The Team Bringing This Vision to Life
Mindflow Academy
Mindflow Academy was founded by Derrick Mason, whose journey is at the heart of everything we do.
Having recently faced the realities of homelessness, Derrick also brings the lived experience of spending over 30 years in and out of prison before rebuilding his life from the ground up. It’s a depth of understanding that can’t be taught. Over the past three years, he has been working directly with people in prison and in the community - running groups, building relationships, and partnering with organisations to support those facing similar challenges.
Mindflow Academy grew out of that work. It’s rooted in lived experience, and in a genuine commitment to walking alongside people as they find their way forward.
More recently, Anna Debenham joined Derrick to help grow and develop the organisation. After spending a decade in the US founding and leading The Insight Alliance, Anna brings experience of delivering Insight to Wellbeing programmes at scale - in prisons, in communities, and in partnership with a wide range of organisations.
Together, they share a common understanding of how lasting change happens.
Derrick brings lived experience, credibility, and deep connection to the communities Mindflow Academy serves. Anna brings experience of building programmes, partnerships, and evidence-based delivery. Both care deeply about making this work accessible to the people who need it most.
They are also good friends - and that matters. There’s trust, honesty, and a shared commitment to doing this work well.
Mindflow Academy is now growing from that foundation - combining lived experience and professional experience to offer something practical, human, and grounded.
About Derrick Mason
Derrick Mason is the founder of Mindflow Academy and brings lived experience of prison, homelessness, and rebuilding life after years in and out of the criminal justice system.
After being introduced to Insight to Wellbeing while in prison in 2017, Derrick experienced a profound shift in his own life and began sharing that understanding with others through his grounded presence, honesty, and ability to connect deeply with people from all walks of life.
Alongside his work facilitating programmes with The Insight Alliance, Derrick supports people in recovery, reentry, and personal transformation, and has helped train others to deliver insight-based wellbeing programmes in prisons and communities.
He has also worked internationally with 3P Community Development in Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda and previously served as a board member of the Three Principles Global Community. Derrick brings compassion, credibility, and a depth of understanding that comes from lived experience, alongside a genuine belief in people’s capacity to change.
About Anna Debenham
For more than three decades, Anna Debenham has worked alongside people navigating some of life's toughest circumstances - from prisons and addiction recovery to schools, communities and leadership teams.
Across every setting, she has seen the same thing to be true: lasting change doesn't begin by fixing people. It begins when they reconnect with something that was never missing in the first place.
In 2016, Anna founded The Insight Alliance in Oregon, a nonprofit that grew from a single prison programme into a respected organisation working across correctional facilities, schools and communities. Under her leadership, the organisation developed an evidence-based curriculum that was independently evaluated by Pacific University, demonstrating significant improvements in mental wellbeing, psychological flexibility and trauma recovery.
Over the years, Anna has built and led diverse teams, developed leaders and facilitators, and established partnerships across the justice, education and nonprofit sectors.
Now back in the UK, Anna is Co-Founder of The Still Point and the Program Director at Mindflow Academy, bringing this understanding into organisations, communities and the criminal justice system to help people and organisations flourish.
Watch Anna’s TEDxPortland - “Everything we need to thrive already exists within us”