Kate Brennan
Biography:
Kate Brennan was one of the assessors on the Staying Well after Depression trial and conducted detailed interviews with people who were interested in the trial to find out whether the trial was likely to be suitable for them. Once a person entered the trial, they were invited back for follow-up assessments, every three months for a period of 15 months. The follow-up assessments allowed us to find out how people were doing, and ultimately whether the treatments people have received have been helpful. She will soon complete her Masters, taken as part of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre at the University of Oxford.
Dr Catherine Crane
Biography:
Dr Catherine Crane gained her DPhil in the Dept of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University in 2003 and since then has been working as a Post Doctoral Research Psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry. She is working on a variety of projects including a collaboration with researchers at the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, University of Bristol and the multi-centre RCT “Staying Well after Depression.” Her research interests include mindfulness based treatment approaches, suicide, self-regulation and autobiographical memory.
Dr Danielle Duggan
Biography:
Dr Danielle Duggan gained her DPhil in the Department of Psychiatry at Oxford University and is now a Post-Doctoral Research Psychologist working on a variety of projects at the Oxford Mindfulness Centre. Projects she is currently involved with include the clinical service providing courses of MBCT to clients of the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, as well as the multi-centre RCT ‘Staying Well After Depression.
Dr Maret Dymond
Biography:
Maret Dymond is a Clinical Psychologist with a long standing interest in attachment theory, the prevention of postpartum depression and support for new parents.
She began exploring the practice of mindfulness during her professional training and more deeply after therapeutic training in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy DBT. This led her onto undertake teacher training in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression MBCT and then later (with Nancy Bardacke) in Mindfulness Based Childbirth and Parenting MBCP.
Maret has taught MBCT groups for healthcare professionals and service users within the UK National Health Service and independently. She is leading the introduction of MBCP into Europe within the Oxford Mindfulness Centre and is also involved in the teaching and training of healthcare professionals in MBCT.
Dr Melanie Fennell
Biography:
Dr Melanie Fennell, a pioneer of cognitive therapy for depression in the UK, is a research clinician in the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, teaches on the Masters Degree in MBCT in Oxford University and has been teaching MBCT on the Staying Well after Depression research trial.
She developed the highly successful Oxford Diploma in Cognitive Therapy and Oxford/MSc in Advanced Cognitive Therapy.
Melanie has a particular interest in cognitive therapy for depression and low self-esteem. Her book “Overcoming Low Self-Esteem” is a classic of self-help literature, winning acclaim for its practical and user-friendly approach, and now recommended on the National Health Service’s self-help scheme known as “Books on Prescription”
Bergljot Gjelsvik
Biography:
Bergljot Gjelsvik is a Honorary Research Clinical Psychologist at the Oxford Mindfulness Centre. She trained as a clinical psychologist at the University of Oslo, Norway, and holds a Masters of Studies degree in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) from the University of Oxford and is about to complete her PhD on suicide prevention and deliberate self-harm. Her doctoral research focuses on causes of suicidal behaviour, risk and protective factors. She is collaborating with Professor Mark Williams on a Templeton-funded project on Embodied Cognition and Emotional Disorders. She works clinically with depressed and suicidal individuals using MBCT and is currently writing a book on MBCT for health-professionals in Norway.
Carolyn Guillot
Biography:
Carolyn has been PA to Mark Williams and Administrator for the Mindfulness Centre since July 2011 and has worked in the Department of Psychiatry for several years prior to that as course administrator for medical students. She has had an interest in meditation since the early 70s, first with Goenka and then with Thich Nhat Hanh and spent about 20 years living in France.
Marie Johansson
Biography:
Marie Johansson holds an MBCT Teacher/Co-ordinator post at the Oxford Mindfulness Centre. She is Clinical Lead Teacher and co-ordinates the 8-week MBCT programme for the Oxford NHS Foundation Trust.
She is also a Trainer of new MBCT Teachers, both within the Trust and externally.
