Hélène Bourhis Bois

Following a career in the field of health and passionate about educating patients to their health, I obtained a Ph.D in Sciences of Education at the Université Paris 8.

The subject of my doctoral research centred on sensorial intelligence as activated through learning manual touch. 

In parallel, I have been practising meditation intensively for more than thirty years in order to optimize the quality of my manual touch practice, and to develop a quality of presence to the people I train as well as for the quality of my personal and spiritual life. I have recently been through the challenge of cancer and meditation was precious in helping me through this. Thanks to meditation, I was able to remain driven, enthusiastic and optimistic despite the heavy treatments I received. Today it is important for me to use my experience to support patients suffering from chronic conditions. I also share my life with Danis Bois. 

I am currently associate professor at the Fernando Pessoa University (FPU) and deputy director of the Centre for Research and Studies of the Cerap at the FPU. I am particularly interested in perception, in body-mind unity and in metacognition, in the art of ‘learning to learn’. 

I have also developed an expertise in the field of digital learning and obtained a diploma of digital program designer and trainer that has led me to build the platform for this site. 

Since 2019 I have been developing with Danis Bois programs to teach Full-Presence Meditation and this site is the fruit of our collaboration. 

Here is a Full-Presence Meditation exercise that has helped me in my health journey.

Full-Presence Meditation in a hospital context

During the confinment, a nurse friend who worked in ICU asked me for a meditation suited for patients suffering from Covid19. This meditation needed to be short as patients undergoing heavy treatments were exhausted and could not sustain a physical effort longer than a few minutes.  In view of the positive feedbacks from this guided meditation practice :

  • Patients reported a sensation of appeasement, of a moment of serenity and of forgetting to focus on their breath in a negative way
  • At biological level : oxygen saturation in the blood rose and with it the anxiety linked to the sense of lacking air disappeared
  • Furthermore, these effects lasted in time and the regular practice of the exercise maintained the effects

I decided to make this meditation available to all and recorded it on the YouTube “apprendre-en-corps” that I built.  It has been translated in several languages (english version). 

See the whole team