Teaching
Andy teaches ways to use everything that happens, joyful and disastrous, as fuel help you to live a more meaningful, peaceful and fulfilling life. Meditation is the central training ground for this. His teaching comes mostly from his life experiences, including all the successes, failures, mistakes, losses, joys, depressions and everything in-between. He only teaches what is true, tried, tested and lived.
Training and Experience
While he has trained with some established organisations, Andy doesn’t associate his teachings with any single approach.
- TTR Level One: Mindfulness-based stress reduction at the Centre for Mindfulness, Research and Practice at Bangor University, UK – an international centre for excellence in mindfulness training.
- Certificate in Psychodynamic Counselling Skills from the BACP approved Manor House Centre for Counselling and Psychotherapy
- Intermediate Diploma in Therapeutic Communications with Children from the London Metropolitan University
- Certificate in child counselling using the arts from the Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education – a leading provider for UKCP and BACP validated courses in arts psychotherapy child counselling and child psychotherapy in the UK.
- ‘Mindfulness in Schools’ primary school teaching programme.
- 6 years experience in managing a child therapy service in a primary school in London where he offered one to one creative arts mentoring sessions for children. The role also included supporting families and referring to external family support agencies.
About Andy (Photos)
From age 11, Andy had the question “how do I know that I am me?” whirring around his head. He couldn’t work out why he couldn’t be someone else, as their consciousness. He believes this may have been the beginning of a spiritual search. A side quest at this stage, with his main quest being music. Andy had a passion for playing the drums and one goal, to become a rock star.
In 2003 Andy realised his dream of becoming a rock star after his band signed a record deal with a major record label. He was whisked off into a whirlwind of music industry mayhem, touring the world, playing huge venues, recording in legendary studios and meeting many of his musical heroes. But the dream soon wore off.
A few months in and Andy began to experience a sense of emptiness, like something was missing. He turned to philosophy and spiritual books to try to make sense of what he felt. He also joined a local Buddhist group that sent him cassette tapes of teachings to listen to while he was on tour. His interest soon faded as he got caught up in this new life, despite its shortcomings.
Three years later the band ended, the dream was over, and Andy found himself with no money , jumping from job to another and lost in anxiety and depression. He returned to his books dedicated himself to his spiritual search and meditation and eventually moved through the depression and anxiety. It was a bumpy ride and there was no magic fix or moment of awakening but rather a gradual letting life be.
In 2010 Andy began to teach small groups in London. Participants would often request recordings of his meditations so he created CDs of his guidance to hand out. Knowing that music could access emotions and states of consciousness that words often failed to express, he rekindled his love for music and wrote cinematic soundtracks to fit with each meditation. Since then his teachings and soundscapes have grown in popularity around the world. And the best is yet to come
Side Note
All that you’ve read above is just a story. One that has been told many times and in many different ways. It is a (sometimes) helpful map to see where you’ve been. But it can be a precarious and limiting thing to live by your story, one that can be interpreted in a million different ways. It is much more freeing and exciting to live from this moment, without the narrative, where anything is possible.
What would you do today if there was no story?
You can’t take a photograph of it at night
It lives in the code of a firefly buzzing
It vibrates through brick walls, keeping their time
It cuddles the creeping chaos coming
I see it more clearly than ever before
I’m in its invisible river flowing
Through everything I’ve ever been through before
Heads up, something’s really happening
Turin Brakes