She currently supervises students on the Masters Programme at Bangor as well as Mindfulness Teachers already teaching.
She qualified as a Social Worker in 1979 and is an experienced Mental Health practitioner and trained Group Worker. She has been teaching MBSR and MBCT since 2005 .
Adele Krusche
Biography:
Adele Krusche conducted research investigating dispositional mindfulness as part of her Masters in Psychology at the University of Portsmouth and developed an interest in how mindfulness can alter perspectives and help with disorders. She began working at the University of Psychiatry as the lead recruiter on the Staying Well after Depression multi-centre RCT and continued to work on the trial as trial coordinator. She is continuing to work with the Oxford Mindfulness Centre as the head of social media and is conducting research in conjunction with the Mental Health Foundation and Wellmind Media into online mindfulness courses and their benefits.
Mark Leonard
Biography:
Mark Leonard, Projects and Development Manager, is working to establish the Oxford Mindfulness Centre a centre of excellence in research, training and teaching. Mark also teaches the “Mindfulness in the Workplace” programme based on “Mindfulness: a practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world,” by Mark Williams and Danny Penman.
Kate Muse
Biography:
Kate Muse worked for a number of years as a research assistant at the Oxford Mindfulness Centre where she was involved in research studies examining maintaining factors in health anxiety, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy interventions for health anxiety, and intrusive imagery in anxiety disorders. She is currently conducting research exploring the development of valid, reliable and cost-effective methods of assessing the competence of cognitive behavioural therapists as part of a BABCP funded Dphil in affiliation with the Oxford Cognitive Therapy Centre. Kate is also currently the administrative co-ordinator for the Oxford Mindfulness Centre’s master of studies degree in MBCT
John Peacock
Chair, Board of Trustees
Isabelle Rudolf Von Rohr
Biography:
Isabelle has worked as a recruiter and administrator on the Staying Well after Depression trial over the last few years, taking a break to complete a Masters in Psychology back home in Switzerland. Now back in the UK, she has been helping with all of the trial data. She also works for the Centre, helping to organise courses of MBCT for clients of the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.
Dhruvi Shah
Biography:
Dhruvi Shah was one of the assessors on the Staying Well after Depression trial and conducted detailed interviews with people who were interested in the trial to find out whether the trial was likely to be suitable for them. Once a person entered the trial, they were invited back for follow-up assessments, every three months for a period of 15 months. The follow-up assessments allowed us to find out how people were doing, and ultimately whether the treatments people have received have been helpful. She will soon complete her Masters, taken as part of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre at the University of Oxford.
Dr Christina Surawy
Biography:
Dr Christina Surawy is a tutor on the Masters of Studies in MBCT currently offered by Oxford University, and is involved in both teaching and training MBCT as part of her work at the Oxford Mindfulness Centre. Recently Christina has taught MBCT on the trial exploring its benefits for Health Anxiety and has been involved in developing and teaching the approach to sufferers of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) for the NHS. She has been providing supervision both in MBCT and CBT for a number of years and trained originally as a clinical psychologist.
Professor Mark Williams
Biography:
Professor Mark Williams, Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, and Principal Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. He holds a joint appointment in the Department of Psychiatry and the Department of Experimental Psychology. He has held previous posts at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, the Medical Research Council Applied Psychology Unit (now Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit) in Cambridge and the University of Wales, Bangor, where he founded the Institute for Medical and Social Care Research and the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice.
He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences and the British Academy.
His research is concerned with psychological models and treatment of depression and suicidal behaviour, particularly the application of experimental cognitive psychology to understanding the processes that increase risk of suicidal behaviour in depression. With colleagues John Teasdale (Cambridge) and Zindel Segal (Toronto) he developed Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy for prevention of relapse and recurrence in depression, and two RCTs have now found that MBCT halves the recurrence rate in those who have suffered three or more previous episodes of major depression.
His current research focuses on whether a similar approach can help prevent suicidal ideation and behaviour. His articles also focus on how autobiographical memory biases and deficits affect current and future vulnerability.
