The Mindfulness Teacher Training Program (MTTP) provides a deep training in the skills, personal presence, and background knowledge needed for a deeply embodied, thoughtful and skillful presentation of mindfulness to diverse audiences.

The MTTP is a highly integrated experience including retreats, home practice, distance learning, weekend seminars, regular peer contact, experiential exercises, practice leading mindfulness and creating a mindfulness program, and strong cohort relationships.

We will meet in person 8 times in the Bellingham area over the 9-month program and interact extensively over distance learning in between meetings.

Who

Where

The in-person portions of this program will be held in the Bellingham area (retreats are held at two different centers in Skagit County). All are welcome but you must be able to travel to the Bellingham area 8 times. Much of the learning and interaction also happens through flexible distance-learning in between in-person meetings.

With

Lead instructor Rev. Tim Burnett brings his diverse experience creating and delivering mindfulness classes and workshops together with his knowledge of the Buddhist roots of mindfulness, his work in the sciences, and his experience as an educator and facilitator to provide a rich, experiential education for trainees. 

Tim is certified in three of the major mindfulness-based interventions: Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (certified by the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Healthcare, and Society at the University of Massachusetts), Compassion Cultivation Training (certified by Stanford University's Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE)), and Mindful Self-Compassion (certified by The Center for Mindful Self-Compassion (CMSC)). 

Tim also brings his grounding in 30 years of Zen Meditation where he is a Soto Zen Priest and teacher. He received Dharma Transmission from his long-time mentor Zoketsu Norman Fischer in 2011 and was installed as Guiding Teacher of the Red Cedar Zen Community in Bellingham in 2017.

For more on Tim see his full bio, watch him deliver and introductory hour on mindfulness - or watch a funny story about mindfulness. You can also learn more about Tim's Zen work at the Red Cedar Zen Community website.

Additional instruction on specialized topics of science, philosophy, and yoga will be provided by an expert adjunct faculty to be announced soon.

Visiting instructors to the 2015-16 cohort included:

• Cat Enright, EYRT - restorative yoga
• Barbara Lehman, PhD - Psychological research on mindfulness
• Kelly McGonigal, PhD - The upside of stress
• Brennan Gilbert, PsyD - understanding mindfulness and projection

Outcomes

The intended outcome from this training is a high degree of comfort, expertise, and flexibility teaching mindfulness classes and workshops and also the ability to adapt and design programs for the communities and organizations you are most familiar with. Mindfulness training is not one size fits all. This program prepares you to assess the needs of a target population and provide a suitable mindfulness training that maximizes engagement and benefit for participants.

Upon satisfactory completion of the 9-month program you will: receive a our Certificate of Completion indicating your thorough training in mindfulness practice and teaching.

Upon successful review of your teaching portfolio, developed in a supervisory process during the year after the 9-month program, you will receive Mindfulness Northwest's Mindfulness Teacher Certification and become a Certified Mindfulness Teacher.

 Continue on to the full   Program Description or to the Key Dates page.
When you're ready Apply Here

2017-18 Dates * Syllabus * Details * Testimonials * Application