Our Core Values

Integrity

Integrity is everything in mindfulness teaching. Our teaching is informed by cutting edge science and underpinned by ongoing training and development. We follow industry-standard codes of ethics and good practice and all of our trainers have full public liability insurance. Inner integrity is all-important as well, so be assured that we practice what we preach. We teach from experience, sharing practices that have worked for us. We walk our talk.

Creativity

Every person and every moment is different from the next, so to support and educate most effectively we must listen, learn, adapt and find creative ways to communicate, teach and train. Every moment of our teaching is a moment of aliveness, presence, connection and responsiveness. All our workshops and training courses are imbued with this responsiveness and aliveness from the ground up.

Compassion

At the heart of mindfulness is, well, heart. Mindfulness practice is a process of befriending ourselves, our experience and the world around us and that's not always easy! It's crucial to be gentle with ourselves as we do this. Compassion (particularly, self-compassion) is at the heart of all the most successful approaches to mindfulness. At Mindfulness Liverpool, we make sure it underpins every bit of our teaching, guidance and practice.

Our Core Services

Mindfulness Courses

Learn powerful new tools and skills on our internationally acclaimed mindfulness courses. Feel happier and more connected.

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Mindfulness in the Workplace

Reduce stress and burnout while improving concentration, relationships and well-being in your team and workforce.

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One-to-One Mindfulness

Take charge of your own well-being with personalised one to one sessions with the region’s leading mindfulness teachers.

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Here’s what our clients say:

Slide 8 - Katy Lobley

The University of Liverpool

When I was looking for a tutor to help deliver postgraduate teaching on mindfulness based approaches I turned to Dave. As a co-tutor he was excellent to work with, thorough, reliable, extremely knowledgeable and committed to providing a powerful learning experience for students. Dave embodies mindfulness, but brings a sense of joy and enthusiasm to the subject that cuts through the academic content that we also have to deliver. The student feedback from our teaching was overwhelmingly positive, describing it as ‘passionate’, ‘engaging’, ‘excellent’, and many students said how valuable it was to learn through experiencing mindfulness. I have hugely enjoyed teaching with Dave, he is a pleasure to work with, and inspiring in his commitment, openness and flexibility.

Doctor Katy Lobley

Senior Clinical Teacher - School of Psychology: University of Liverpool

Slide 1 - LIPA

The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts

Dave Spencer has been working with our students for a number of years. I have personally worked with Dave since 2016 and my understanding and appreciation of mindfulness has grown during this time. Dave is patient, passionate and dedicated to his work.

He has worked in partnership with LIPA to provide both one-to-one mindfulness sessions and group workshops for students with varying needs. Student feedback about working with Dave is consistently excellent. He is a valued member of the Student Support team and provides thoughtful and considered contributions to our work.

Penny Byrne

Student Support Manager – The Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts

Slide 2 - Plus Dane

Plus Dane Housing

Mindfulness Liverpool ran a six-session course for myself and colleagues. The sessions have been invaluable. They helped me personally to create inner calm around all the chaos and stresses of work - I can all-too easily get lost in the pressures of work and the demands it places on senior executives so it was fantastic to re-align my thinking and cultivate peace of mind.
After each session I felt refreshed, ‘reset’, less anxious and more connected with my body and breathing. The weekly sessions brought a level of mindfulness that continued well beyond the session and into the week. The sessions definitely improved my ability to be more effective as a leader and shifted my thinking from reacting to responding. I would definitely recommend Mindfulness Liverpool.

Madeleine Nelson

Executive Director of Neighbourhoods – Plus Dane Housing

Slide 3 - LSTM

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Dave delivered a session – An Introduction to Mindfulness- within my workplace yesterday and both myself and my colleagues were blown away at just how calm and relaxed we could feel within an hour. The session was both informative and experiential and enabled us to understand Mindfulness practice and engage in many different aspects. Interest for the session was so great that we have asked Dave to return for a follow up session. Thank you so much for bringing peace and calmness to what is generally quite a high pressure environment’

Comments from the group ‘enlightening’, ‘breathtaking’, ‘a few moments just for me’, ‘wonderful’

Lesley Bennett

Student Welfare and Experience Manager – Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Slide 3 - Knowsley

Knowsley Council

Dave delivered a session – An Introduction to Mindfulness- within my workplace yesterday and both myself and my colleagues were blown away at just how calm and relaxed we could feel within an hour. The session was both informative and experiential and enabled us to understand Mindfulness practice and engage in many different aspects. Interest for the session was so great that we have asked Dave to return for a follow up session. Thank you so much for bringing peace and calmness to what is generally quite a high pressure environment’

Comments from the group ‘enlightening’, ‘breathtaking’, ‘a few moments just for me’, ‘wonderful’

Maureen Keegan

Workforce Development Officer - Knowsley Council

Slide 4 - UNISON

UNISON

I really enjoy working with Dave Spencer to bring the Introduction to Mindfulness courses to our members. Dave is professional, approachable and welcoming. He puts our members at ease and his style of delivery makes mindfulness accessible to our members. Our members have found the mindfulness sessions beneficial. A positive experience all round.

