Mindfulness in Holborn, Central London

How a Session Works

The Core Practices

Most one to one teaching here uses three practices. Breath awareness anchors attention on the sensation of breathing and gives you something to return to when the mind wanders, which it will. The body scan moves attention slowly through the body and is the practice people find most useful for sleep and for pain. Open awareness widens attention to sound, thought and sensation without following any of it.

Alongside those, you will be given informal practice: one ordinary daily activity, such as walking to the station or making coffee, done with full attention. This is what makes the skill portable, because the difficult moments rarely happen while you are sitting on a cushion.

Why One to One Rather Than an App

Apps are a reasonable place to start and many people arrive having used one. What they cannot do is notice that you are gripping your shoulders while you practise, adjust the instruction when a body scan makes you anxious, or work out why you stopped after nine days.

In a one to one session the practice is shaped around your life and your temperament. If sitting still is intolerable, you will be taught walking practice. If the evening is the pressure point, that is what gets built.

What the Evidence Says

Mindfulness based approaches have been studied more than most complementary practices. Structured programmes such as mindfulness based stress reduction and mindfulness based cognitive therapy have a reasonable evidence base for stress and for reducing relapse in recurrent depression, and NICE recognises mindfulness based cognitive therapy in that specific context.

One to one mindfulness teaching at a clinic is not the same as a clinical programme, and we do not describe it as treatment. It is skills teaching, useful in its own right and often used alongside counselling, psychotherapy or physical treatment.

Mindfulness at Work

Many people who come here work in offices nearby and want something that survives a working day rather than a retreat. That usually means very short practices used at specific moments: three slow breaths before opening the inbox, a minute of attention to the feet before walking into a meeting, or a deliberate pause between finishing work and going home.

The other half of the work is noticing the habits that make concentration harder, including constant task switching, eating at the desk and checking messages in bed. None of this requires anyone at work to know you are doing it, which matters to a lot of people.

Building a Practice That Lasts

• Choose a fixed time and place rather than waiting for a free moment.
• Start shorter than feels worthwhile. Five minutes done daily beats twenty attempted twice.
• Expect to miss days. Restarting without commentary is part of the skill.
• Keep a very short note of what you noticed rather than rating each session as good or bad.
• Bring the difficulties to your next appointment. Boredom, restlessness and falling asleep are all workable.

Mindfulness, Meditation or Talking Therapy?

• Choose mindfulness if you want a practical attention skill taught one to one and shaped around your week.
• Choose our meditation classes if you would rather learn the formal sitting practice in a group setting.
• Choose counselling or psychotherapy if you need to talk something through and understand it, rather than learn a practice.
• Choose breathwork or yoga if you want the emphasis on the body and the breath, with movement involved.

When to Take Care

Mindfulness suits most people, but it is not neutral for everyone. Turning attention inward can bring difficult memories or strong physical sensations closer, particularly after trauma. Tell your practitioner beforehand so practices can be adapted, kept short, or held with the eyes open.

If you are in acute distress or crisis, talking therapy or medical support should come first. We will say so rather than teach a practice that is not the right thing at that moment.

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