SOPHIE MACLAREN
Sophie Maclaren
Human Flourishing approaches based on the rigours of science, the intelligence of nature, and
human wisdom traditions
I wear multiple hats in the human flourishing space as an executive coach, facilitator, speaker, author, retreat lead, university fellow, experience designer, and entrepreneur.
Since 2012 I have been based at the University of Oxford, Said Business School, and the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. At Oxford I design and deliver customised human flourishing programmes for students in departments across the university, and for senior leaders through our Executive Education programmes.
I co-founded and directed the UK branch of Europe's leading Mindfulness in Business consultancy, leading a team of trainers, coaches, and programme managers, and together delivering hundreds of workshops for companies and governments in the UK and globally.
I am now a parter with Transcend Space, as well as directing Human Flourishing Leadership and Human Flourishing Retreats and Pilgrimages. My specialism is in creating exceptional bespoke programmes for high performance people which are measurably impactful and positively transformative. I am interested not only in my client's peak performance in their careers and creating human flourishing organisations, but also in their eudaemonia- life well lived.
I have been fortunate to coach and facilitate for some of our most brilliant minds and successful leaders, and in the process learn a great deal from them which continuously informs the development of my work and approaches.
As well as scientific disciplines, my work draws on a lifetime of meditation and Buddhist practice, having spent my childhood, like others in my generation of westerners with Buddhist parents , at the feet of the last generation of great lamas born and trained in Tibet.
With encouragement from my teachers, and some reluctance on my side as a very shy youth, I spent my twenties travelling and training with lamas to deepen my own practice, and teaching simultaneously throughout Europe and the Americas. I trained particularly in traditions which focus on enlightened leadership philosophy and practices, and how to navigate these particular times with courage, wisdom and compassion.
The programmes I lead now are primarily in secular, public and private sector spaces, and based on neuroscience, but when introducing meditation and mindfulness practices, I am careful to maintain the integrity and depth of the original teachings, both out of deference to these ancient lineages with great integrity, and for the benefit of participants not receiving watered-down approaches which have only short-term surface level effects, but rather the full potential for human flourishing present within these traditions, to the best of my ability.
Certificates & Qualifications
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Early Modern History (University of Oxford)
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History (King's College London)
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Meditation Instructor (Shambhala, 2004)
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Buddhist Teacher Training (Shambhala 2007)
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Shambhala Sacred Path of the Warrior Teacher Training (Shambhala, 2009)
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Advanced Buddhist Teacher Training (Shambhala, 2011)
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MBCT (Oxford Mindfulness Centre, 2017)
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Leadership Circle Profiling (exp 2026)