About Graham

Graham has been in the caring professions for over 30 years, initially qualifying as a Registered General Nurse in 1990. He worked in units including neurology, neurosurgery and casualty. During this time, as is common with nurses, Graham developed chronic low back pain. A friend suggested seeing an osteopath, and this resulted in Graham starting a four year rigorous training to become an osteopath, qualifying in 2000. Since then he has continuously worked in South London for the NHS, taking referrals from G.Ps in house, as well as working from his home town of Deal.

Graham developed a great interest in chronic/persistent pain and is an avid reader on this subject. These readings, including neuroscience, psychology and even philosophy, led to an understanding that to treat the whole person, he needed to learn more about the mind. This coincided with discovering mindfulness, and developing a regular practise. Graham set out to study mindfulness with the goal of benefitting his patients, but he soon realised that it was having a profound positive effect on his own life, with less felt stress and improved mood as well as a feeling of being more in touch with nature. His osteopathy practise became much more satisfying through introducing mindfulness concepts into treatments.

Graham felt he wanted to learn more and embarked on a  Masters programme at The University Of Aberdeen. This involved regular weekend and week long retreats in Scotland at Samye Ling Buddhist monastery, as well as Holy Isle, a beautiful Buddhist island off the West coast of Scotland. He has deepened his practise considerably, and enjoys bringing ideas from neuroscience and psychology to his practise.

Part of the programme was gaining a teaching qualification, run by the Mindfulness Association, a well respected and recognised provider of quality teacher training, who run the mindfulness practical teaching at The University Of Aberdeen. Graham runs his teaching programmes in accordance with the guidelines of the UK Network For Mindfulness-Based Teacher Training Organisations
https://www.ukmindfulnessnetwork.co.uk/guidelines/.

Graham teaches one on one in both private and organisational level. He also runs the Mindfulness Based Living Course (MBLC), which is created by the Mindfulness Association and is very similar to the MBSR, perhaps the major difference being there is more emphasis on compassion in the MBLC. It involves small groups of 8-12 people in a classroom setting. It is built for anyone wishing to explore and gain insight into how their mind works.

Graham has developed an exciting, unique course- Mindful Awareness Programme (M.A.P) that is based in mindfulness, but is also strongly based in research findings in the fields of psychology  and neuroscience. It is intended for those who are seeking relief from both physical and emotional pain and suffering. This is taught in a group setting, but can also be taught on a one on one basis.

Outside of practise Graham has two children for whom he is a taxi service and enjoys sea swimming and long coastal walks. Graham has just embarked on learning to make sourdough bread which is far more complex than mindfulness!