MINDFULNESS WITH ROLY
ABOUT ME
In brief
I teach eight-week mindfulness courses and monthly practice sessions for people who want to develop steadiness, kindness and greater awareness in everyday life. My teaching is grounded in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), compassion-based approaches and my own long-standing personal practice.
Alongside my mindfulness teaching, I work as a Principal Consultant with Compliance Services International and bring many years of experience as an environmental scientist. I am a BAMBA-registered mindfulness teacher and the SiTT Community Lead for Support for Integrity in Teaching and Training, where I help support a peer community for mindfulness trainees and teachers.
My Story
I grew up in rural Suffolk, with both sides of my extended family living within a few miles of each other. Looking back, I now see how fortunate I was to have such close connections with my grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins.
After leaving school, I worked as a landscape gardener in Suffolk for a few years and really enjoyed being outside in the elements, working with plants and soil. In my late teens, I became interested in meditation and started practising Transcendental Meditation.
In my early twenties, I left Suffolk to study at the University of Aberdeen, where I explored meditation further through the Buddhist Society. It was there that I first encountered mindfulness practices and went on to attend many Buddhist retreats, courses and workshops. Following graduation, I travelled to New Zealand, where I completed a Goenka 10-day silent retreat and later took Refuge at Karma Choeling Buddhist Monastery.
I met my wife on a retreat at Dhanakosa, and our daughter was born a few years later. We then relocated to West Sussex, where I completed a PhD in Environmental Science. After our son was born, we moved to Devon so that I could begin working at Brixham Environmental Laboratory. It was during this period that I first came across mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, MBCT, through the book Finding Peace in a Frantic World.
Sadly, the laboratory closed in 2014, and for some years afterwards I worked away from home. During this time, I experienced clinical depression and was fortunate to have good support from my GP and a CBT psychotherapist. I now understand that depression has been part of my life since my early teens, and mindfulness has helped me relate to it with greater understanding, steadiness and kindness. Around the same time, I also suffered from a large kidney stone, which required multiple operations to treat. While recovering, I found gentle mindful movement, including Qigong, very helpful.
I found MBCT so helpful in changing my relationship with intense thoughts, thinking patterns, difficult emotions and pains in the body that I decided to train as an MBCT teacher. I now teach mindfulness courses to people in and around the village where I live.
In addition to teaching courses, I run monthly mindfulness practice sessions for graduates of my courses and others who wish to continue practising in a supportive group setting. These sessions offer a regular opportunity to pause, reconnect and keep mindfulness alive in everyday life.
Alongside my mindfulness teaching, I work as a Principal Consultant with Compliance Services International, drawing on many years of experience as an environmental scientist. I am also the SiTT Community Lead for Support for Integrity in Teaching and Training, where I help hold a peer community for mindfulness trainees and teachers through shared practice, reflective dialogue and ongoing professional support.
I am a BAMBA-registered mindfulness teacher and follow BAMBA’s Good Practice Guidelines and Professional Standards. This includes regular supervision, ongoing personal practice, continuing professional development and retreat practice.
To keep up to date with the field of mindfulness, I continue to attend retreats, courses, supervision and CPD workshops, and regularly engage with developments in mindfulness-based teaching, including MBCT, compassion-based approaches and Deeper Mindfulness. My own practice remains central to my teaching and continues to shape how I understand mindfulness in everyday life, relationship and community.
If you would like to practise with me, you can find current course dates and monthly practice sessions on my Course Dates and Monthly Mindfulness pages.
