Bridgemaker Mindfulness

Home
United Kingdom
London
Bridgemaker Mindfulness

Offering in-depth, structured mindfulness courses for adults, teens and children. To find out more.

Qualifications

-Meditation and Mindfulness Teacher Training
Zenways, 2020
100-hour mindfulness course accredited by the International Mindfulness Teachers Association that qualifies me to teach Meditation and Mindfulness for Health & Wellbeing courses

-Mindfulness Child Trainer
Academy for Mindful Teaching, 2018
99-hour training course that qualifies me to teach ‘Mindfulness Matters!’ The Eline Snel Method course to children aged 5-11.

-Learning & Teaching in Higher Education
University of Westminster, 2017
Postgraduate certificate

- MA in Translation (Honour)
Ecole d'Interprètes Internationaux, 1991-1995
Mons, Belgium

09/10/2026

On the last day of my silent retreat at Gaia House last month, once everyone had left, I did what I always do.

I went to the library. 📚

It was a five-day retreat on impermanence, called Connecting to Deep Flow. The invitation was to meet change and uncertainty with more kindness. 🧘‍♀️

I have a little ritual when I go to the Gaia House library. Before looking at the shelves, I sit in one of the three comfy armchairs and look around for the books that other people have picked up and left behind.

I love discovering what people have been reading. It feels like having a quiet conversation with strangers.

This time, one title caught my eye: This Is Getting Old by Susan Moon.

And tucked inside it was a postcard with this poem.
Grandma Sumana
from The First Free Women: Poems of the Early Buddhist Nuns,
translated by Matty Weingast, p. 19

Both books are now on my reading list.

But more than that, it felt as though the poem had been waiting for me.

An old heart that had spent years looking after others, and was finally taking care of itself. 🤍
That was exactly what the retreat had been quietly showing me.

This retreat felt like the end of a two-year cycle in which I had finally had the time and space to slow down and look after my heart. Finding this poem at the very end felt like a beautiful recognition of that.

Sitting in open awareness with my heart.
Having simple, honest and intimate conversations with myself.
No fixing. No agenda. Just listening.

And it feels good.

🤩 And perhaps that is why sharing this today, on my birthday, feels particularly timely. Birthdays are one of those moments when we celebrate being ourselves — and perhaps, in doing so, remember to take better care of the person we are celebrating.

What would your heart ask for today, if you stopped for a moment and listened?

26/06/2026

Another lovely 8-week mindfulness journey has come to an end. 💚

Here I am with my Year 2/3 group at Marie d'Orliac.

I loved seeing how beautifully the children engaged throughout the programme.

💫 One of the highlights for me this year was seeing how well my neurodiversity-informed adaptations were received.
Some of the children even told me they preferred the alternatives to breath-focused grounding. Every child experiences mindfulness differently, and I love helping them discover what works best for them.

Thank you to these wonderful pupils for eight weeks of curiosity, kindness and thoughtful conversations. You made this year's programme a real joy. 💚

02/06/2026

Parenting can sometimes feel lonely.
Because so much of what we experience as parents goes unseen and unspoken.
The worries we carry.
The moments we doubt ourselves.
The grief, frustration, joy, pride and love that often exist side by side.

Earlier this year, I attended a Way of Council retreat on 'Parenting with Presence'.
Over the course of the weekend, ordinary parents shared stories of parenthood.
Stories of joy.
Stories of exhaustion.
Stories of fear, hope, heartbreak and resilience.
What struck me most was not how different our stories were, but how much they had in common.

Beneath the uniqueness of each story was a shared human experience — like the hidden network connecting the roots of trees beneath a forest floor: invisible, yet always present.🌲

Many of us arrived carrying our own worries, doubts and struggles.
We left feeling seen, heard and understood.
Reminded that, despite our mistakes and imperfections, we are all doing our best as parents.

💫 In Council, people gather in a circle and share stories in response to a prompt.
No advice is given.
Nobody tries to fix anyone.
There is no debate, explanation or judgement.
Instead, we practise something increasingly rare: speaking from the heart and listening from the heart.

This is mindfulness in a different form.
A practice of presence, deep listening and authentic human connection.

From September, I hope to offer monthly online Way of Council circles for parents.
🚫 Not therapy. Not coaching. Not advice.
✅ Just a welcoming, confidential space where parents can come together, share what is present for them, listen deeply and remember that they are not alone.

