Course Teachers

Shahin is a Senior Counsellor in the NHS where she also teaches Mindfulness. She works with people with mental health issues and runs a mindfulness group. She has been a Counsellor for 17 years and, prior to this, worked in education as a Teacher and Teacher‐trainer for many years.

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 practiced 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.

Dan has been practising mindfulness since 1994. He trained as a Buddhist monk for 5 years and has completed a mindfulness teacher training retreat led by Jon Kabat‐Zinn. He works as a mental health nurse.

Lynne qualified as a chartered physiotherapist in 1987 and is currently a team lead in the out patients department at Torbay hospital.  Since graduating she has specialised in the management of acute and chronic musculoskeletal conditions and the emotional impact of these. She has been delivering mindfulness programmes for over 10 years within the NHS and at Sharpham. Lynne runs MBSR/MBCT courses having completed training at Bangor and Exeter University; Mindfulness for Health courses as an accredited Breathworks teacher and .b courses having completed training through the Mindfulness in Schools Project.

Katherine Weare is Emeritus Professor at the University of Exeter and Southampton. Her background is education, developing approaches to promoting wellbeing and preventing mental health problems for school staff and pupils, including work on CBT/ social and emotional learning in schools. She became committed to mindfulness when she found it a personal lifesaver during a health crisis and trained to be a mindfulness teacher through the Mindfulness Based Approaches Diploma at the University of Exeter. Since then she has kept in touch with the roots of mindfulness, teaching 8-week courses, receives regular supervision and attends regular silent insight meditation retreats to support her daily practice and is following the advanced Committed Practitioner Programme at the Bodhi College. She has become internationally known for her research and development work on mindfulness and compassion for children/young people and those who care for them. Recently she has advised the All Party Parliamentary Group on mindfulness and wellbeing which produced The Mindful Nation policy document recommending the widespread development of evidence-based mindfulness across the UK, and spoke in Parliament on mindfulness in schools. She contributed to The Mindfulness Summit online as “40 of the world’s leading experts on meditation and mindfulness” . She advises various mindfulness projects such as the Mindfulness in Schools Project, the Plum Village mindfulness community and is currently writing a book with Thich Nhat Hanh on education. She is a member and regular speaker for the Faculty of Mind and Life Europe.

Anna has had a personal mindfulness practice of many years and continues to develop and deepen her practice. Having benefitted greatly personally from mindfulness, Anna went on to train as a teacher, completing her training with CMRP Bangor University. In addition, Anna has trained with the Mindfulness in Schools Project, becoming Certified as a .b for Teens Teacher (11-18 years) and .b Foundations Teacher (school staff). Anna has been teaching Mindfulness-Based Stress-Reduction courses to unpaid carers for a number of years and has also been supporting the development of mindfulness with teaching staff and young people, within a number of schools in Devon.

Patti Summerville began a personal meditation practice in 1996 after attending a retreat at the Tushita Institute, Dharamsala, India. Over the years her practice has been influenced by Mahayana and Theravada Buddhist traditions and in 2013 she took on the role of co-ordinator at The Barn Retreat Centre, an Insight Mindfulness Meditation Retreat centre on Sharpham Estate. Patti trained as an Integral Hatha Yoga teacher in 2009 at the Sri Swami Satchidananda Ashram and has undertaken a Mindfulness Teacher training retreat with Exeter University. Patti leads beginners' mindfulness and mindfulness and yoga retreats at Sharpham House.  On a personal level Patti has found great benefit integrating mindfulness practice into her busy, everyday, private and professional life as an Occupational Therapist and is passionate about supporting others on their journey towards more contented, peaceful and compassionate lives.

Ramiro Ortega has practised mindfulness for over 15 years, and Insight Meditation since 2005. He teaches Mindfulness retreats at Sharpham House, as well as 8-week courses for the public, and also facilitates an Introduction to Buddhist Meditation at The Barn Retreat Centre. Ramiro trained to teach mindfulness with the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at Bangor University.

Jo has over 30 years' experience in the NHS, initially as a Macmillan nurse in cancer care then, after gaining a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology in 1996, as a Clinical Health Psychologist. She has a longstanding mindfulness practice and has undergone extensive training with teachers from Bangor and Exeter Universities. She has regular mentoring and attends silent meditation retreats to deepen her practice. As a freelance mindfulness teacher she has delivered numerous MBCT groups for people with recurrent depression at the Mood Disorders Centre, University of Exeter, and is a tutor and supervisor on their post-graduate mindfulness-based cognitive therapies programme. Meditation and cultivation of joy greatly support her well-being and creativity.