Who is teaching this?

Ultimately you… but I can also guide your practice and steer you along your path of discovery

Your life is your best mindfulness teacher!

By paying attention to all experience, without bias, we can live a richer life.  Knowing our own preferences and reactions, we can choose to change some of our less helpful habits and move more responsively within our circles of influence (and beyond). Mindfulness training helps us to pay attention in a particular way so that we can be more present to our actual experience as it unfolds.  It is not solo “navel-gazing”, but a way of life which allows us to understand ourselves better and serve our local communities, society and the wider world.

Sometimes it’s not easy to pay attention to our experience.  Sometimes we are distracted or minds are elsewhere.  Sometimes we need a little help and support to be more mindful.

I would be very happy to support you as you explore what mindfulness could mean for you.

I am Gill Johnson.  I teach MBCT/MBSR mindfulness in Surrey. I came to formal mindfulness after an injury and having to meet the challenges of pain and adapting to a different way of living. As one of my course graduates remarked, I “walk the talk“.

More formally, I am an Oxford Mindfulness Centre Teacher; I have a masters’ in mindfulness-based approaches from Bangor University and I adhere to the Good Practice Guidance of BAMBA (British Association of Mindfulness-Based Approaches: previously, the UK Network of Mindfulness-Based Teacher Trainers). Recognition as an Oxford Mindfulness Centre Teacher means that I have made a commitment to contribute to mindfulness research and continuous evaluation of my teaching skills and impact.  More significantly, I’m human!

If you are looking for a Mindfulness Teacher, please do check their credentials! Ideally they will adhere to the Good Practice Guidelines, be in active supervision, have an on-going personal practice and engage in regular retreats and ‘professional development training’. You may also find this article for the Oxford Mindfulness Centre by Rebecca Crane useful: How do I know if someone teaching a mindfulness course is appropriately trained?

Mindfulness is for all of us.

It is a practice for life which helps us all to understand what it is to be human,

and something about what that means.

My training/workshop experience:
– extensive elements of CMRP Continuing Personal and Professional Development programme (assessment of competence at distinction level)
– professional training retreats with Bangor (TTR1, TTR2 & TTR2)
– training retreat for MBCT with Oxford Mindfulness Centre
– various masterclasses with Jon Kabat-Zinn, John Teasdale, Christina Feldman, John Peacock, Michael Chaskalson, Mark Williams, Becca Crane and the team at CMRP Bangor, Susan Kaiser-Greenland, Breathworks
– b!, .bFoundations and Paws b programmes of Mindfulness in Schools Project
– Surrey County Council “Working to Safeguard Children”
– Adult Mental Health First Aid Training (MHFA England)
– Expert Patients Programme accredited tutor for “Chronic Disease Self-Management course” and “choosing Self-Management for Life” for long-term health conditions
– CMRP Supervision Training
– all masterclasses of Mindfulness in the Workplace at the Oxford Mindfulness Centre (certificate of readiness to teach in the workplace)
– MBCT-L Mindfulness for Life training with Oxford Mindfulness Centre and Sussex Mindfulness Centre
– Taking it Further (formerly, Sustaining and Deepening) Mindfulness for Life training with Oxford Mindfulness Centre
– currently supervised by a lead trainers and CMRP supervisors

Professional registrations:
– Oxford Mindfulness Centre teaching partner
– member of BAMBA (British Association of Mindfulness-Based Approaches, formerly the UK Teachers Network Listing)
– mindfulness in schools project (MiSP) teacher

Academic experience:
– master’s degree in Mindfulness-Based Approaches (distinction). Thesis: Sustaining mindfulness practice after the 8-week course.

Voluntary work:

– Oxford Mindfulness Centre Mid-week Mindfulness session host and various other projects

– Friends of Bangor Alumni group (now subsumed into Mindfulness Network)