Martina has worked in the area of health and education for over thirty years. She has been working in N.U.I.G.for the past 9 years. She works with students individually and teaches a six week module in mindfulness. This semester she is also teaching an eight week course @N.U.I.G. for adults. She is currently studying for an MSc in Mindfulness with the University of Aberdeen.
She has taken mindfulness training with Prof. Mark Williams at the Oxford cognitive therapy centre, is a member of the mindfulness association in Scotland and in her MSc studies continues to explore different ways of teaching mindfulness in a wide variety of settings.
She works in general private practice and also with children, staff and parents in various communities and school settings. She has extensive training and experience in the past working specifically with cancer patients, substance misuse clients as well as with young people presenting often with anxiety and depression.
She is a qualified nurse, midwife, mindfulness facilitator and teacher of many complementary therapies and healing arts. Through all of this training she has developed her own unique way of working with individuals which integrates bodywork and compassion based mindfulness. For many years she lived and worked in Canada. She qualified as a therapist in Santa Fe, New Mexico and since then has spent time in Texas, Pennsylvania, Colorado as well Vancouver and the U.K. training and developing her work. In Ireland Martina set up and ran a school of healing for over a decade where she taught accredited courses in massage therapy and related healing modalities with an emphasis on self-awareness and personal development and she has through mindfulness, continued to expand her knowledge in this area.
As well as practicing mindful living Martina is interested in art and the exploration of creative expression, having studied spontaneous painting and meditation in the form of an art synthesis/therapeutic art programme and often incorporates aspects of this into her work.
Martina has a personal interest in working with those who present with stress, anxiety, panic-attacks, depression, and also in working with teens and young adults who have difficult life experiences and who are experiencing difficulties in school and college. Anyone who is overworked, who finds it difficult to take time out for themselves, who is ill, suffering from chronic pain, or caring for someone else who is challenged, will benefit.
