About Jonathan

My teaching is grounded in long-term personal practice within two disciplined traditions: Shaolin-rooted Qigong and Zen meditation. These practices have accompanied me for nearly three decades and continue to shape both my teaching and daily life.

What I offer is not a quick solution, but a steady approach to cultivating clarity, resilience, and embodied awareness over time.

I first became interested in the mind, body and energy arts in the mid - 1980s. Alongside my work as an employment lawyer, these practices became an essential way of maintaining steadiness and clarity while supporting individuals through complex and often stressful situations.

My early meditation practice was shaped by the Vietnamese Zen teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, whose emphasis on engaged awareness in everyday life had a lasting influence on my understanding of practice. While my current teaching is rooted in the Rinzai Zen tradition, that early grounding continues to inform the way I approach meditation as something lived, not merely discussed.

In Qigong, I trained within the Shaolin Cosmos tradition under the guidance of Tim Franklin, following earlier exposure through UK summer training camps led by Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit. I have practised Shaolin-based Qigong for nearly 30 years and have been given permission to pass on selected practices from this lineage.

I am a Certified Teacher of Qigong with The Qigong Academy and a Certified Level 1 Tai Chi Qigong Instructor with the Tai Chi, Qigong & Feng Shui Institute.

In Zen meditation, I am a student of Julian Daizan Skinner within the Rinzai tradition and have completed teacher training through Zenways in Practical Zen Meditation and associated practices. I continue to study and practise under guidance.

My teaching reflects these combined influences: structured yet accessible, disciplined yet personal and practical. I aim to offer practices that can be sustained realistically within the circumstances of ordinary life.

If you would like to know more about my background or discuss whether my approach might suit you, you are welcome to get in touch.