Team

Lorraine Millard – Mindfulness Expert, Trainer and Supervisor

Lorraine Millard is a UKCP accredited Psychotherapist and Supervisor; she has qualifications in Dramatherapy, Psychotherapy, Mindfulness and Supervision and has been in practice and working for the NHS, voluntary agencies and education for over 30 years.

Lorraine has worked as a trainer and written and delivered courses for trainee Counsellors and Psychotherapists for over 20 years. Recently she co-wrote and delivered the first supervision courses for both adult and child counsellors and therapists. Lorraine has specialised in the areas of training and development and delivered training in sexual abuse, trauma, creativity and transpersonal psychology.

She currently works in her private practice based in Canterbury, Kent and is employed as the Mindfulness Lead for the University of Kent, writing and running courses for students and staff across several departments. Lorraine has been working with the University of Kent Academies Trust delivering mindfulness programmes for staff and developing courses for students for over 10 years.

She has been a mindfulness teacher for 12 years and has run over 200 mindfulness courses in education, the NHS, Fire Service and many other private and voluntary agencies. Lorraine runs regular mindfulness drop-ins and has seen over 1,000 adults and young people offering a range of programmes, courses and short tasters - bringing mindfulness to the masses for many years.

Lorraine is co-author of two books; Mindfulness and Wellbeing for Student Learning and Sheldon Mindfulness: Stress with Philip Cowell as well as writing several mindfulness courses and papers.

Jo Price – Founder, creator of the Amazing Minds programme and Trainer

Jo has been working in education for over 20 years and now enjoys working with young people across a number of schools. She is inspired by the energy and happiness that young people create and remains dedicated to the mission of helping young people look after their mental health and wellbeing. 

Jo has extensive experience of working across education and healthcare sectors, with a focus on innovating and creating ground breaking initiatives for achieving outstanding change.

Qualified in in Homeopathy, Hypnosis, Mindfulness and Solution Focussed Therapy, Jo is committed to helping others find the right tools needed to secure optimum health and happiness.

Her mission is to help as many young people have happy healthy minds, so they can be the best versions of themselves, regardless of their starting points or unique wonderful characteristics.

Amazing Minds is the simple programme that will help so many young people and she believes that every young person can have a new super cool mindset, they just need to be given the tools to know how to achieve this.

Jo Rowbotham – Quality Assurance and Corporate Advisor

Jo has a wealth of experience and knowledge that spans across mindfulness, business and neurodiversity. She has worked within mindfulness for over 10 years, working for 2 corporate organisations, extending her practise by completing both Mindful Based Stress Reduction and Mindful Self Compassion courses. Recently she has supported completion of a Mindfulness publication for students and inputted into the design of various programmes.

Through her personal experience and having 2 amazing neurodiverse children, she is also well educated in neurodiversity and has completed courses to further her awareness and knowledge. Jo is well placed to have a good understanding of different learning styles and how to adapt learning for both neurodiverse and neurotypical audiences.

She also works as a creative coach using her extensive arts and business background. Here, she supports and helps empower others to achieve their true potential. She does this using diverse tools, bringing together different ways of working, and problem solving. Together with her mindfulness practise, Jo puts all this experience into the work she does now.

Like Jo Price, her mission is to enable as many young people to thrive and live their best, healthiest and happiest lives. Therefore, she is passionate about supporting and developing the AM programme.

Asia Charles – Presenter

Asia is a Psychology graduate from the University of Kent (UoK), Art Therapy trainee, and Mindfulness Coach. She has introduced to the practice of Mindfulness during her undergraduate years at Kent, where she completed a certified group-based 8 week Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course run by Lorraine Millard. 

Asia was Chair of the Mindfulness Society at the UoK and on completion of her studying for her mindfulness courses, she began co-running mindfulness sessions for students throughout the Pandemic, supporting them with their wellbeing during such isolating and difficult times.  

She has gained valuable experience in both clinical and non-clinical settings delivering mindfulness to a range of generations, from children to teenagers, and from young to older adults in healthcare and educational settings.

Asia trained as an Amazing Minds Coach before she started her Masters in Mindfulness at Bangor University. She has experienced some excellent results helping young people to shift their mindsets and increase their confidence, self esteem and self worth through delivering the Amazing Minds programme.

Passionate, dynamic and creative, Asia is an excellent trainer and ambassador for young people and mindfulness – a winning combination for the Amazing Minds programme.

Sonia – Supervisor 

Sonia Modeste is a BACP registered Counsellor Psychotherapist, Group Worker and Supervisor. She holds a MSc in Psychological Counselling and Psychotherapy from Roehampton Institute University of Surrey, where she focused on the development of therapists. She has been in practice for over 30 years with breaks to focus on raising her family. During this time, she took a mindfulness course to help her professional and personal development. When raising neurodiverse children, she fell in love with the power of mindfulness as a lifestyle choice and a way of regulating emotion.

Sonia has a love for learning and helping others find their purpose through coaching and counselling. Sonia worked as a senior lecturer at The Institute of Education University of London on the Post Graduate Diploma. She went on to tutor, supervise, and facilitate large and medium sized personal development groups for the Diploma in group work and person-centred counselling at City Literary Institute London. She set up a number of not-for-profit therapeutic services for women, children, and families and worked directly with adults, children, youth justice and pupil referral units.

 Recently Sonia has focused on working with children and integrating coaching and mindfulness practice at The University of Kent Academies Trust delivering the Amazing Minds programme.