I retired from my role as Director of Continuing Professional Development for the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice (CMRP), Bangor University, where I worked for eight years. Prior to that, I was a teacher and trainer for CMRP since 2001, including teaching on several Masters modules. Before that, I worked as a psychiatric nurse and psychotherapist in a variety of contexts including the NHS since 1975.
As a psychotherapist, I have an interest in combining mindfulness and counselling/therapy and have co-developed and taught on the Mindfulness and Individual Therapy module for CMRP.
I have worked extensively with children/families and relationships as a therapist. Since 2010, I have developed a mindfulness course for Parents, called Nurturing Parents, and now train others to teach this. I work with family support charities and local authorities.
Qualifications
- Trained in MBSR with Center for Mindfulness, Massachusetts (CFM)
- Trained in MBCT with Mark Williams
- Trained in Mindfulness-based Childbirth and Parenting with Nancy Bardacke
- Recently completed a Mindfulness-based Compassionate Living course and plan to complete training to teach MBCL in November 2017
- Psychotherapy
- Certified Transactional Analyst
- Cert Couns (Relate)
- PGCE
- Paws b (MiSP)
Teaching / Training Specialisms
- Mindfulness for parents and childbirth
- Mindfulness and psychotherapy
- MBCT for clinical settings
- MBSR for vulnerable populations e.g. trauma
Supervision Specialisms
- MBCT
- MBSR
- MBCP
- Clinical and NHS
- Children & Young People, Parents, Families, Carers.
- General Public
- Mindfulness in Therapeutic contexts
- Supra-vision for supervisors
Personal Practice
I was introduced to mindfulness practice by Ferris Urbanowski, one of the original teachers at CFM. Since then, I have attended annual retreats with a variety of teachers, including sitting two insight dialogue retreats with Gregory Kramer.
My personal practice is very much led by my own current inclinations, and always includes movement practices and formal sitting. I am particularly interested in exploring the role of intention in practice and everyday life. From time to time, I enjoy a focus that has been inspired by poetry or texts, for example, that of David Whyte and Tara Brach. I very much enjoy exploring personal practice with students and supervisees, believing we can all learn from one another.
Research Activities and Interests
- Pilot study into the feasibility and acceptability of Nurturing Parents – Mindfulness-based parent wellbeing programme. (NP) -current.
- Pilot study into the effects of training to teach the N P programme with family support staff from Barnardos. – current.
- Preliminary studies into mindful parenting programme for: foster parents; parents of children with intellectual disabilities; and parents in socio-economic disadvantage.
- MBSR in Primary care.
Publications
Eames, C., Crane, R., Gold, E., & Pratt, S. (2015). Mindfulness-based wellbeing for socio-economically disadvantaged parents: a pre-post pilot study. Journal of Children’s Services, 10(1), 17-28.
Jones, L., Gold, E., Totsika, V., Hastings, R. P., Jones, M., Griffiths, A., & Silverton, S. (2017). A mindfulness parent well-being course: Evaluation of outcomes for parents of children with autism and related disabilities recruited through special schools. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 1-15.
Radford, S. R., Crane, R. S., Eames, C., Gold, E., & Owens, G. W. (2012). The feasibility and effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for mixed diagnosis patients in primary care: a pilot study. Mental health in family medicine, 9(3), 191.
Silverton, S. (2012). The Mindfulness Breakthrough: The Revolutionary Approach to Dealing with Stress, Anxiety and Depression. Watkins Media Limited. – 2 chapters – on Mindfulness and relationships and Mindfulness with children.
