About Marion Miller:
Melbourne Leadership & Well-being Coach,
Nature-based Mindfulness Teacher,
Creative Arts & Eco-therapist.

My Founding Story

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The Roots of Connection and Creativity

I was born in Tasmania and spent my earliest years on a farm, raised by my immigrant mother from Germany and a farmer father. Spending those early years on the land nurtured my deep connection to nature and a deep longing to return to wild early years. Later, moving to Melbourne to take over my grandfathers cake company brought the turbulence of my parents' divorce, my mother's struggle with post-war generational trauma and my fathers absence throughout most of my childhood.

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Throughout my life, nature, creative arts, and spiritual practice have been my constants, a way to process experience and explore the deeper aspects of the soul and what it means to be human. I carry on a rich lineage of creative women: I still paint on my paternal grandmother’s easel and treasure the textiles of my maternal great-grandmother, a creative practice I now share with my four daughters and other creatives. As I get older I am giving my creative practice more time and space to bloom as well as supporting my off-spring the opportunity to hone their craft.

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Wholeness, Nature, and Leadership

Having facilitated hundreds of private coaching sessions, corporate workshops, and community programs, including a WorkSafe-funded organisational mindfulness, well-being and leadership pilot program in Education. I have witnessed firsthand the chronic stress, burnout, injustice and inequality caused by the industrial growth society culture that has spread to all corners of our globe and in particular how leadership has a responsibility to transform this but so often fails to make a lasting impact. What what this culture has forgotten is that we are living inside a larger, biological system that has existed for billions of years.

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Our current systems will often pathologise human distress and measure normal functioning purely by our capacity as individuals to participate in an economic system that is degrading its own environment through over-productivity and consumption. But what is happening to the health of human populations is happening at a much larger scale to our living earth. People are starting to feel the loss of vitality and witnessing the environment struggle to maintain balance with climate change. Scientist warn us we are not yet prepared to adapt to what is coming. But it doesn't have to be this way.

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All over the world people are starting to wake up and find purpose and meaning through projects that support social and environmental regeneration or actively work to prevent further harm. These courageous people are acting on behalf of nature because ultimately we are nature wanting to heal, feel our vitality return and live in greater harmony - to me this is Nature Therapy, Spiritual Ecology and Eco-Dharma, not an individual self help project or technological solution to shore up a collapsing civilisation but a collective movement strengthening local community bonds, environmental regeneration and adaptation. I've supported so many men and women in leadership, helping professionals and creative arts to transition to better ways of working and more sustainable ways of living and leading that is mindful of these profoundly complex times we live. 

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On Being a Seeker, Finding Purpose

My spiritual curiosity was sparked early on and deepened when my mother, a psychology researcher, introduced me to contemplative practice in my early twenties. I was profoundly shaped as an artist and practitioner by my early mentor, the late Dr. Simonne Jameson, a philanthropist, psychotherapist and art critic who trained with Carl Jung in Zurich and my dear friend Arian Young (a former Tibetan Buddhist nun).

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My love for the spirit of country deepened in my youth during a six-month overland journey west to Darwin, spending time with remote First Nations communities and experiencing ceremony and ritual at shady camp on Mary river in Northern Australia. Decades of silent retreats have led me to a four-year Dharma teacher training in the Western Insight tradition and mentorship with one of Australia's most senior Insight Dharma teacher and Zen Roshi, the wise and compassionate Subhana Barzaghi. Today, I weave together Eco-leadership, Dharma, Joanna Macy's Work that reconnects and my Celtic ancestral wonderings in art-making, spiritual practice and leadership coaching. I host women's circles, courses and retreats, teach nature-based mindfulness, insight meditation and to coach people on the path. I also serve on the committee of the Insight Meditation Institute to help support the lineage to flourish in Australia.

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Now entering a new chapter, both inwardly as I navigate midlife and outwardly as we establish a land-based life at our Boonah farm, I bring a lived understanding of the creative entrepreneurial and leadership journey and what it means to realise a decades long dream. Having supported my husband through the entire arc of co-founding a climate-tech startup through to a successful exit. I remain deeply grateful for the privilege to walk alongside leaders, creatives, and practitioners making a positive difference in this increasingly complex world and look forward to continuing to serve both the wider community and our beautiful earth home.

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Education, Credentials & Professional Background

• Bachelor of Counselling (Coaching) – Australian College of Applied Psychology (ACAP)

• MBSR & MBCT Certified Teacher Training– Mindfulness Training Institute Australasia (MTIA)

• Advanced Certificate in Holistic Ecotherapy – Metavision Institute (Dr. Geoff Berry)

• Dharma Teacher Training – Insight Meditation Institute Australia (2025-Ongoing)

• Work That Reconnects Facilitator - Spiral Journey (2026-Ongoing)

• Environmental Leader Program – Stonnington Council & Port Phillip EcoCentre

• Cultural Counselling Therapy: Mindfulness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders with Rodney Tuifa’asisina Leleisiuao

• First Nations Cultural Awareness Training with - IndigenousX, NSW. 

• Aboriginal Narrative Practice Course - Dulwich Centre, S.A.

• Art Therapy Certificate – College for Educational and Clinical Art Therapy (CECAT)

• Trauma-informed practice in Education - Smiling Mind. 

• Compassion Masterclass – Emiliana R. Simon-Thomas (UC Berkeley)

• Mindful Self-Compassion Core Skills Training – Christopher Germer, PhD & Kathleen Cator

• Jungian & Post-Jungian Clinical Concepts – Applied Jungian Studies

• Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness Training – David Treleaven, PhD

• Mental Health First Aid Training- Mental Health First Aid Australia

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Professional Memberships & Accreditations

• Licensed Member, Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA)

• ICF Accredited Coaching Training (ACAP)

• Climate-Aware Practitioner, Psychology for Safe Climate (PSC)

• Committee Member, Insight Meditation Institute (IMI)

• Member, Environmental Leaders Action Network (ELAN)

• Committee Member (past), Rewilding Stonnington (RWS)

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Selected Projects, Art & Writing

Community & Well-being Projects

• Breathe with the Birrarung: Collaboration with Stonnington Council, Parks Victoria, and Riverfest.

• Mindfulness in the Park: Pilot project in Anderson Park with Boroondara Council and Victoria Walks (permanently featured on the Victoria Walks platform).

• Principal Wellbeing Program: Co-facilitated a yearlong WorkSafe-funded organisational well-being program with Smiling Mind and the Department of Education (DET).

• Early Learning Leadership: Co-developed and facilitated early childhood leadership and well-being programs for DET with Smiling Mind.

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Creative Practice & Publications

• Studio Artist & Painter: Active artist based in Glen Iris, expanding to studio/gallery space at Boonah.

• Author: The Mindfulness Workbook: A 6-Week Guide to Being Present (2016).

• Insight Timer: Featured Mindfulness Teacher recording guided practices for a global audience.

• Publications & Editing: Founder of Artist on Location agency (2014–2016); contributor to Soul Notes (blog) since 2018; author of the Slow Acres publication on sustainable living.

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Mentor & Clinical Supervisor

• Subhana Barzaghi – Senior Insight Dharma Teacher, Zen Roshi, and PACFA Supervisor.