Join Sara Trevelyan and Kirsty MacGregor The Compassion Salon discussing all things compassion in their lives and work.

The Compassion Salon

Join us for an inspiring evening with Sara Trevelyan and Kirsty MacGregor . Dive into thoughtful conversations that explore the heart of compassion. This is your chance to connect, reflect, and be part of a warm, engaging event. Don't miss out on this unique experience!

For this salon we are partnering with Edinburgh Medical School, in marking 300 years of medical education in Edinburgh.Events | 300 years of medicine | College of Medicine and Vet Medicine

Sara Trevelyan

Sara is a former doctor and psychiatrist who retrained as a psychotherapist, guided by her belief in the transformative power of the arts and therapeutic community. In 1980 she made headlines when she married Jimmy Boylewhile he was serving a life sentence in the Barlinnie Special Unit in Glasgow. She later reflected on their relationship and the groundbreaking prison experiment in her 2017 memoir, Freedom Found, and more recently contributed to the retrospective book The Barlinnie Special Unit: Art, Punishment and Innovation, sharing first-hand insights into the Special Unit and its legacy.

Inspired by the Unit’s therapeutic and artistic ethos, Sara and Jimmy co-founded the Gateway Exchange in Edinburgh, a community centre supporting former prisoners, recovering addicts, and those in emotional distress. Retrained in Person-Centred counselling and integrating transpersonal approaches, she has worked for many years as a psychotherapist and interfaith minister, living between Findhorn and Edinburgh and continuing to champion compassionate, democratic, and creative practice

Kirsty MacGregor, MA MBA MSc DipEd EMCC Senior Practitioner

Kirsty works in leadership development, coaching, and consulting, bringing warmth, empathy, and deep insight to her work with individuals and organisations. She has extensive corporate and international business experience, and holds an MBA from the University of Edinburgh, where her research focused on venture capital investment in Silicon Valley.

Kirsty is the founder and was a co-director of the University of Edinburgh’s Global Compassion Initiative for ten years. Her work reflects a longstanding interest in cultivating compassion, presence, and reflective leadership within both organisational and educational settings.

Alongside her professional career, Kirsty has spent decades engaged in mindfulness meditation, yoga, and personal development practices. She has also spent time in India, including teaching at Rishi Valley School, founded by J. Krishnamurti and Annie Besant, experiences that have deeply informed her perspective on learning, leadership, and human development. She currently supports the charitable work of Mother Meera’s schools in India - and brings a deep interest in compassion, spirituality, and human transformation to the conversations she hosts.

The Compassion Salon is a literary salon which brings together authors, poets, comedians, musicians and other creatives to share their work and reflect on compassion in contemporary life. Recent salons at Steel Coulson Southside have featured conversations between, novelist Karen Campbell and musician Karine Polwart, as well as appearances by Hannah Lavery, Paul Gilbert Deborah Ritchie, Ian Rankin, Gavin Francis and many others offering audiences a unique blend of narrative and performance.

The Compassion Salon was founded by Dr Marti Balaam in 2019. Marti is a social entrepreneur, healthcare educationalist, social scientist and author who has worked in health, and social care education for many years. She is currently the student experience co lead for Edinburgh Medical School 300, a Senior Lecturer in Medical Education and Nursing Studies at the University of Edinburgh and Director of Professionalism within the undergraduate medical programme. She is passionate about the power of compassion and how we can integrate it into our lives and work to transform society. Marti works with Global partners to develop programmes of work, share new strategies on compassionate engagement and learn from global and local experiences of how other communities practice compassion.

The Salon Marti says is 'a place for people to connect, inspire, and support using books and prose to reflect on human existence in a fragmented, challenging but wonderful world.

Salon Links

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