About Me
Hello!
My name's Kim and I've been teaching Zen Meditation for over 15 years. I did my training with Zen Master Daizan of Zenways and haven't looked back.
Meditation practice has taught me so much about myself and how I move in the world, and even more importantly, ways to move in the world that are less self-destructive and more beneficial. My life is less rollercoaster and more carousel!
Fewer dramatic highs and lows...
After a couple of years of teaching Zen Meditation to beginners, I trained with Daizan to become a teacher of the training method itself, a process I really enjoyed. Some years later I decided to do some Self Compassion training and went on an intensive 5 day retreat with the leading lights of that world: Kristen Neff and Chris Germer - it really was intense and also an illuminating experience. I had always assumed that self compassion was all soft and fluffy (which it can be) but it also requires grit, courage and firm determination and intention, which I hadn't expected so much (I don't know why). It continues to be an incredibly useful tool in my own life, and one that has seen me through the death of both of my parents and a difficult relationship break-up.
I trained with Scott Kiloby in 2021 in advanced trauma-informed somatic (body) mindfulness and became an accredited Kiloby Inquiries Facilitator in early 2022. There is more information about the one to ones I offer here.
I'm currently training as a Certified Outdoor Therapist and separately as a Forest Therapist and look forward to getting outside and into the elements to bring another dimension to the healing process.
How did I get into all of this? The same way most of us do, I'm thinking - through my own trauma and my own unhelpful repeating patterns of behaviour that took me into the depths of addiction (alcohol primarily). I got sober over 20 years ago and from that point started to unpick the patterns that had taken me to that place. All of the above trainings have helped me to see, in the most profound of ways, that there is no need for an inner battle and that life doesn't need to be taken personally. Does that mean I remember that every day? No, of course not, but I practice and practice and with time life more and more starts to resemble the teacup ride at the fair - a much less dramatic experience than the rollercoaster OR the carousel.