🤝Parenting was never meant to be done alone.

If this feels like something you would value, please comment below or send me a message. I'd be delighted to add you to the interest list and contact you when dates are announced.

17/05/2026

🌿 Day 5 of the 5-Day Mindful Reset: Letting Go of What We Can’t Control

As we come to the final day of this series, today’s practice brings together many of the mindfulness skills explored throughout the week: awareness, emotional regulation, reflection, and compassionate attention.

One of the most important — and often most difficult — mindfulness principles is recognising the difference between what we can control and what we cannot.

Trying to solve, predict, or carry things that are beyond our influence can become a major source of stress and mental overload.

A helpful question to pause with is:
✨ What can I actually influence today?

Today’s practice combines mindfulness and journaling.

Take a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle to create 2 columns.
📝 Column 1: Things I can’t control
Examples:
• the weather
• other people’s reactions
• the state of the world
• rising costs

📝 Column 2: Things I can influence today
Examples:
• how much news I consume
• how I speak to myself
• resting when needed
• how I treat others

Then pause for a slow mindful breath and gently release the first column.
You could imagine:
🎈 placing those worries into a hot-air balloon and watching them drift away
🌫 seeing them dissolve like smoke
✂️ or even tearing up the paper (surprisingly satisfying)

Finally, read the second column again and notice what shifts inside when you reconnect with what is actually within your reach.

🌿 Thank you so much for taking part in this 5-Day Mindful Reset!

If you didn’t get to try everything, feel free to return to the practices over the coming days.

✨ There’s of course much more we could explore together — from non-judgement and acceptance to time pressure, identity, and deepening the practices we’ve touched on this week — always in ways that feel relevant to daily life.
If this reset resonated with you, feel free to get in touch to continue the journey.✨

16/05/2026

🌿 Day 4 – Our Inner Weather

We often assume that difficult emotions will last forever — but emotions are constantly changing.

Research shows that rumination plays a big role in how long emotions stay with us: the more we replay thoughts and feelings in our mind, the more intense and long-lasting they can become.

Today’s practice is the Inner Weather meditation — a simple mindfulness exercise that helps us pause and notice how we are actually feeling in the present moment.
☀️ Sunny
☁️ Cloudy
⛈ Stormy
🌬 Windy
🌫 Foggy
🌈 Or something else entirely…

The beauty of this practice is that it can be done anywhere:
sitting, standing, lying down, eyes open or closed.

By checking in with our “inner weather”, we begin to notice that emotions, sensations, and thoughts move and shift — just like the weather outside.

Mindfulness doesn’t remove stress or make difficult emotions disappear. But it can help us relate to them differently, with more awareness, kindness, and regulation.

🎧 I’ve recorded a short 3-minute Inner Weather meditation to accompany today’s practice if you’d like a gentle guided pause. (link in bio)

✨ If you try it today:
What was your inner weather?
What else did you notice?

15/05/2026

🌿 Day 3 – Noticing the Good

Our thoughts and emotions are deeply connected. When we worry, overthink, or replay difficult moments, our nervous system can become stuck in stress and anxiety loops. Mindfulness helps us step back from those patterns and gently redirect our attention.

Today’s practice is about intentionally noticing what feels supportive, comforting, or beautiful in your day.

When we pause to notice positive experiences — even very small ones — the brain activates a reward response and releases dopamine. 🧠
Over time, this helps train the brain to seek out more moments of calm, pleasure, and connection. Especially during difficult periods, this practice can make a real difference.

✨ Today’s small practice:
Pause at some point today and notice 3 small things that lift your mood or make you smile.
Mine are often:
🌱 plants and flowers at home
🚿 a hot shower with my favourite shower gel
🐕 watching dogs play in the park

When stressful thoughts appear, gently guide your attention back to the pleasant moment you are experiencing.
Again and again, without judging yourself.

💬 What were your 3 small things today?

14/05/2026

🌿 Day 2 – Coming Back to the Body

Welcome back to the 5-Day Mindfulness Reset.Today’s practice is a 5-minute Body Scan meditation — one of the foundational practices in mindfulness. 🧘

When stress builds up, we often carry tension in the body without even realising it. The mind becomes busy, attention narrows, and we disconnect from physical sensations.

