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 becomes a lifelong way of being, enabling us to appreciate the ups and cope with the downs of life.

I love running courses because I find the positive energy, compassion and feedback from other participants can help others too.

My personal values and the way I try to behave are: action; kindness; positivity; compassion; genuineness; openness and acceptance.

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.

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. This first career also gave me a good basis from which to grow as a therapist, as much of my work had involved listening, supporting and developing others from many different walks of life.

In 2019, I made a big change and left my therapist role in the NHS to move to the USA with family ….until the 2020 pandemic changed plans and we came back home. This however gave me a wonderful opportunity to build on my mindfulness skills and I decided to retrain specifically as a Breathworks mindfulness teacher during lockdown.

I now run both Breathworks and bespoke mindfulness courses as an independent, accredited teacher, both online and face to face locally. During 2023 and 2024, I am running regular mindfulness drop-in sessions for guests at Open Door, a local Cheltenham charity supporting vulnerable disadvantage and lonely people through a variety of services. As an Isbourne Associate, I am also running 4 - week Stress and Anxiety courses for the Educational arm of the Isbourne, a leading UK holistic organisation based in Cheltenham - both in house and out in the Springbank community. I also delivered a mindfulness morning at a Staff Well-being day for the Barnardos team in Swindon.

Earlier Qualifications… gained over many decades! 

I graduated with a degree in Psychology (BSc Hons)in 1983 at the University of Wales. Whilst working as a Human Resources manager in business, I later became a corporate member of the Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). 

A move 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). 

Finally, following my training during the pandemic, I am now an Accredited Breathworks Teacher and a BAMBA (British Association of Mindfulness-Based Approaches) Registered mindfulness teacher, always committed as I have been throughout my career to regular, continued and professional development.