Steve Hartley : About Me
I didn’t set out to become a mindfulness and meditation guide. In many ways, it feels more like the path found me.
Over the years, I’ve worn many hats — counsellor, coach, therapist, crisis service founder, development consultant, workshop facilitator, learning provider and more — but the common thread has always been people, and the spaces we create together for real conversation and change.
Nature has been my anchor for as long as I can remember. I’ve walked the Camino de Santiago three times, each journey a reminder that the smallest step, taken with intention, can change the direction of a life. I know the value of pausing to notice the crunch of gravel underfoot, the way light shifts through leaves, the breath you didn’t realise you’d been holding.
Before Between Breaths, my work took me deep into the worlds of personal growth, mental health, and the subtle art of presence. I’ve sat with people in moments of crisis, courage and vulnerability, helping them find steadiness in the middle of uncertainty.
Along the way, I’ve trained in many approaches including counselling, coaching, NLP, hypnosis, and recovery focussed practice — practical, transformative tools that can shift the way we experience the world. These threads — woven with lived experience and my own neurodivergent perspective — form the fabric of the spaces I hold: spaces for awareness, conversation, and change.
Like many people, my real education has come from life itself: the quiet realisations, the false starts and setbacks, the getting back up again when life knocks us down, and the moments of clarity that arrive when you least expect them. I’ve learned that mindfulness isn’t about striving for perfection — it’s about leaning into the perfectly imperfect, and meeting each moment as it is.
