International Partners

Brazil Collaborations

Academic Partner: Katya Stubing

Katya’s academic work has been developing and evaluating a mindfulness intervention for severe psychiatric inpatients diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa at the Hospital of the University of São Paulo. This ground breaking work is done in an area of mental health fraught with difficulty for both clients and staff.  Her work was presented at the Mindfulness in Society conference in Chester, UK in 2013 and 2015, where she discussed her approach, and it’s overlap with the Interacting Cognitively Sub-systems model with Professor Mark Williams.

Katya co-ordinates the Institute of Psychiatry (IPQ) mindfulness teacher training course, run at Hospital das Clinicas, University of Sao Paulo. A variety of professionals teach on this extremely thorough teacher training program (including Dr. Tamara Russell teaching the module on mindful movement).

Katya has developed and evaluated an 8-week mindfulness training protocol called T8SM which draws on insights from the attention training methods of Shamatha. The data from these evaluations will be reported in her forthcoming PhD thesis.

Katya is a group Affiliate Member of the Programa de Saúde, Espiritualidade e Religiosidade  (ProSER) at the Institute of Psychiatry (IPQ), University of São Paulo. This project has been developing a semi-structured questionnaire to explore spirituality in mental health, working with in-patients and staff at the IPq and asking questions where clinicians often fear to tread with some amazing results.

Next Generation Mindfulness Teacher Training (BMT-Brazil)

Academic, Development & Delivery Partner: Tiago Tatton-Ramos, PhD
Tiago is one of the most experienced secular Mindfulness instructors in Brazil and the co-founder of Iniciativa Mindfulness, a pioneering mindfulness institute in Brazil with world-wide connections. He is a practicing psychologist, also holding a masters degree in Religious Studies, a PhD in Psychology and a post-doctoral internship in the department of medicine (UFRGS-Brazil).

Tiago has been responsible for the evolution of BMT in Brazil, with live action research conducted in the rigorous academic setting of the Psychiatry Department at the University of Rio Grande do Sol, Porte Alegre, as well as in the community settings. His academic work has made a significant contribution to the understanding of cross-cultural, contextualized mindfulness and how to increase accessibility to mindfulness for wider audiences. This includes innovative methods in the design and delivery of mindfulness teacher training. He brings a wise lens to questions of mindfulness that cross into the spiritual and religious aspects of the bio-psycho-social-spiritual model of health and well-being.

In 2014 he lived in Oxford-UK studying programs at the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, and working with Dr. Russell’s mentorship in the Body In Mind Training method.

Tiago has completed the Advanced Mindfulness Teacher Training (UCSD-US) and studied with a wide variety of mindfulness and compassion practices in the US, UK and Latin America with well-regarded teachers including Mark Williams, Michael Chaskalson, Vidyamala Burch, Susan Woods, B. Alan Wallace, and Maria Noel Anchorena. His personal journey includes commitment to and engagement with the Ananda Marga (Hindu) tradition.

Tiago is the leading trainer for the Neurocognitive Foundations of Mindfulness Training (International Teacher Training) in Brazil and a long-standing collaborator of the Mindfulness Centre of Excellence. Check out his amazing YouTube channel (in Portuguese). He also offers highly interactive and entertaining mindfulness talks and experiences for the corporate sector.

Development & Delivery Partner: Matheus Rhomero, BA Phys Ed., Body Therapist

Matheus has a strong background as a physical educator and professional actor (The Commedia School in Denmark) which he uses to skillfully weave body awareness and acting techniques (including physical theater, improvisation, Clown, Feldenkrais, mimicry) into his deeply embodied mindfulness training. He is a Mindfulness instructor from the Mindfulness Center of Excellence and IPQ-USP-Brazil and contributes to the Deep Embodiment elements of the Neurocognitive Foundations of Mindfulness Teachers. He is part of the Iniciativa Mindfulness Network.

Matheus is a long-standing member of the art department of Instituto Visão Futuro-SP and of the theater companies VerDeImproviso and Pia Fraus. He is the founder of Casa do Horto/SP – a key partner in the delivery of innovate mindfulness experiences involving theater and nature. Check out their YouTube Channel (Portuguese).

He is also a facilitator of BioFlow (training at the School for Body Mind Centering in Brazil).

While living in the UK he developed and facilitated embodied and enacted mindfulness learning experiences with The Mindfulness Centre of Excellence.

Matheus is an experienced meditator for over 20 years in the Yogananda Tradition (Kriya Yoga). Alongside his years of training, he has traveled and lived around the world, from Denmark and UK to India, exploring the quintessential world of meditation.  

