Katie came on board with our programme to help support valve disease patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, a challenging period in many of their lives, and delivered a brilliant mindfulness workshop tailored to suit the specific needs of our patients. In a short space of time she was able to curate an engaging workshop which gave patients of varying abilities practical tools to help manage their own mental wellbeing.

Her workshops not only tell you how to use mindfulness but also explain the mechanics of why it works, giving a rounded understanding of its use to the individual. In addition to this, the resources she has developed on her website offer the mechanisms for continued engagement and support for our patients after the workshop.

Katie is a wonderful person and presenter, and we’re very glad she came on board with our programme.

Heart Valve Voice

Heart Valve Voice is the UK’s dedicated heart valve disease charity. They work with patients and clinicians to help increase the awareness of heart valve disease in the UK and improve diagnosis and treatment.

The charity is a collection of people with real experiences of heart valve disease, including a multi-disciplinary group of experts in the field (cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, GPs), cardiac patient societies and patients.

I mean wow! That first session for the COVID-19 GPs’ support group with not many hours’ notice at all speaks volumes. So then we’ve had so much positive feedback.

My first contact with Katie was a webinar presentation that a charity Heart Valve Voice were going to do to support their community of patients with heart valve disease and their families and relatives and supporters. They were keen to offer something under the heading of mindfulness and wellbeing and introduced me to Katie.

So it was really interesting to meet and be able to go through the technical rehearsal and then sit and host that charity’s webinar, and really enjoy the content that Katie was sharing. In fact even before Katie did her webinar, just from the chat that we had beforehand, I invited her to come on and share a little of the content with the COVID-19 GPs’ support group weekly web meeting that I was putting together.

I’ve really enjoyed the sessions. They’re great because they explain as well as give the experience. So it satisfies my logical rational brain, as well as satisfying me emotionally. It’s very therapeutic. All of the sessions have been very, very flexible and adaptable at tailoring what Katie offers based on the sense she gets of what might be helpful at the time… and that’s a real skill. That’s a real skill.

So Katie, you’ve been very kind, sharing resources such as that Mindfulness Course for Anxiety, and it’s been lovely to be able to share all of those resources out through the Primary Care Support Group and to colleagues.

So I’m hoping that awareness of what you do and what you’re offering will spread, you know, spread the good. But I really appreciate what you’ve given in supporting myself and my colleagues and would thoroughly recommend you to anybody who’s looking for somebody who’s experienced in teaching and training and talking around mindfulness and wellbeing and managing mental wellbeing, especially anxiety.

There’s a lot of authenticity. How you share your difficult journey is inspiring, because that difficult journey has led to the person you are now and all the growth, and the sort of direction that you’re moving in now is obviously in some way quite significantly linked to your life experience. So there’s real authenticity to how you share and teach and bring people into a mindfulness experience. And it’s very worthwhile.

So I fully recommend Katie to anybody. If you’ve got any thoughts, pick up the phone or get on a Zoom meet and have a chat with Katie.

Having recently been to a NHS Pain Clinic and being advised to look at mindfulness, I have to admit I was sceptical and thought it would be mumbo jumbo! I attended a mindfulness evening with Katie and I couldn’t have been more wrong. Within days my pain had subsided significantly and the effects of mindfulness have been mind-blowing – literally.

Katie is so easy to listen to and quite an inspiration. I was that impressed I went again the following week! I am looking forward to continuing my journey into mindfulness with the help of Katie and her website ‘Soul Nutrition’.

After a hideous crash diet in my late teens and a 5st weight loss in just 6 months, a decade of disordered eating followed. Painful cycles of bingeing and deprivation and a complete disconnect from enjoying food plagued me on an almost hourly basis. Food was forever on my mind. I can’t remember the exact light bulb moment during Katie’s teaching but I was nodding uncontrollably throughout. I left, totally and utterly renewed.

I am now in my fourth year of being grateful for nearly every mouthful I’m eating, I have worn the same size dress and even made it through a pregnancy and post partum period (that had previously terrified me) without any negative thoughts creeping back. Katie truly is a wonder, she really did save me from myself.