I have been meditating in the Buddhist tradition since 1990. I have trained to teach mindfulness with Mindfulness UK, which rests on the basis of my training as a Psychosynthesis counsellor, my understanding of Integral spirituality, and my many years practising, studying, and deepening my understanding of meditation and mindfulness.
I am one of the team of teachers who lead mindfulness meditation retreats in the beautiful and tranquil surroundings of the Sharpham Trust, near Totnes, Devon. Please click here for more details.
I also offer mindfulness courses online, and one-to-one coaching using mindfulness. See below.
The video below is a song I wrote some years ago, Be Still, about meditation.
8 week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course online with Steve Banks. Sign up to the newsletter or contact Steve for next dates.
The 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course is a wonderful gift to yourself, giving you an approach to living and a set of skills and practices that can transform your life. The course has been proven to reduce stress since it was first created in the 1970s. But it does far more than that. As we uncover and learn to transform the patterns of mind and heart that lead to stress, so we discover a way of living which is more true to who we really are, more true to the life we know is possible.
Just as a sailor cannot control the weather, so we are not in control of what life’s journey brings us: work problems, bereavement, people we find difficult, the ‘inner critic’… to name just a few. But a skilled sailor knows how to respond to changing weather conditions. With mindfulness we can respond skilfully — with agency and with kindness and compassion towards ourselves and others 
— to life’s changing ‘weather’.
Steve attended the wonderful Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) intensive retreat run by Chris Germer and Kristin Neff. Jo went on to train as a MSC teacher. Steve’s training with Mindfulness UK gave a central importance to compassion within Mindfulness. When we approach difficult experience or inner patterns with acceptance, kindness and compassion, it helps us to make peace with what is already here, and, paradoxically, it makes change more possible.
Steve offers a great wealth of expertise and experience, both in Mindfulness, and in personal development more widely.
Steve trained as a Mindfulness teacher with Mindfulness UK. He has been practising meditation since 1990 within the Buddhist tradition, and then adding the understandings from Ken Wilber’s powerful ‘Integral model’. Applying Mindfulness has helped him enormously in his many years as a professional musician, both with the nerves which are part and parcel of live performance, and also in writing music: meditation is a fantastic practice for tapping into the well-spring of creativity. Steve’s ground-breaking major new choral composition, Blue Pearl: A One World Oratorio is an expression of his personal psycho-spiritual journey and practice. Steve is a qualified Psychosynthesis counsellor and has engaged in many forms of menswork over three decades, including co-leading transformative Rites Of Passages retreats for men. He leads workshops on Ken Wilber’s ‘Integral’ model and has presented several times at the Integral European Conference, the foremost gathering of Integral thinkers and practitioners.
Steve also offers one-to-one coaching using Mindfulness and/or the Integral model.
Practicalities and booking
8-week course dates to follow.
The course will be online, on Zoom.
To register your interest, please contact Steve.
When you apply for the course, Steve will send you an assessment form to fill in, which will be followed by a phone conversation with Steve to discuss what in particular brings you to the course at this time, and to make sure that the course is suitable for you.