The MBSR teacher training pathway involves coursework along with personal practice and progressively more advanced teaching practice.
Brown University's Certificate in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Teaching is a sequential, three-step training pathway of six courses and one final review. Included in these three steps are silent retreats and teaching requirements that are necessary to complete the training.
We encourage all participants to take the full pathway with our program and faculty, however, we understand you may have already started the pathway with another provider. Brown University will recognize and accept from another school and/or provider the MBSR Foundations course only. As of June 1, 2022, we no longer accept any courses as transfer other than MBSR Foundations. If you have taken MBSR Foundations with another provider you will be asked to indicate the course details when registering for the Teacher Advancement Intensive.
View the infographics to understand your training options, from Mindfulness Facilitator to Certified MBSR Teacher.
The prerequisites* to begin MBSR teacher training involve both formal learning and personal practice experiences and are outlined below.
**These requirements are not included in the MBSR Certificate fee, and may incur an additional cost.
The first step in the certificate explores the very personal nature of mindfulness practice and students begin to cultivate skills for the classroom and private practice.
Upon completion of Level 1 requirements, you are qualified to teach the 8-week MBSR program.
**These requirements are not included in the MBSR Certificate fee and may incur an additional cost.
During this step of the certificate, students strengthen their teaching skills and focus their practice. It is highly-recommended students teach one 8-week MBSR program before enrolling in Curriculum Study Group and Skill Building Workshop.
Completing the Certificate represents a culmination of formal training programs, teaching, as well as one's personal meditation and retreat experience.
*May be taken anytime after completion of MBSR Foundations and Facilitator Training.
**These requirements are not included in the MBSR Certificate fee, and may incur an additional cost.
As a global leader in MBSR teacher training, the Mindfulness Center at Brown through the School of Professional Studies offers an experiential and didactic education. In the certificate program, as an MBSR teacher-trainee, you can:
The MBSR Foundations and Facilitator Training is a 10-week, evidence-based program that provides in-depth exposure in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course curriculum for aspiring mindfulness instructors. The program serves as the first step toward MBSR teacher certification, providing essential foundations for those pursuing the teacher training pathway.
Upon successful completion, participants earn the Mindfulness Facilitator credential, qualifying them to teach introductory mindfulness sessions and workshops in a variety of settings, including the workplace and in the broader community.
The MBSR portion of this program will be offered by teachers at the Brown School of Professional Studies.
This is the “train-to-teach MBSR,” course that offers multiple opportunities to practice teach to your peers, with feedback from the group and the teachers. The TAI also includes daily meditation practice sessions where you continue the exploration of the MBSR practices, develop and deepen skills for guiding, pacing, and more. This program meets for three, three-day sessions for a total of 9 days over a period of 1-2 months as a live-online program.
MBSR Teacher Advancement Intensive is typically offered twice per year in the fall and spring.
Especially created for new teachers to continue the practice-teaching process from the TAI. This weekly, 10-session program offers opportunities to teach all the elements of the MBSR curriculum, to gain skills in giving and receiving feedback, and in self-reflection and self-assessment. This is a 10- week program that meets once per week for two and a half hours each week.
MBSR Curriculum Study Group and Skill Building is typically offered twice per year in the summer and winter.
While teaching a full 8-week MBSR class, trainees record themselves teaching, review their class recordings and meet weekly with a mentor, sharing recorded clips of the class, reviewing class plans, group dynamics, and more. This is an intensely personal journey receiving support, clarity, and refinement in teaching, week by week, for 10 sessions, one hour per week. The schedule for this individual program is flexible and arranged between the instructor and participant.
This course extends and deepens your knowledge base, while offering important experiential learning and reflective opportunities. The Ethos program covers four (4) fundamental topics: (1) Buddhist underpinnings, (2) Experiential learning, (3) Diversity, identity, and trauma, and (4) the Science of MBSR.
This program may be taken any time after Foundations, affording trainees an opportunity to study and synthesize conceptual learning into practice.
Ethos of Mindfulness-Based Programs is typically offered twice per year in the summer and winter.
In Dialogue & Inquiry for Mindfulness-Based Programs trainees are invited to explore--via peer-led practice sessions--a variety of inquiry and dialogue skills, as they are often employed in the MBP classroom. This is unfolded week to week and draws upon didactic considerations from some of the tenets of Buddhist psychology In this way, trainees receive a grounding in both the types of dialogic methodologies employed in MBP programs and their skillful application. This program meets weekly for 5 weeks, 2 hours each week.
This program may be taken any time after Foundations, affording trainees an opportunity to practice the specifics of dialogue and inquiry, in a focused way.
Dialogue and Inquiry for Mindfulness-Based Programs is typically offered twice per year in the fall and spring.
The final step in a process that is never really over! This marks a moment of culmination in one’s formal training, and highlights the depth, rigor, practice, and dedication of a trainee’s teaching - and learning - experience. Participants submit an extensive portfolio that is thoroughly reviewed and assessed by a senior MBSR trainer.