About
My name is Suzanne, known to all as Sue. I am a qualified independent Breathworks mindfulness teacher based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
Passions and values
My passion is to help individuals improve the quality of their physical and emotional wellbeing and ultimately to gain more happiness and peace, despite their difficulties and challenges.
I am also passionate about the value of mindfulness. I believe that mindfulness can be seen as a gift or skill, that with practice it becomes a lifelong way of being, enabling us to appreciate the ups and cope with the downs of life.
I love running group courses, one of the reasons being that I find the positive energy, compassion and feedback from other participants can help others too.
My personal values that are important to me and the way I behave are: action; kindness; positivity; compassion; genuineness; openness and acceptance.
I live in Cheltenham with my family, all very loved but the most demanding of this love is my cheeky border terrier Roddy!
My work experience
For many years I have been helping clients with a wide range of emotional health issues; including stress, depression and coping with chronic long-term conditions. I worked as a cognitive behavioural therapist (CBT) and supervisor in Cheltenham within primary care in the Gloucestershire NHS 2009-2019 , helping individuals as well as regularly running group courses. These included mindfulness (Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy MBCT), compassion focused trauma, stress and depression courses as well as for emotional well -being.
Before that, I had a role as a CBT therapist and supervisor at Listening Post, a Cheltenham counselling charity and a short spell whilst retraining as a bereavement volunteer at Sue Ryder hospice, Leckhampton, Cheltenham.
Prior to my therapist life, I had managed and developed people in industry, in a career spanning two decades in human resources management across the UK and in the Netherlands, where I lived for four years. These were valuable years of experience helping those from many different walks of life. This first career gave me a good basis from which to grow as a therapist, as much of my work had involved listening, supporting and developing others.
In 2019, I made a big change and left my therapist role in the NHS to move to the USA, with my husband ….until the 2020 pandemic changed plans and we came back home to Cheltenham. This moment however gave me a wonderful opportunity to build on my mindfulness skills that I had used within the NHS and I decided to retrain specifically as a Breathworks mindfulness teacher during lockdown.
I am so grateful that I was able to follow this passion whilst looking after a big extended family, who were all studying or working from home during the pandemic.
I now run Breathworks courses, bespoke short courses or regular mindfulness drop-ins, all now face to face, as an independent, accredited teacher for local charities.
Earlier Qualifications..gained over many decades!
I graduated with a degree in Psychology (BSc Hons)in 1983 at the University of Wales and followed a business career for over two decades in human resources, becoming a corporate member of the Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
A family move from London to the Cotswolds in 2004 gave me the opportunity to become a psychological therapist. I gained my initial counselling qualifications at Gloucestershire College and followed that with a post graduate diploma in therapeutic counselling (cognitive behavioural therapy-CBT) at Newport, the University of Wales.
On joining the NHS in 2009 to a new team of therapists in the rollout of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) in Gloucestershire, I gained a further postgraduate diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy with the University of Exeter. This was sponsored by the NHS.
Until I left the NHS in 2019, I was accredited as a psychological therapist with both the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychological Therapies (BABCP) and the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).
I remain as a retired member of the BACP, to keep in touch with psychotherapy developments and knowledge.
Finally, following my training during the pandemic, I am now an Accredited Breathworks Trainer, accredited since 2021, committed as I have been throughout my career to regular continued and professional development.