A body scan gently invites us to pause and notice what is already here, with curiosity rather than judgement.

Even a few minutes of awareness can help release tension, calm the nervous system, and bring us back to the present moment.

✨ Today’s practice:
Take 5 minutes to slowly bring your attention through different parts of the body, noticing sensations, areas of tension, or places that feel neutral or at ease.
This can be done lying down or sitting, anytime or before sleep.

➡️ I’ve recorded a short guided version of this practice, available via the link in my bio.

If you try it today, feel free to share:
✨ Did you notice any difference before and after?

13/05/2026

🌿 Day 1: Finding Stability in the Present Moment

It’s completely natural for our minds to worry or jump to “what-ifs,” especially when the world feels uncertain and we’re juggling so much. Our nervous system is simply trying to protect us and cope with stress.

Mindfulness helps us relate differently to stress by gently bringing us back to the present moment, where we often find more calm and stability than our worried thoughts suggest.

✨ Your 3-Minute Practice: Grounding with the 3-2-1 Senses
Pause for a moment and notice:
• 3 things you can see
• 2 things you can hear
• 1 slow breath — or the feeling of your body being supported by the surface beneath you.

This simple practice can act as a gentle reset for the nervous system.

If you try it today, save this post for later and share :
🌿 Did you feel even slightly more grounded afterwards?

11/05/2026

🌿 Mental Health Awareness Week | 5-Day Mindfulness Reset
To mark Mental Health Awareness Week, I’ll be sharing a series of gentle 3–5 minute mindfulness practices designed to help you pause, breathe, and reconnect with yourself.
I’ll begin on Wednesday 13 May, allowing the final practices to carry gently into the weekend.

Mindfulness is often associated with long meditations, but sometimes just a few mindful moments in the day can help diffuse stress, calm the nervous system, and bring us back to the present moment.
There is so much more to explore through mindfulness — from learning to work with thoughts and emotions, to developing greater self-awareness, compassion, and emotional balance. But a short, gentle practice can be a beautiful place to begin… or a way to refresh an existing practice.
Each day, I’ll share one simple exercise using the senses, the body, or the breath (when accessible), to support your mental wellbeing in a practical and approachable way.

✨ No pressure, no perfection — just an invitation to create a few mindful pauses in your week.
If you’d like to join in, save this post and follow along from Monday 🌿

03/05/2026

✨ Le week-end dernier, à Nice, j'ai assisté à deux journées de masterclass du Professeur David Spiegel, riches en apprentissages, échanges et inspiration autour d’une hypnose moderne, rigoureuse et profondément humaine.

Expert mondialement reconnu en psychiatrie et en hypnose clinique, ses recherches, menées depuis plus de 40 ans, éclairent avec précision le lien corps-esprit, notamment en psycho-oncologie et dans la gestion du stress et de la douleur—contribuant à faire de l’hypnose un outil thérapeutique à la fois scientifique et concret.

🧑‍💻 J’en retiens des enseignements précieux, nourris par le décryptage de résultats de recherche sur plusieurs années, des démonstrations, ainsi que des temps d’échange et de questions-réponses d’une grande générosité.

En tant qu’instructrice de mindfulness, ces apports résonnent particulièrement avec ma pratique. Ils viennent renforcer les ponts entre hypnothérapie clinique et mindfulness : deux approches complémentaires qui mobilisent l’attention, la conscience et les ressources internes pour soutenir des changements durables.

Ces réflexions nourrissent également la préparation de la convention Mindful Hypnotherapy que le Dr Lemaire et moi co-animerons à Nice les 21 et 22 novembre 2026. 📅

Merci au Dave Elman Hypnosis Institute pour l’organisation, au Professeur David Spiegel pour la qualité de sa transmission, et à Zoe Diedrich pour son interprétation tout au long de ces deux journées. 🙏

Ravie également d’avoir retrouvé des participants des éditions précédentes et de partager à nouveau cette belle énergie collective.

Au plaisir de poursuivre ces échanges 🤍

Address

128 Wilton Road
London
SW1V1JZ

Website

http://www.bridgemakermindfulness.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Bridgemaker Mindfulness posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Practice

Send a message to Bridgemaker Mindfulness:

Acorn Andrology
Enfield
London Trusted Therapy Harley Street
Pinero House, 115A Harley Street