About Living Mindfully

Living Mindfully Community Interest Company (CIC), is a social enterprise set up to respond to the need for mindfulness coaching in a range of community settings.

The Big Issue, the Eden Project, Divine Chocolate, and Jamie Oliver's restaurant Fifteen are examples of social enterprises.

Living Mindfully works with individuals and groups interested in learning and practising mindfulness, and learning mindfulness-based strategies to respond to the demands and stresses of their personal and professional lives.

Here at Living Mindfully we are engaged in raising public awareness of the benefits of mindfulness based approaches, delivering Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and tailored programmes for individuals and groups of all ages. Our clients are drawn from the public, private and voluntary sectors.

We are currently undertaking a research project into the effectiveness and use of mindfulness in unemployment, and plan future research into the applications of mindfulness.

Our aim is to develop Living Mindfully’s services by working with Associate Teachers in the field of mindfulness to create a network of appropriately trained teachers and coaches who can respond to the needs of the community.

The company will reinvest any surplus into developing its services and people, to benefit a broader section of the community, and to provide a wider range of mindfulness-based resources.

The Directors of the company are both established mindfulness practitioners, who have undergone teacher training at the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at Bangor University. Gary Heads is a mindfulness coach and teacher, Elaine Young was previously a Director of a large Social Enterprise in the Social Care Sector. Elaine and Gary have experience of delivering mindfulness training together as a team and individually. Gary is near completion of a Masters degree in Mindfulness-Based Approaches at Bangor, Elaine is also engaged in the Masters programme.

Living Mindfully has links with schools, local authorities, charities, health services, other social enterprises, employment services and a local University. There is already an established referral system for Living Mindfully’s services in County Durham.

Gary and Elaine are the main providers of the services offered, with Associate Teachers delivering courses under their supervision.

At Living Mindfully, we aim to work in a safe and responsible way, maintaining an active link with current research, and adhering to relevant guidance on the delivery of coaching and training. In the absence of a regulatory framework written specifically for mindfulness practitioners, we commit to the principles and guidance set out in the Association for Coaching Code of Ethics and Good Practice and Bangor University’s Good Practice Guidance for Teaching Mindfulness-based Approaches. We also operate a set of policies and procedures designed to ensure the safe and efficient delivery of services.