Development & Delivery Partner: Clarissa Alminhana BIOL, M.Ed.

Clarissa has a life dedicated to the research and practice of self-awareness and human development. She is a biologist, master in Education and Mindfulness instructor from the Mindfulness Center of Excellence and IPQ-USP-Brazil. Her training in the field of Deep Ecology at Schumacher College / UK helps people to go deep into themselves in communion with others and, on a deeper level, with LIFE itself through sustaining mindfulness. She is one to the founders of Casa do Horto and a member of the Iniciativa Mindfulness. She is part of the teaching staff of International Training for Mindfulness Instructors in the Neurocognitive Model where she contributes to the Eco Embodiment element of the program. She runs BMT (Body In Mind Training) programs in the community and for companies in Brazil.

While living in the UK Clarissa shared her embodied personal practice of dance to help design and deliver enacted learning workshops to help people learn more deeply and richly about mindfulness and the neurocognitive model.

She is mother to Helena Flor and tries to live this practice of presence into every day.

Delivery Partner: Daniela Araújo, PhD.

Daniela brings a wealth of special skills to the team, drawing on her training in Anthropology and narrative therapy as well as a variety of her clinical and personal practices. She is the co-director of the Brazilian Center for Mindful Eating, and is an Eat for Life and MB-EAT mindful eating teacher and supervisor, and and ME-CL 1 mindful eating teacher.

Daniela is mindfulness teacher and supervisor in Neurocognitive Foundations for Mindfulness Teachers from the Mindfulness Centre of Excellence/Iniciativa Mindfulness/Casa do Horto.  She holds a PhD in Social Sciences and MA in social Anthropology, specialising in eating disorders. Her special interest is using narrative practices to support those with eating difficulties as well as their individuals, families, groups and institutions since 2010. She has held a position as a lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Auckland (Aotearoa New Zealand).

She is a member of the team that founded and implemented the GETA – Interdisciplinary Group for Assistance and Research on Eating Disorders at the State University of Campinas and a member of Endangered Bodies International and Endangered Bodies São Paulo.

Daniela co-designed and delivered the “Tools to Transform Health Eating” retreat with Dr. Tamara Russell, offered in Brazil in 2019. This is an applied mindfulness training to support healthy eating with mindful movement, compassion and creative practices. She has also been invaluable in this cross-cultural work with her exceptional translation skills (combined with deep personal practice) making it possible to share the learning across cultures.

Next Generation Psychiatry and Mental Health Initiative

Dr. Vitor Pordeus

Vitor is an actor and trans-cultural psychiatrist. He is the Co-Founder and Research Director of the  People’s University for Art and Science since 2010 and Co-founder and co-actor at the Madness Hotel and Spa, Nise da Silveira Mental Health Institute, Rio de Janeiro Brazil. You can find a variety of his projects showcased here, including the moment he made contact with The Mindfulness Centre of Excellence at an event with The Dragon Cafe. What looked like a high octane street performance was in fact a deeply theoretical piece of community healing based (in part) on the work of Chilean biologist Humberto Maturana.

You can see Vitor using documentary film making to showcase this innovative work in psychiatry and healing for those with severe and enduring mental health conditions (Clients and Friends). 

Check out his YouTube Channel (a mixture of Portuguese and English and perhaps some French too – from his time doing a PhD in Montreal). I highly recommend you listen to his talk “Madness yet there is method in it” from his time at McGill University.

This paper outlines his highly theoretically informed, yet innovative and creative approach to Restoring the Art of Healing.

Mindfulness for Our Next Generation: Dragons Brazil Team

Raquel Franck Barboza Lhullier 

Raquel is a cognitive Behavioral Psychologist for children and families. She is the Mindfulness Centre Lead on Child and Family Systems Mindfulness. Together with Centre Co-Director Tony Langford she co-ordinates the What Colour is your Dragon? initiative to improve emotionally intelligent communication in families.

Raquel is a graduate of the Catholic University of Pelotas (UCPel) in the South of Brazil. In Brazil she runs a private clinical practice and also supports a multidisciplinary clinic consulting with physicians, educators, paediatricians to promote psychological wellness within the whole system. She regularly teaches other professionals and shares her work internationally at conferences and workshops.

Raquel is a Member of Iniciativa Mindfulness.  She is certified by Mindful Schools and trained in the Neurocognitive Foundations of Mindfulness (International Teacher Training) offered by the Mindfulness Center of Excellence and Iniciativa Mindfulness. She is the author and co-author of several books for children, families and educators. She is the co-author of”What Colour is your Dragon?” book – in Portuguese and English.  Keeping it global!