Our Associate Trainers

Andy Hix

Andy is passionate about mindfulness because it has changed his whole experience of being alive. He used to feel that every day was a stressful struggle to make it to the end without anything going too badly wrong. He now feels immeasurably calmer, happier and able to connect with people, thanks to his practice. He loves sharing his enthusiasm with teachers and students alike, and feels deeply motivated to help address the mental health crisis that young people are facing.

He is CEO of The Mindful Banker, a company that specialises in supporting financial services companies in improving the wellbeing of its staff. He has taught at organisations such as PwC, Credit Suisse, Lloyds Bank and Deloitte. He also teaches in schools, prisons, and offers 1-2-1 coaching, writes a blog and hosts a podcast called The Mindful Banker.

He loves his job because he sees, feels and hears the positive impact it has on people every day. Andy is a practising Buddhist and also enjoys improv.

Chris Barker

Chris was introduced to mindfulness in 2012, as a stressed Head of Department in a large secondary school, via a .b foundations course. It was a revelation and changed the way he approached life, both inside and outside of school.

Chris’s enthusiasm for mindfulness led him to take several MiSP qualifications expanding the ages he was teaching mindfulness to including adults in schools. His aim was simple: to share the gift of mindfulness with others, just as somebody had kindly shared it with him.

In recent years his move to supply teaching has enabled Chris to undertake 2 years of post-graduate mindfulness study at the University of Exeter. He now offers mindfulness to those with a cancer diagnosis (or other life-threatening condition including Covid-19), those who are bereaved and also those experiencing issues with eating and weight management (MB-Eat programme).

Christalla Alekkou

Chris has over 26 years’ experience as a primary school teacher, working extensively with vulnerable pupils as a Nurture specialist teacher. She currently delivers the dots and Paws b programmes to pupils in North London. She is inspired by the children’s response to mindfulness and how it has helped and empowered them to navigate through tricky situations. As well as her own continuing mindfulness practice, Chris also writes songs for children and uses music as a way to connect and become more mindful. Chris has been a Paws b MiSP trainer since 2016, and has piloted and delivered dots training since 2021.

Clare Winter

Clare is a leader at an outstanding pupil referral unit and is the School Mindfulness Lead and SENDCo. She has worked in special education in the UK for over 17 years and is passionate about helping disenfranchised young people to flourish by building resilience and positive mental health. She also highly values the need to support staff and offer them strategies and tools to remain healthy. Over the last seven years she has slowly built and embedded the mindfulness offer in her own provision and throughout local schools and parent support networks. Clare is trained to teach the Mindfulness in Schools Project’s .b, .breathe and .b Foundations curriculums.

David Bignell

David has worked in primary education for 30 years: eight as a classroom teacher, five as a Deputy Headteacher and seventeen as a Headteacher in three different schools. He is currently Principal at Deanwood Primary School, part of the Howard Academy Trust.

David has worked closely with the Mindfulness in Schools Project since 2015 and has inspired many a pupil and adult with his Mindfulness training through the Paws b programme for primary pupils, the .b programme for secondary pupils and the .b foundations programme for adults. In addition he has trained with colleagues from the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at Bangor University and the Oxford Mindfulness Centre to deliver the Frantic World course to adults.

David has recently set up Medway Mindfulness to bring Mindfulness to the children and the adults who care for them in the Medway Towns.

Debbie Hu

Debbie is a consultant psychiatrist, specialising in child and adolescent psychiatry and psycho-oncology at the Tainan Municipal Hospital in Taiwan. She is also a University Lecturer. Debbie is a certified MBCT teacher and a trainer through the Oxford Mindfulness Foundation and is also trained in Mindfulness-based Supervision through the Mindfulness Network. She has extensive experience teaching MiSP .b and Paws b courses for children and teenagers and MBCT family programmes for cancer patients, workplaces, university students, healthcare professionals, and general populations. She is passionate about widening access to these curricula and promoting well-being and flourishing in Chinese communities.