“In 30 minutes, Ollie helped me gain more insight into my meditation practice than I would’ve achieved in months on my own. His caring, inquisitive, open-ended questions have already led to fundamental shifts in my approach to meditation and my understanding of my own emotional landscape. I can’t recommend him highly enough.“
– Jeremy, 35, United States
I’m afraid I’m not taking on new students right now, but if we’ve already been in touch feel free to reach out to schedule a call. If you’d like to join a waiting list you can fill in this form.
Coaching to Unify the Mind
My Approach
I am drawn to and love to teach an open-hearted, kind-hearted, whole-hearted form of meditation practice. In my experience this is the most effective way to approach unification of mind.
I want to help you reach your potential in a way that’s sustainable, enjoyable, kind, effective, and integrates with your whole life, even outside your meditation practice.
My approach is primarily a combination of two systems:
- The Mind Illuminated
The Mind Illuminated is simply the best system for cultivating concentration; I’ve written about it more here.
It is clear, precise, and with well-defined goals, which makes it ideal for effective coaching sessions. It allows you to quickly gain skill in unifying the mind. This – aside from being extremely pleasant and beneficial itself – will make progress faster, easier, and more fun for any other contemplative practice you’re interested in.
I especially love to teach loving-kindness meditation, as a path to samadhi (concentration) and jhana (fun concentration states).
- Internal Family Systems
Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a therapeutic method that allows you to understand and heal internal conflicts by dialoguing with the “parts” of your mind. I’ve written an introduction to it here.
IFS is an astonishingly effective and compassionate way to understand and heal many obstacles that arise in meditation. It can transform your experience of meditation from one of confusion, frustration, internal conflict, and feelings of inadequacy, to self-love, peace, and clarity.
It is also an amazingly effective form of therapy that can unravel the emotional knots, inner conflicts, tensions, and self-limiting beliefs which often surface in meditation, but which impact every area of your life.
I’m afraid I’m not taking on new students right now, but if we’ve already been in touch feel free to reach out to schedule a call. If you’d like to join a waiting list you can fill in this form.
Or contact me directly at dharmarational@gmail.com
You can also try my meditations on Insight Timer
Donations
I teach on a donation basis. Suggested donation rates are below, but if you are able to donate only a very small amount (or nothing at all) that’s no problem.
Supporter’s rate: £50/hour ($55/hour)
Standard rate: £40/hour ($45/hour)
Concession rate: £30/hour ($35/hour)
Wise is easiest and seems to work best, especially for people outside the UK, as international bank transfers are a pain. Sign up here and use this link for donations.
If you can’t use Wise I can give you my bank details.
If that doesn’t work, my PayPal link is here (Paypal takes a chunk of each donation so this is less preferable).
Thank you!
What previous students have said
“I sought out Ollie because I had been meditating from the TMI book for 5 years or so. I was stuck at stage 4. Ollie helped me break through my obstacles in meditation and, via IFS, healed my shame, guilt and fear. I went from debilitated and struggling in all aspects of my life to now being a great husband, father (per my wife) and wildly successful both my work and business. He is the single most important coach in my life and the one of the most loving, genuine, and beautiful people I’ve ever had the fortune of coming across. He is a master of meditation and IFS, and is a treasure in this world. If he had a Yelp, I’d give him infinite stars. Thank you Ollie for giving me back my life.”
-Jo
“We did a self-organised meditation retreat with 3 people, with the aim to make progress in our Samatha meditation practice. The daily calls with Ollie were a highlight of the retreat; we all felt that we learned much more and made much faster progress due to his guidance. I can highly recommend Ollie as a meditation coach and retreat facilitator. He is highly knowledgeable, explains well, and is incredibly friendly.”
– Jan
“Via Ollie’s expertise and remarkably detailed questions my practice and motivation around meditation and secular spirituality accelerated. Diligent and deliberate practice + Ollie’s tutoring will lead to significant progress in the tradition of The Mind Illuminated! I experienced an effect after session 1.”
– Sebastian
“Ollie is a very resourceful and kind teacher – for any question or story, he usually has a solid technique or two to suggest, and/or a bunch of insightful questions to ask back, all with genuine warmth.”
– Friederike
“Ollie is honestly a fantastic person and teacher. He has a warm, empathetic style, coupled with a much-needed dose of humour and light-heartedness. I can personally say that he has provided some invaluable guidance and support through some very difficult times, and has always shown up with curiosity and willingness to engage. Cannot recommend highly enough!“
– Alan
“Ollie is a beautiful human. He is sensitive, caring and intelligent. He has supported me immensely, and time and time again when we meet, I’m grateful for his beautiful open and accepting presence. If you wish to work with Ollie, you have my word of his genuineness.”
– Dan
“Ollie is amazingly insightful, and answers every question with real in-depth understanding. His manner is humorous and open. He can gently guide understanding when I get the wrong end of the stick or need clarification, and his warm, gentle presence is a real testament to the values and methods he teaches. Anyone would be lucky to have him as their teacher.”
“Ollie is a phenomenal teacher with a beautiful manner – he radiates enthusiasm, kindness and patience! I especially feel that the way he responds to questions or difficulties is hugely helpful and filled with compassion! He explains things in a way that is simple yet engaging.”
Some Nice Things People Have Said About Me on Reddit:
About Ollie
I have a decade and a half of meditation experience and have spent over a year on meditation retreats. I was lucky enough to discover meditation when I was 14 years old, and I quickly fell in love with it, in particular when I was 17 and had my mind blown on my first retreat.
I have been certified to teach The Mind Illuminated style Samatha-Vipassana by Culadasa (John Yates Ph.D), with whom I trained from January 2018 to just before his death in September 2021. The book The Mind Illuminated precipitated an immediate and profound effect on my own meditation practice, and the clarity and precision of the approach make it the most powerful tool I know of for deepening one’s practice.
I am a Level 1 Internal Family Systems Therapy Practitioner and will complete my Level 2 training in mid 2025. Get in touch for IFS Therapy here.
I am also ‘IFS-Informed’, having completed the Internal Family Systems Online Circle 6-month Foundations of the IFS model training.
I completed the Zenways Mindfulness and Meditation Teacher Training Course with Barbara Jikai Gabrys Rōshi in 2015.
I am an accredited Mindfulness-Based Pain Management Teacher. I trained with Breathworks, one of the founding members of BAMBA (The British Association of Mindfulness-Based Approaches), and I follow the BAMBA good practice guidelines for mindfulness teachers.
I have completed Shinzen Young’s Unified Mindfulness Foundations Teacher Training Course.
