My journey in yoga and meditation began
when I was 17 years old. I was living in Portugal at the
time, and as a child growing up with a deep interest in
spirituality I saw myself investigating methods in which to
create insight into my mind, my emotional world, and my
spirituality. I then met a great teacher, who initiated me
in the practice yoga, pranayama and chanting. I have always
been interested in singing, so chanting for me was a great
deal of fun.
After a few years of practice I travelled in Europe and
enrolled in a Yoga Teacher Training programme. This came to
change the whole course of my life. I then applied these
skills when I was living in London. At that time I was also
studying psychology at University. I had decided to write a
project on how Yoga and Meditation practice had a impact on
people’s self-esteem and quality of life. The results of
the study at that time showed that people who practiced
yoga regularly coped much better with life’s problems than
those who did not practice any physical exercise at all.
I continued my training post-university in counselling, and
was particularly interested in a form of psychotherapy
called cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). I was also very
keen on how mindfulness was being integrated in scientific
methods to help people manage their psychological
difficulties. After a long training, with experience of
working both in NHS and the voluntary sector, I decided to
run a pilot-study investigating the usefulness of
mindfulness practice in treating symptoms of depression in
patients living with HIV. This work gave me great
understanding of human suffering, and made me learn a great
deal about being a human, and how to best use this
potential in the service of others and the world. Fndings
for this research study have been now submitted to the
Journal of Behavioural Medicine.
In London I had the privilege to be taught by very
knowledgeable scholars of Yoga and let me take the chance
now to say a big thanks to my good friends Jacqui Brookes,
Angelika Grohmann and Mark Whitwell for the presence of
heart and charisma and inspirational teaching. But I have
been equally interested in the teachings of T.K.V.
Desikachar, Krishnamacharya and Dona Holleman.
The integration of mindfulness in meditation practice is
not new. I hardly think that the integration of mindfulness
is a new thing to the practice of Yoga as well. But I have
to say there is a strong presence of Vedanta and Hinduism
in Yoga. As I worked in the development of the current Yoga
Teacher Training programme offered at Mindfulness
Education, I gave
emphasis to the practice of mindfulness, because not only
my research has shown that it works for people, but since
the late 70’s there has been a growing body of evidence for
its usefulness (Kabat-Zinn, 1992). However, our training
programme is the first Yoga Teacher Training programme that
combines the practice of mindfulness in Yoga practice, and
I hope that more evolves from here, because I believe more
people should have the chance to choose to practice Yoga
and Meditation from a mindfulness perspective. This has
been my work in the past few years, and I am committed to
carry on working towards this direction.
Today I am the course leader and programme director of the
Diploma in Mindfulness Yoga and Meditation at
Mindfulness
Education, and work in
private practice as a mindfulness specialist and cognitive
behavioural psychotherapist, and hold a clinical
appointment at The Priory Hospital north London. I studied
Sanskrit language and Philosophy at the School of Economic
Science in London and hold an honours degree in Psychology
and a Masters of Science in Cognitive Behavioural
Psychotherapy.
"Mindfulness is the ability
everyone has to pay attention to each moment as they
unfold, without having to limit them with the ideas,
memories and the learning we may carry as
personalities."