Vidyamala Burch

Prudence Margaret Burch (born 1959), known professionally as Vidyamala Burch, is a mindfulness teacher, writer, and co-founder of Breathworks, an international mindfulness organization known particularly for developing mindfulness-based pain management (MBPM). The British Pain Society has recognized her "outstanding contribution to the alleviation of pain", and in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 she was named on the Shaw Trust Power 100 list of the most influential disabled people in the UK. Burch's book Mindfulness for Health won the British Medical Association's 2014 Medical Books Award in the Popular Medicine category.

Early life Born Prudence Burch in Wellington, New Zealand in 1959, Burch enjoyed walking and mountaineering as a child and teenager, especially in New Zealand's Southern Alps. At the age of 16, she fractured a vertebra in her spine while lifting someone from a swimming pool, and due to a congenital spine condition suffered severe long-term consequences. After working for two years as a film and sound editor (including for Vincent Ward's film Vigil),

During her time in hospital, Burch had a number of experiences that profoundly shaped her future life. occurred after having a procedure after which she was required to sit upright for 24 hours to avoid complications, causing her almost unbearable pain. She writes: After leaving hospital, she spent several years experimenting in "do it yourself" meditation and yoga, and investigating Hindu philosophy. She eventually discovered Buddhism, and "started attending Buddhism and meditation classes in Auckland with the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO), now renamed the Triratna Buddhist Community." She quickly became a committed Buddhist, and in 1990, at the age of 30, she moved from New Zealand to the UK to live at Taraloka, a rural residential Buddhist retreat center for women. She has described her time at Taraloka as "very intense, but I knew I needed this kind of strong medicine if I was to transform my mind in any lasting and meaningful way." For around five years, until she had a further surgery in 2002, she was largely housebound, and was forced to spend many months lying flat on her back.

This acceptance helped Burch to experience what she describes as "healing towards the human condition", with her experience in its wholeness, including her pain and her joys, becoming a point of connection with others, and an opportunity for kindness and empathy.

Breathworks

During the period she was largely housebound, Burch decided to begin teaching others mindful approaches to living with pain and illness, and in 2001 she received a grant from the UK's Millennium Commission to engage in training and begin a pilot class. Burch attended a five-day training event in mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) with Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Bangor, The majority of Breathworks trainers and teachers now come from a very wide range of professions and backgrounds and Breathworks is clear that, while drawing on contemplative training derived from Buddhism, it offers a secular mindfulness pathway appropriate to a wide range of applications.

After its foundation in 2004 Breathworks grew rapidly, playing a significant part in the development of the UK mindfulness teaching community, and establishing a range of programs and an international presence. Burch's 2002 surgery, along with the new meditation and lifestyle habits she adopted during her time of confinement, improved her health significantly, allowing her to take an active role in steering Breathworks forward, to write, and to travel nationally and internationally to teach. By 2019 there were almost 500 accredited Breathworks teachers working in 35 countries, Burch is particularly committed to making Breathworks courses available to all regardless of financial hardship, and to this end formed the Breathworks Foundation in 2009.

Burch has formalized the Breathworks approach to mindfulness for those with pain and illness, as taught in the Mindfulness for Health course, under the name mindfulness-based pain management (MBPM). Adapting the core concepts and practices of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), MBPM integrates a pacing program into the course, and includes a distinctive emphasis on the concepts of "primary" and "secondary" suffering, and on the practice of "loving-kindness". Burch has published on MBPM in academic forums,

Other activities

Other than for her work with Breathworks, Burch is probably best known for her writings, and in particular for the three books she has published. Burch's first book - Living Well with Pain and Illness: the Mindful Way to Free Yourself from Suffering - was published in 2008, and presented the Breathworks program in a way that aimed to be accessible but was also theoretically subtle, laying out the philosophical underpinnings of the program and the ways that it related to Buddhism. The book also narrated Burch's own story and the stories of others who had benefited from the Breathworks program. Written with the journalist Danny Penman, it presented the Breathworks program in a clear, easy-to-follow way.

Burch has also taken an active role in promoting mindfulness and meditation both within the UK and internationally. She participated in the UK Parliament's All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mindfulness, which produced the 2015 "Mindful Nation UK" report recommending increased provision of mindfulness-based treatments for physical and mental health conditions. In 2018 Burch was awarded honorary membership of the British Pain Society in recognition of her "outstanding contribution to the alleviation of pain through personal endeavour and for her work for the Society", and in 2019 she was a keynote speaker at the Mindfulness in Schools ‘A Million Minds Matter’ conference. In addition to her work promoting the secular uses of mindfulness, Burch also teaches mindfulness in a Buddhist context, including through leading Buddhist retreats and giving talks both in the UK and internationally.