Jennifer Innes is the founder of Ottawa Meditation & Wellness, where she teaches evidence-based mindfulness, self-compassion, habit change, and mindful yoga through programs, retreats, and workshops for individuals, organizations, and the public. Her teaching brings together scientific research and contemplative wisdom, giving participants practical tools to navigate stress, difficult emotions, and life’s transitions.
Her formal credentials are extensive. She holds a Master of Science from the London School of Economics and two undergraduate degrees, and has trained at the University of Massachusetts and UC San Diego Medical Schools. She is certified by Brown University in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and has completed teacher training in Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC), Mindful Eating, mPEAK, and Mindfulness-Based Behaviour Change with Judson Brewer. She is also a certified Sivananda yoga teacher.
Beyond her formal credentials, Jennifer has spent years deepening her own practice within the Theravada Buddhist tradition, sitting in silent retreat and studying with respected teachers, including Joseph Goldstein and Tara Brach. She has completed three early Buddhist studies programs at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies with Bhikkhu Anālayo. This ongoing study, alongside her professional training, continues to shape and deepen how she teaches.
What drives Jennifer, more than anything, is a sincere wish to relieve stress and suffering, both in the people who come to her and in the wider world. That motivation is rooted in her contemplative training as well as her own lived experience of loss, perfectionism, and life’s unexpected turns. If a workshop, retreat, or single recording brings even one person more ease, that’s enough.
Jennifer brings warmth, quiet humour, and a grounded presence to her teaching, along with a genuine curiosity about each person’s inner world and an intuitive sense of how to meet people where they are. Participants often describe her voice and guidance as calm and steadying.
Jennifer works with individuals and groups, in organizations and in public programs, supporting people navigating anxiety, depression, chronic pain, trauma, and the ordinary, extraordinary difficulty of being human.
Always learning. Always practising. And always guided by the understanding that these teachings are not hers to own, only to pass on.