Lyndsey Marchant

North West Learning and Development Organiser – UNISON

Slide 5 - Breathworks

Breathworks CIC

Breathworks regularly call upon Dave Spencer to represent us as a mindfulness teacher and trainer, both on our own training events and also with clients in a range of sectors including public, private, health and education. Dave gets excellent feedback from partner organisations, and is well appreciated for his skilful, engaging and responsive teaching style.

Colin Duff

Business and Research Manager – Breathworks Mindfulness CIC

Slide 6 - Sefton Council

Sefton Council

Mindfulness Liverpool were recommended to us for the Active Workforce Health and Wellbeing programme. We have worked regularly with Dave since then and we’ve had a great response and brilliant feedback from all the staff involved.

Amy Barnes

Development Manager – Sefton Council Active Workforce

Slide 7 - HIT

HIT - www.hit.org.uk

Dave Spencer’s mindfulness training for HIT has been a great success. Delivered with great passion, the feedback from participants is always unanimously positive.

Professor Pat O'Hare

Director - HIT Harm Reduction

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Our Team

Picture of Dave Spencer, founder of Mindfulness Liverpool. Dave Spencer is one of the North-West's leading mindfulness teachers.
Dave Spencer – Founder

Dave Spencer is a well-known and respected teacher, therapist, speaker and lecturer, specialising in mindfulness and well-being. He has practiced and trained in mindfulness and meditation techniques since 2001. He teaches Mindfulness for many different organisations, including The University of Liverpool and The Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts. He also teaches extremely popular independent classes, workshops and courses on mindfulness, meditation and yoga throughout the North-West.

Dave is an associate trainer for Breathworks CIC – one of the leading mindfulness organisations in Europe. As well as multiple training accreditations in his field, he holds a Masters of Science degree with Distinction in Studies in Mindfulness from The University of Aberdeen and a Post-Graduate Diploma with Distinction in Counselling and Psychotherapy Practice. Dave is trained to teach mindfulness with Breathworks CIC and The Mindfulness Association, and is a trained supervisor for mindfulness teachers. He also receives regular supervision himself and regularly attends CPD training events and retreats.

Andrea Cygler – Senior Associate

Andrea Cygler is a highly experienced and qualified well-being practitioner. She has taught and practiced complementary health, stress management, resiliency training, therapeutic touch and meditation and relaxation techniques for twenty years. Andrea is a qualified Breathworks trainer and a qualified Mindfulness in Schools Instructor (www.mindfulnessinschools.org). She teaches mindfulness courses and meditation sessions throughout the North West. Andrea is also a Breathworks Associate and part of their teacher training team; regularly facilitating on Breathworks Teacher Training courses.

As well as teaching independent mindfulness courses and meditation sessions, Andrea’s main focus has been on community projects. She works closely with support services, adult learning services and school services, and has a passion for helping and working with all ages and diversities of people. Andrea is committed to inspiring, enabling and supporting individuals in taking an active and integrative approach to their wellbeing – encouraging a deep understanding of the connection and relationship between body, mind and spirit. Mindfulness-based approaches are at the heart of Andrea’s work.

Keith Harvey  – Senior Associate

As well as being a highly experienced mindfulness teacher and trainer, accredited in several approaches to mindfulness, Keith is a person-centred counsellor, accredited with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), and a qualified counselling supervisor, with experience of working as a therapist in schools, the NHS, with homeless young people, and with the LGBT community.

Keith has been meditating and practicing mindfulness for more than 15 years and is interested in the secular applications of mindfulness practice for individuals, in the workplace and in schools. Prior to his work in mindfulness, therapy and counselling, Keith worked as a university lecturer in linguistics, French literature and translation and has a PhD from the University of Manchester.

Keith is well known for his kind, thoughtful presence, which comes through in all his work.

Ellie Paskell – Associate

Ellie is a mindfulness teacher and Somatic Life Coach™. A certified mindfulness coach, Ellie trained as a Mindfulness Based Pain Management teacher with Breathworks CIC.

Ellie leads regular mindfulness classes and retreats, teaches mindfulness in corporate environments and works with clients on a one-to-one basis, predominantly throughout Greater Manchester. She also hosts global online webinars to share her work with the world.

Gillian, Mindfulness Liverpool
Gillian Torres – Workshop Facilitator and Creative Advisor

Gillian is a writer, author, entrepeneur, consultant and teacher. She is an experienced mindfulness practitioner and the creator of the unique written mindfulness practice, Soul Scripting. As part of Mindfulness Liverpool’s offerings, Gillian brings workshops and training courses in therapeutic writing as a mindfulness practice. You can read more about our introductory workshop on this topic on our workshops page.

Gillian is in demand as a creative business consultant, working with groundbreaking organisations like 2030Hub Liverpool, the world’s first United Nations Local Hub for the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Gillian brings these skills to Mindfulness Liverpool as a creative advisor.

