Mark Leonard

Social Wellbeing Practitioner

Mark is the UK’s leading practitioner of ‘social’ mindfulness, which combines mindfulness and group process to build a culture of wellbeing, resilience and sustainable performance in organisations. This approach builds on pioneering work, adapting therapeutic mindfulness developed in the early days of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre (OMC). Mark taught the first mindfulness courses to Oxford students using the best-selling book, Mindfulness: A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world by Professor Mark Williams (founding Director of the OMC) and Dr Danny Penman, before providing training for 300 staff from CVS, the largest corporate provider of veterinary services, across the UK.

This work changed attitudes to stress and wellbeing across the profession, and with this experience under his belt, he designed the first social mindfulness programme, Mindfulness-Based Organisational Education, for NHS hospital staff. This new short programme was proven to reduce stress and improve psychological factors that build motivation and improve organisational performance.