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"What is Mindful Culture? A critical, appreciative perspective."

9:30am to 4:30pm (registration from 9am)

Keynote Speakers Include:  

Chris Ruane.  Creating A Mindfulness Culture in Politics

Chris was the MP for the Vale of Clwyd for 21 years. In Parliament he specialised in mindfulness, health and wellbeing. He established, chaired or served on cross party groups on Mindfulness; Heart Health; Wellbeing Economics; Arts, Health and Wellbeing; Gut Health. He currently serves as a Board member of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre; Frazzled Cafe (Chair); Mindfulness Wales and is Chair of the Mindfulness Initiative's Global Network. He has spoken at the UN and OECD, as well as international conferences and universities around the world.

Chris Tamdjidi.  Transforming our mind, transforming our culture: Mindfulness in organisational life. 

Chris is the co-founder and Director of Awaris. Chris has spent the last 10 years focusing on Leadership development especially in the fields of mindfulness, authentic leadership and personal transformation. He works with many large organisations on transforming leadership habits. He is also active in politics – working both with members of the German Parliament and the European Parliament, as well as the European commission on cultivating a shift in political climate.

Willem Kuyken.  Is Mindfulness (-based cognitive therapy) coming of age? The story so far and a vision for the future.

Willem is the Ritblat Professor of Mindfulness and Psychological at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, and Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre. His work over >30 years has focused on depression and its prevention and treatment. This work has evolved to explore how we can promote mental health and support human flourishing in the wider population. Dr. Kuyken has published more than 100 journal articles, including key papers on the effectiveness, mechanisms, and implementation of psychological approaches to mental health. Together with Christina Feldman, he wrote Mindfulness – Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Psychology, published in 2019 by Guilford Press. He is working on two further books for Guilford Press on MBCT for the general population to support well-being.

Miia Chambers and Uz Afzal.  Co-Producing a Radically Caring Culture.

Miia works as mindfulness lead at City, Hackney and Waltham Forest Mind and led the development of the Radical Self-Care (RadSec) mindfulness and compassion-based modality that was shown in an RCT research with City Uni and in subsequent evaluations to have statistically and clinically significant benefits for well-being. They are leading the development of the broader Radical Caring cultural and organisational approach, piloted with Thrive London and the Innovation Unit.

They are Director of Rainbow Mind - London and Manchester based LGBTQ+ mental health service, Chair of City & Hackney LGBTQ+ SIG, and previously Deputy Chair and Trustee of the British Association of Mindfulness Based Approaches (BAMBA). They work as a Supervisor, Trainer and Practitioner n Mindfulness Based (MB) Stress Reduction, MB Cognitive Therapy, MB Addiction Recovery, Mindful Self-Compassion, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Compassion Focused Therapy.​​ They find mindfulness and compassion practice vital to their wellbeing and balance and consider their work a part of their practice.

Also a former Finnish International tennis player, lecturer with Masters in Leisure and Sports studies, they continue to coach high performance athletes and individuals.

Uz is a mindfulness teacher, trainer and supervisor. Her book, ‘Mindfulness for Children’ was published in 2018 and she has appeared on national radio and television, featured in newspapers and magazines, and been a frequent guest speaker at conferences and festivals. Uz Afzal runs courses for businesses, educators, charities and arts organisations. Uz is a lead trainer on the mental health charity, Mind’s practitioner training pathway for its 8-week course: Radical Self-Care. The team were recently selected as finalists for the Mindfulness Initiatives’ Innovation in Mindfulness Awards. She leads training days and supervises trainee mindfulness teachers.

She is known for her enthusiastic approach and has enjoyed leading mindfulness sessions at the Women of the World Festival and popular walking meditations at the V&A Museum. She is particularly interested in welcoming all the intersecting aspects of people’s identities into mindfulness courses. Uz is a Trustee of the Mindfulness Network and sits on the EDI board looking at ways to broaden the reach of mindfulness and make it more inclusive. She is on the British Association of Mindfulness-based Approaches (BAMBA) Teachers Register and adheres to their Good Practice Guidelines.

A selection of Mindfulness Workshops will be held in the afternoon. 

The conference is free for SMC advocates and for current/recent Sussex Partnership service users, SPFT Staff and SMC Trust Approved Teachers and SMC researcher staff and students. 

MBCT in IAPT Trainees (Current Intake) £25

Other NHS Staff £40

All other attendees £90

You will be provided with a Continued Professional Development certificate.

Tea and coffee will be provided. Lunch is not provided.