Fiona Mckechnie
Working with people who have fatiguing conditions and placing their experience at the centre of all projects and developments is key to my approach during my 25 years working in this field. I have a long standing meditation practice and over the past decade or so, I’ve developed a mindfulness-based programme within an NHS clinic, collaborating with people who come to the clinic.
Qualifications
Fiona has a BA in African studies and History and a post graduate diploma in Occupational Therapy, qualifying in 1997. She completed a 4 year mindfulness teacher training diploma and a MSc with the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at Bangor University in 2016 and can teach both MBCT and MBSR which are the basis of the mindfulness for fatigue programme. She has also trained as an ILM-L5 coach, EMDR therapist, massage therapist and yoga teacher.
BAMBA the British Association of Mindfulness Based approaches the primary professional body of mindfulness practitioners, teachers, and teacher training organisations in the UK.
Fiona is registered with BAMBA a list of teachers meeting the Good Practice Guidelines (GPG’s), that describe the minimum standards of training, experience and ongoing professional practice needed to teach safely and effectively the most used 8-week mindfulness programmes.
Experience
Fiona has worked in NHS ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome NHS and charity services in London and Bristol for over 25 years. She has also worked within neurology, mental health and community services. Work with Action for ME included an employment project embedded in a NHS clinic.
She has taught mindfulness within primary mental health services and mindfulness for cancer with the National Centre for integrative medicine and the Penny Brohn centre.
She has been involved in therapist training including running workshops on mindfulness, activity management and employment at the British association of clinicians in ME (BACME) and the Pain Society conferences. She was co-author/editor of the BACME therapist guide and has recently become a trustee. She supervises OTs and mindfulness teachers in pain, fatigue and palliative care.
Publications
“Mindfulness based therapy for fatigue: supporting people with ME; CFS fibromyalgia and long Covid” '(2023) written by Fiona with chapters written and co-authored with participants who have been instrumental in the developing programme.
Fiona wrote the chapter on fatigue and sleep in ''An Occupational Therapist's Guide to Sleep and Sleep Problems'' by Green and Brown (2015)