
Stephen Archer
I am the Managing Director of Mindfulness Works for Organisations and a qualified mindfulness educator based in Auckland, New Zealand. I’m passionate about helping people to learn mindfulness in the digital age and discover its benefits.
I’ve been involved with mindfulness for 40 years and began practicing while finishing a degree in Eastern studies in the UK. At the age of 23 I was formally trained in mindfulness as an ordained Buddhist monk in the Thai forest tradition. My training included working closely with different teachers and completing lengthy retreats to strengthen his practice. Thirteen years later I emerged from the monkhood with the intention to offer my skills and learnings to the public.
During the last 25 years I have expanded my knowledge base by studying the psychology and neuroscience of mindfulness. I’ve run workplace mindfulness trainings for organisations including, Kiwibank, Air New Zealand and NZ Police, delivered courses in healthcare and prisons, and assisted the Mental Health Foundation of NZ to develop their approach to mindfulness. I’ve worked at the Leadership Development Centre in Wellington running year-long mindful leadership programmes, and am also a trustee of Te Moata, a retreat centre and nature sanctuary in the Coromandel, where I have led over forty public 7-day residential mindfulness intensives since 1996.