Teaching mindfulness

Teaching Mindfulness and Supporting those who Teach Mindfulness

If you want to begin teaching mindfulness to others this is a serious commitment, first of all to your own personal practice and secondly to ensuring that you are doing your very best to provide mindfulness training for others that is responsible and competent.

As mindfulness moves from the monastic to the secular setting we are discovering just how much thought needs to go into this process.  There are currently guidelines for the teaching of mindfulness provided by the Mindfulness Teacher Network  and Bangor, Exeter and Oxford Universities have been developing a competencies framework and guidelines.  These guidelines refer to Mindfulness Based Interventions generally but may be particularly relevant for teaching MBSR and MBCT in the health setting.

For those who wish to teach outside the health setting there are currently no statutory regulations but the responsible practitioner does all they can to ensure their practice is up to scratch.  At MCoE we are thinking deeply about what is necessary to support those who wish to teach. How we can non-judgmentally evaluate competencies and help individuals look honestly at where they are with their personal and professional development. Our intention is to support teachers at any stage to do the best they can and ensure they are always learning and improving.  We believe Excellence is not a place to be reached, but rather a commitment to an honest reflection about where you are, and a commitment to improve.

See this great article from Crane and colleagues to see what really defines a mindfulness based intervention (MBI).

Here is a recent article from Dr. Tamara Russell and Brazilian Intern Gerson Siegmund published in BJPsych Bulletin in 2016 provides some guidance fro those who are working “off piste” with mindfulness.

Abstract; A strong and growing evidence base exists for the use of mindfulness based interventions to prevent relapse in major depression and for the self-management of chronic physical health conditions (e.g. pain), but the evidence in other domains of mental health work is still emerging. Much work is being conducted outside the evidence base and standardised protocols, and by individuals with varied levels of experience and training. The (mis)perception of mindfulness as a ‘simple technique’ belies the complexity and skill needed to deliver a mindfulness training that has real therapeutic and transformative power. We propose a framework to help clinicians think through the suitability of mindfulness for their particular client group with the intention of providing guidance for thoughtful decision-making.

 

Click here to find out more about The Reflective Mindful Practitioner (RMP): From Action to Embodiment a new supervision model for those teaching mindfulness in any format and in any setting. It’s a protocol free exploration of mindfulness basics that can help to support mindfulness teachers at any stage in their journey. It has a particular focus on embodiment.

 

Mindfulness Teachers Network

The Mindfulness Teachers Network represents the leading teacher training organisations in the UK.that supports and develops good practice and integrity in the delivery of Mindfulness-based approaches. It has a range of useful resources and links teachers in the field.

 

Learning to teach

Follow this link to the list of training routes and providers.

 

Standards for Teachers

The Bangor, Exeter and Oxford Mindfulness-based Interventions Teaching Criteria.

Article: Competence in Teaching Mindfulness-Based Courses: Concepts, Development and Assessment.