Bangor University CMRP Team
Throughout the process of developing CMRPs training programmes since 2001 we have faced many interesting and challenging dilemmas and questions around the implementation of mindfulness-based interventions and my research reflects this journey. Rebecca led a paper outlining the current training models we use and the theoretical principles underpinning these. Following this Rebecca led a paper which looked at competency in related areas and considered how we could look at it from a mindfulness teaching perspective. This led into research with colleagues at Oxford and Exeter universities through which we developed a tool for assessing competence – the Mindfulness-Based Interventions: Teaching Assessment Criteria (MBI:TAC) - and then conducted research on its reliability and validity. Rebecca also wrote a very personal piece on the theme of competence and 'being good'! She has also investigated the process of inquiry using conversation analysis and discovered that facilitating inquiry is a bit like playing jazz! Rebecca has become increasingly interested in the process of implementing mindfulness-based programs. She conducted a preliminary survey based research project on implementation of mindfulness-based programmes, and have then been part of a wider collaboration called the ASPIRE project.
Read the protocol paper
Read Professor Rebecca Crane's Profile
Current projects include:
Aware for Change: Establishing the Roles of Cognitive and Emotional Capacities in Social Change – a KESS European funded Research Masters
- Predictors of Outcomes in MBSR Participants from Teacher Factors (PrOMPT-F). I am a consultant on a National Institutes for Health funded research collaboration led by Dr Jud Brewer at the Center for Mindfulness, University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Prof Rick Hecht at the University of California. This collaboration includes the development of a Special Collection on Intervention Fidelity in Mindfulness-Based Research and Practice published in Global Advances in Health and Medicine
- I am a collaborator on a project led by Dr Clara Strauss at Sussex University - Low-intensity guided help through mindfulness (LIGHTMind) funded by the National Institute for Health Research.
As a lot of Gemma's work at the CMRP involves teaching research, it is important for Gemma to keep her own line of research going and having time to work on research projects in amongst her teaching duties. Before working with the CMRP, Gemma conducted quite a lot of research on people with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disabilities , as well as parenting research. She now focuses much of her research effort towards how we might bring mindfulness to these populations. Gemma has recently become interested in group processes in MBPs, and have published “The Inside Out Group Model” with colleagues. Trish Bartley and Gemma are currently working on a book on groups in MBPs.
Gemma's publications
The Centre's Publications and MRP Masters Students Research
Research interest
If you are thinking of contacting us about a PhD project, please read this first. If we are not advertising a PhD opportunity (check our facebook page) it means that we are unlikely to have the capacity to supervise other PhD students. The PhDs we might possibly consider are those that are very closely aligned with our current research work.
Research queries can be directed to our admin team via- mindfulness@bangor.ac.uk, and please note that, while we welcome approaches about potential research collaborations, we are unable to offer a 'research advice' service about individual research projects.
Jamie Bristow is a policy expert linking inner and outer change, known for landmark reports such as Reconnection: Meeting the Climate Crisis Inside Out. He is currently Research Fellow at the Life Itself Institute and leads on public narrative and policy development for the Inner Development Goals. For eight years, from 2015 to 2023, Jamie played an instrumental role in the UK's All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mindfulness, acting as its clerk and serving as Director of the associated policy institute, The Mindfulness Initiative. During this time he worked with legislators around the world to make mindfulness and compassion training serious matters of public policy and catalysts for a healthier political process. He now retains a role with The Mindfulness Initiative as a policy advisor on sustainability and social change applications. Jamie's earlier roles included being the Business Development Director at Headspace, and his rich background encompasses psychology, climate change campaigning, and advertising.
CMRP Teachers/Trainers
Estrella is a Licensed Psychologist working at a mental health and cognitive rehab center in Barcelona. She has been leading the CMRP Teacher Training Pathway in MBCT in Spain since 2015 and is the founder of MBCT-Spain, whose mission is implementing the MBCT programme in the field of primary care mental health services, education and corporates.
She teaches MBCT courses for general public and for clients with recurrent depression, anxiety and/or long-term physical health conditions. She trains and supervises trainee Mindfulness-based teachers.