16 Guidelines for Life
Tools and Training for a Happy and Meaningful Life
Our Trainers
Rasmus Hougaard, director of The Potential Project, is a trainer and facilitator of Work Life Happiness. He is training organisations and individuals in being more happy, kind and wise. He has been a researcher in the field of adult and organisational learning at the Learning Lab Denmark and The Danish University of Education. He is, amongst other things, working as a project manager for the Sony Corporation.
Rasmus developed the 16-week study program and the 2-day introductory course. He has been facilitating and training the 16 Guidelines in corporations, schools, community centres and conferences all over Europe and is chairing the international 16 Guidelines advisory group.
For many years, Rasmus has been a teacher of mindfulness meditation. He is chairman of the Centre for Wisdom and Compassion in
Alison Murdoch has been working as a leader, manager and facilitator in the non-profit sector for over 17 years.. She worked originally for homelessness charities such as Crisis, Centrepoint and National Homeless Alliance, and then as Director of Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London, UK.
In January 2005 she established the Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom, an international education non-profit that helps people develop their capacity to be kind and wise, and for which she was given a Millennium Award by the charity UnLtd. Alison is the author of 16 Guidelines for a Happy Life, initially launched at the 1st International Conference on Happiness & its Causes in Sydney, Australia. She is a regular contributor to BBC Radio and a Board member of the international Buddhist organisation FPMT Inc.
Dekyi-Lee Oldershaw is co-author of 16 Guidelines for a Happy Life – Up Close, and a board member of the Foundation for the Developing Compassion and Wisdom. She is a main trainer of the 16 Guidelines 4-day Intensive Course and has developed 1- and 2-day retreats as well as mentored those who are prototyping the 16 Guidelines for teens and youth in drug rehabilitation.
Dekyi-Lee has been presenting experiential programs that explore the power of the mind for 20 years. Her simple Transformative Mindfulness methods help to identify and change the underlying causes of challenging situations and illness. She has trained and certified facilitators worldwide who are using her methods in private practice, social services, health, education and the arts.
Dekyi-Lee is the director of Lamp On The Path, a transformative self-healing website and community that offers free healing exercises as well as training and support. Her Transformative Mindfulness courses and facilitation training are showcase programs of Essential Education in the health and wellness areas.
Denise Flora and her youngest son, Caeman Toombs, thoroughly enjoyed creating Ready Set Happy (RSH), a collection of over 150 activities for children based on the 16 Guidelines. They were delighted to present RSH to delegates from a dozen countries at the Essential Education summer training in Italy in 2008. Now Denise is happy to be supporting trials and adaptations of the material in several languages in public and private schools, homes, and spiritual centers in North America, South America, Europe, Australia and Asia!
Fiona O'Shaughnessy first became involved with the 16 Guidelines in their initial phase. This involved facilitating groups for cultural input to the guidelines, editing and piloting the material. As a participant at the inaugural conference in London in 2005, she facilitated an Essential Education for Adults special interest group. She worked on drafts of Up Close, and she does presentations at conferences and workshops, such as "Happiness and Its Causes - Asia" in Nov 2008. She is also a member of the 16 Guidelines Advisory Group.
A resident of Singapore since 2001, Fiona facilitates 16 Guidelines workshops for charities, the Singapore Prison Service and the corporate sector. She is a certified emotional intelligence trainer and facilitator and she offers skills coaching in her role as principal consultant at Emerge - www.emergeassociates.com.
Valentina Dolara is a lawyer specialised in international protection of human rights and preventive measures to maintain peace. She has dedicated the last 15 years to teaching and training in conflict management, nonviolence and intercultural communication, democratic legality, anti-mafia, active citizenship and gender issues for various non-profit organizations and American university programs in Florence.
Valentina has worked for the Tibet Bureau in Geneva. On several occasions she co-ordinated the organisation, acted as media liason and worked towards the realisation of various public events with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Italy and in other countries.
Valentina is deeply committed to issues of interfaith dialogue and peace among cultures. She is a member of various Italian inter-religious bodies and spiritual organizations. Valentina is the President of the Tibetan Buddhist FPMT in Italy.
Wendy Ridley enjoyed working full time in the formal education sector in the UK for 22 years, as a teacher, university lecturer and Local Authority Advisory Teacher. She co-authored the book 'Another Spanner in the Works' and is now a freelance educational consultant who particularly values Philosophy for Children as an enquiry based methodology.
Since 2004 Wendy has supported the development of the Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom and helped organise the inaugural conference in London. She was the editor of the English version of Ready Set Happy. Wendy is a board memberof FDCW, a trained yoga teacher; a full time carer; the director of Jamyang Buddhist Centre in Leeds and a board member of the Development Education Centre in Cumbria.
