
Heather Mason
“Everything we need to know about life, can be discovered through watching the breath” – Heather Mason
Heather Mason is the founder of The Minded Institute (in 2009), a leading yoga therapy training organization known for its focus on mental health and empowering yoga and health professionals to integrate yoga therapy into healthcare. After years of deep depression, PTSD, and anxiety Heather opted for a non-traditional mode of healing and moved to South East Asia to begin intensive meditation practice in Buddhist monasteries, where she spent 3 years developing and transforming her mind. During this time, she also trained as a 500-hr yoga teacher with the Yoga Training Centre in Varanasi, and soon after she shared her yoga teaching with nuns in various Buddhist Monasteries in South East Asia.
By 2003 she had chosen to a ordain as a Buddhist nun, but first wanted more academic knowledge about Buddhist teachings and moved to the UK to undertake an MA in Buddhist Studies at SOAS University London. This decision led her back into the non-monastic world as Heather wanted to share the insights she gained in intensive meditation. Ultimately, she realized that her own struggles were imbued with meaning and purpose, if, she could help others, so she enrolled in MA in Buddhist-Based Psychotherapy in hopes of melding yoga with therapeutic support. Whilst studying Heather realized she was more interested in using mind-body therapies practices than in talking therapy and in 2007 she took a sabbatical from her MA to undertake a yoga therapy training course in India. During a lightbulb moment at the ashram, the pieces of her life fell into place and the vision for 8-week yoga therapy and mindfulness course for depression and anxiety emerged in her mind as though she had been crafting it for years. When she returned to the UK her new course was immediately popular and Heather also began working privately with those with depression and anxiety.
Thereafter Heather has:
When she isn’t working Heather is dancing, writing music, and playing with her magical little dog Minnie Monkey!
You find The minded institute on Instagram: Themindedinstitute and on Facebook: The Minded Institute
Education:
- MA psychotherapy
- MA Buddhist Studies
- MSc Medical Physiology
- 500-hr Registered yoga teacher
- Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT)