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Case Studies

Christopher King

After gaining his Cert Ed and deciding that he had little if anything to offer school children, Chris settled quite happily into working at the local garage as a petrol pump attendant.  His dad, however, had other plans and he soon found himself in the busy world of Industry, oiling moving bits of machinery, lifting great weights, and attempting to sell things.  Chris escaped after 13 years when he noticed in the library a course at the local polytechnic on Behavioural Ecology and somehow this advert led him to researching endemic fruit pigeons in the seasonal tropical forests of Sumba, Indonesia. 

A PhD beckoned but Chris was running out of cash.  Teaching seemed a good card to play, so he tried some supply work.  Chris remembers the state of ‘shaking’ shock at the end of his first day of teaching secondary geography, and then a month or so later trying to persuade his class of ‘enterprising’ children to come off the roof when they discovered the fire escape. The lows and highs, respectively, of his early teaching experience!

The curious thing was that Chris discovered he really enjoyed being with the kids and teaching them.  Since then, Chris has been a class teacher to children from year 1 to year 6, taught GCSE and A level, and worked as a tutor with the Open University.

Chris left full time teaching in 2010 feeling exhausted and empty. His interest in behaviour, however, began to turn in the direction of supporting others as well as himself.  Chris learned various complementary therapies which he was able to offer to patients at the Butterwick Hospice and The Trinity Holistic Centre at James Cook University Hospital. An opportunity to work at Alliance Psychological Services in Stockton arose in 2016 and since then Chris has been working as a mindfulness practitioner and supporting the teaching and delivery of mental wellbeing to various organisations including the police, councils, schools, and the NHS etc.  Chris has also contributed material to the online WellBeings programme that offers daily support to pupils, parents, and teachers. 

He still sees himself as a teacher, but he now has the wonderful opportunity to teach through the powerful medium of nature-based stories and mindfulness practices.