Meet the Team Week At #MindfulnessUK …#KarenAtkinson

Karen is Director and co-founder of MindfulnessUK, an international teacher and trainer of mindfulness and compassion skills and practices and a Bangor-trained Supervisor of mindfulness teachers. Having spent her childhood in Australia, she moved to the UK and gained a Degree in Nursing Studies and RGN in London. Her interest in additional therapies started very early in her career as she witnessed first-hand the impact a holistic approach has on well-being and the happiness of patients and clients.

Always practical and action focused Karen has been teaching mindful movement and meditation for 30 years, having trained in a variety of ways, including a course with Breathworks, and is a member of the British Wheel of Yoga.

Karen quickly deepened her own understanding and mindfulness practice beginning to teach others over 15 years ago. She is an extremely experienced, well-trained Mindfulness teacher with a warm, intuitive, friendly and professional manner who is highly respected in her field.

Karen is a valued member of the teaching faculty at YogaCampus in London, has published many articles on Mindfulness and often presents at professional conferences. She regularly attends Mindfulness conferences at Bangor University as well as attending an annual silent Mindfulness retreat.

Her own practical dedication and belief in a mindful approach to life played a large part in her recovery when she faced a serious illness soon after setting up Mindfulness UK. She embeds mindful practice into her everyday life.

Bringing this enhanced enjoyment of life to as many people as possible is the mission she has set for her company. She has taught over 50 of the Gold Standard 8-week MBSR programme so far and is now offering this Teacher Training programme too.

However it is fair to say that she takes the greatest pride in having used her unique position to develop and deliver a ground-breaking qualification, the first of its’ kind in the market. The Level 4 Certificate “Integrating Mindfulness and Compassion in Professional Practice” enables therapists, teachers, healthcare providers and other professionals to offer these transformative practices and skills to their clients, either individually or in groups. This enables effective mindfulness practices to be more widely enjoyed and supports the MindfulnessUK goal to bring about enhanced enjoyment of life.