Gina Torres – Yoga Instructor

Gina has a fantastic reputation, throughout the North West, as a teacher of hatha, vinyasa, pregnancy, post natal and baby yoga. She is also passionate about working with women, sharing menstruality knowledge and practices and teaching womb yoga.

A consummate professional, Gina has extensive experience of working in corporate environments. She delivers regular yoga classes throughout the city for organisations including tech start-ups and large corporate firms. She also works one-to-one, or with small groups of busy professionals in their own office environments.

Here’s what our course participants say:

Mo Keegan

Participant Testimonials

Dave Spencer and Andrea Cygler are both exceptional teachers. They have exceptional skill at making mindfulness become real, and supporting you in encompassing it into daily activity/life to make a difference. I got such a lot from the programme, as well as some well needed "me-time".
In my whirlwind life this practice has enabled me to be calm, and much more focused, in both my work and at home. Mindfulness Liverpool provides a safe place to learn and practice mindfulness, you will leave feeling relaxed and with a positive mind-set. I will certainly be sharing these concepts in my working life to help others, as well as continuing to use it myself to stay in the moment and enjoy the here and now.

Maureen Keegan

Workforce Development Officer

Lynsey Mcgrath

Participant Testimonials

I attended Dave Spencer's Mindfulness for Stress course as part of my own personal development, and also my CPD (Continuing Professional Development). Being a teacher of Mindfulness myself, I wanted to develop my own knowledge deeper, and see how others delivered the concept. I have to say that I was amazed at the amount of information and inner wisdom that I gained from this course.

Both Dave and Andrea were brilliant in their approach. Mindfulness can be a challenging concept to deliver, yet they did so very well and made it enjoyable, informative and very easy to take on board. I would recommend anyone, for professional or personal gain, to attend this course.

Lynsey McGrath

Mindfulness Teacher

Clive Cook

Participant Testimonials

With an understanding of psychological interventions, and some experience of practicing mindfulness, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I gained from both the theoretical knowledge and practical elements of this course. The course content, supplementary readings, group discussions and professional delivery from David and Andrea allowed participants to engage and achieve everything they expected from the course and more!

Clive Cook

Sport and Exercise Scientist

Jan Canter

Participant Testimonials

I found this course deeply fulfilling, particularly in the way it combined the theory of mindfulness with real practice. I would go as far as to say it has certainly provided me with some vital tools for life, which I am now using on a daily basis.

The world we now live in is far more complex, and in many ways more difficult, than it has ever been. Proper coping mechanisms to deal with the stress which is around us, especially in the work place, are so much more essential. For me, practicing Mindfulness will go a long way to making sense of it all, and dealing with that stress. This course, into which Dave and Andrea put so much personally, has enabled me to do this.

Jan Canter

Solicitor

Andrea Denton

Participant Testimonials

Dave and Andrea provided excellent guidance in exploring the effects of stress, and applying Mindfulness as a resilience technique. The course was well planned with weekly reading and practice to do at home, and the learning atmosphere in the sessions was open, welcoming, and responsive to participants needs. It was fun and reassuring learning with the others on the course, and, as it was a relatively small group, felt friendly.
There was a good variety of practical exercises and discussion, making the content easy and enjoyable to follow. Andrea and Dave are brilliant and patient teachers and I felt able to ask for extra support if needed. The course catered well for learning at home, with access to audio-recorded exercises, and weekly prompts to help maintain motivation. Doing this course has helped me to effectively be able to manage the stresses of 21st century-living and was a truly enjoyable, enriching experience. I would look forward to other similar courses from Dave and Andrea and I very much recommend doing the Mindfulness for Stress course with them in Liverpool.

Andrea Denton

Occupational Therapist

Jenny Walsh

Participant Testimonials

I signed up for the Mindfulness for Stress course with the aim of learning new techniques to incorporate into my work, but I gained so much more than that! Dave and Andrea provided an opportunity for both reflection, and new learning, within a supportive environment, along with excellent course materials to help deepen our practice.

The sessions were invaluable, the teachers were inspirational and I really enjoyed my time with the group. Since the course ended, I have continued to practise mindfulness and fully intend to develop my skills further.

Jenny Walsh

CBT Therapist

Linda Thompson

Participant Testimonials

I can honestly say that my life has changed since taking part in the Breathworks course. Rather than my life operating on my stress levels and making rash decisions, I feel like I am now able to slow down, think, and make much more informed choices. The catalysts for stress are still in my everyday life, but I am now able to react and deal with them more calmly and positively. Rather than worrying my life away, I now have a bank of tools that I can use to help me put my problems in perspective, and deal with them more efficiently.

Mindfulness doesn't take your problems and stresses away, but it does give you the skills to deal with them in a much more positive way. Dave and Andrea are lovely people who accept everybody and allow you to be and accept your true self.

Linda Thompson

Deputy Headteacher

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