The London Meditation Project Peace of Mind team

PRINCIPAL INSTRUCTOR

John Wilson (Paramananda) has taught meditation for twenty-five years and is the author of three popular books on meditation. He was chairman of the San Francisco Buddhist Centre for seven years and has taught meditation in settings from prison, hospice and drug rehab centres to corporations.

DIRECTOR

Catherine Powell is co-founder of the London Meditation Project. She teaches meditation in corporate, charitable, educational and team-building contexts, and has 15 years experience of meditation and has training in Buddhist meditation, Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction and Meditating with the Body. Catherine is a member of the Soldier's Heart community. Both her grandfathers served in World War II, one in the Navy and one as a bomb disposal officer in the Royal Engineers. Her father was sponsored through University by the Ministry of Defence as a nuclear physicist, worked a few years in AWRE (atomic weapons research) in the UK and Samoa, and died suddenly in his later forties, of an illness quite possibly connected with that work. Catherine has always been basically anti-war but in recent years has connected with soldiers on the Warrior's Path: learning with them how to handle the fierce wisdom of painful human experience.

MEDITATION AND YOGA NIDRA TEACHER

Dhiramati Miller has practised yoga and meditation for over 20 years. He was ordained as a Buddhist in 1992. Since then he's taught buddhism, meditation and yoga at the Manchester Buddhist Centre, on Buddhafield camping retreats and in a number of UK retreat centres. His meditation teaching focusses largely on body awareness, breathing, relaxation and alignment. He teaches and practises Yoga Nidra, as taught by his teacher Donna Farhi, and is exploring this further, aided by Richard Miller, Director of the Integrative Restoration Institute (iRest), whose work has been successful in working with PTSD in the US military. Dhiramati sees yoga as a very helpful tool in life and he also has a gift for making it fun, especially when practised in a group. Dhiramati is a great storyteller and has found many people love stories: 'they provide a way for people to release more fully into a deeper sense of themselves and the stories of their own lives'. He lives with his partner Hannah in the heart of Devon.

NON-VIOLENT COMMUNICATION TRAINER AND COUPLES COUNSELLOR

Anna Finlayson is a qualified trainer with the Centre for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC), working in London, UK and beyond. She is also a qualified Relationship coach with the Centre for Gender Psychology with a diploma Contextual Couples Counselling. She is also a qualified mediator and trainer in Conflict resolution.

Anna's early fascination with the area of human communication and interaction resulted in a degree in Sociology and Psycho-social studies. After obtaining a post-graduate qualification as a lecturer in further education, she worked as an assertiveness trainer for women, and continued her explorations with Psychosynthesis training and extensive study in the field of personal development which continues to this day.

Anna's view on working with spouses and partners of military veterans: "When I think about the experiences that both the military veterans of our country and their spouses and partners go through, I feel compassion and want to contribute to the well-being of these families. I hope to offer my understanding of the inevitable challenges of relationship between partners in this context, and to provide empathy and the exploration of how to manage these difficulties as well as looking at how spouses and partners can provide care for themselves - self-care."

BEREAVEMENT COUNSELLOR

Jan Jenkins had a first career as a social worker in Essex and for the past 20 years has worked in London as a counsellor and psychotherapist. She has many years experience in bereavement care both within the voluntary sector and in private practice.