is not just a backdrop but a living teacher, offering us opportunities to root ourselves in wonder, presence, and belonging.

Ruth Breznay

Ruth has been leading retreats at our Coach House retreat centre since it opened in 2022. Her professional background is in supporting vulnerable adults.

Reconnecting with nature at a retreat at The Barn in 2004 led her to a profound and life-changing experience which, in turn, led to her facilitating retreats there.

Her main mindfulness practice is nature-based. “I find sitting outdoors, allowing all my senses to be fully present with the natural world around me and feeling part of the web of life, a very profound and joyful experience,” she says.

She is passionate about rewilding our Earth and our hearts and empowering others to rediscover their place in nature and become more compassionate towards themselves and all life on Earth.

Ruth has practised Hatha Yoga for over 30 years, and completed 300h & 500h teacher-training courses in Rishikesh, India, in 2014, seeing her yoga asana practice as a mindfulness practice, that emphasises mindful movement and still awareness.

The success of yoga does not lie in the ability to perform postures. but in how it positively changes the way we live our lives and our relationships

- T.K.V. Desichankar

Sophy Banks

Sophy has an eclectic background in many aspects of creating healthy culture for individuals, groups and communities. She teaches at Schumacher college, runs workshops, and offers organisational development and conflict facilitation. Originally trained as an engineer, she has worked as computer systems designer and trainer, psychotherapist, and family constellations practitioner.

In 2005 she moved to Devon and helped to set up Transition Town Totnes (TTT), one of the foremost projects in a movement for positive visioning and action in communities, that has spread to over 40 countries and been tried in thousands of communities in some form. Sophy set up the Heart and Soul group of  TTT, and spent 10 years bringing insights from her many inner practices (including meditation, grief tending, mindfulness and nature connection) to the Transition Towns movement. During her time working for Transition she saw many highly skilled people reaching a place of burnout, and has been on that edge herself. It became a central part of her enquiry into how we can create life enhancing, positive culture together – and the reasons we sometimes don’t.  She sees that mindfulness is an essential tool for healthy systems, not only for individuals but also in groups and communities.

Sophy was a keen footballer in east London for many years – too old to slide tackle any more she enjoys growing as much food as she can, and still just about gets up the Devon hills on her bike.

Steve Banks

Steve trained as a mindfulness teacher with Mindfulness UK. He started practising meditation in 1990 within the Buddhist tradition, and has attended retreats, mostly at Gaia House, with many different teachers. He first came to Sharpham in 1997 for a Barn retreat, and fell in love with the beautiful setting, with the Dart winding its way through the green hills. Steve is a qualified Psychosynthesis counsellor and has engaged in many forms of personal development and menswork, including co-leading transformative Rites Of Passages retreats for men. He is a musician and composer - his sacred choral work, ‘Blue Pearl: A One World Oratorio’, had its world premiere in 2022 (the film is on YouTube). He has attended the one-week Mindful Self-Compassion retreat with Chris Germer and Kristin Neff. Steve lives just down the river from Sharpham, and loves boating and swimming in the Dart, and hiking and camping in the beautiful Devon hills and coast. Steve is passionate about passing on the gifts of mindfulness, meditation, and deepening our connection with nature.

Sumedha

Sumedha (she/her) is passionate about reconnecting with our deeper being through learning from nature itself, then bringing those insights into how we care for each other and the planet.

She was a nun for 10 years in the Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah, co-managed Dharmagiri Hermitage for a year and co-founded Ekuthuleni retreat in France.

Moving on from Ekuthuleni in 2020, she now teaches retreats in the UK and Europe and is a core teacher with Sacred Mountain Sangha, as well as a member of the collaborative staff team of SMS with Kareem Ghandour.

Tasha Bassingthwaighte - retreat leader

Tasha Bassingthwaighte was interested in spiritual practice from a young age and did her first Buddhist meditation retreat at the age of 18. She lived in Nepal, spending time with Tibetan Buddhists, and later moved to a dharma centre in France, deepening her experience and practice of Buddhism.

She has lived in various intentional communities in Canada, the USA, and the UK. She is also inspired by the natural world: "From as young as I can remember, I've been aware of how nourished by nature I am," she said. "The Barn is an amazing meeting of three of the things that I am most inspired by: nature connection, Buddhism and community. They're also the things that Barn-founder Maurice Ash named as the three pillars supporting the vision for The Barn: meditation, community and working on the land."

She has worked in the realm of social services, social justice and non-profit organisation for the past decade, including community-building while working with refugees, immigrants, and women in poverty. 

Toni Spencer

Toni Spencer works in retreat, training, and community-building settings where cultivating presence, and “the power of pausing” are central to her approach. Her practice of embodied awareness is shaped by Buddhist, somatic, and mindfulness teachings, and by 18 years of sitting, being, and training with Fanny Behrens and Colin Harrison (Movement of Being).

Woven through all her work is an invitation to reconnect with - and remember ourselves as - nature, recognising how deeply resourcing this can be, and how essential it is to healthy culture. A long-time facilitator of Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects, Toni brings a sense of compassion, welcome, curiosity, and grounded inquiry to all she offers.

She is also a consultant, curriculum designer, participatory artist, forager, cook, and poet. All her work is as a response to the suffering, the mystery and the beauty of the world, exploring how we might - particularly as Westerners - cultivate the ground of collective change with more heart, equity, diversity, and imagination.

Toni has lectured, trained, and mentored for Schumacher College, Goldsmiths College, Wildwise, Ulex, and St Ethelburga’s, and has curated projects with The Emergence Network, Encounters Arts, and Transition Town Totnes, amongst others.

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. 

Viren Jeram

Viren found mindfulness and meditation practice in 2015 and has practiced in a range of Buddhist traditions, primarily Insight Meditation. Viren spent a year facilitating retreats at the Barn Retreat Centre, part of Sharpham Trust, supporting retreatants in their exploration of mindfulness and Buddhism. He now leads retreats across the UK and co-leads Sharpham’s retreats for people of colour. Viren has spent the last decade in the NHS, in senior leadership positions and training staff in group coaching and facilitation, including guiding meditations for staff. He is passionate about sharing mindfulness and Buddhist teachings, focusing on how we can meet the fullness of our own experience and enrich our lives.