Meditation Teacher Training
Our Meditation Teacher Training course is open to anyone with an interest in guiding or teaching meditation.
There are two prerequisites:
1. You must have completed — or be enrolled in — one of our Meditation & Mindfulness for Beginners Courses.
If you don’t live in Melbourne — or you don’t require accreditation — you may elect to complete our Online Course, in conjunction with a retreat or mini-retreat.
2. Ideally, you will have two or more years meditation experience.
I achieved so much more knowledge than I thought possible to learn about meditation and self. It [the online course] was so detailed — and offered in a way that made sense and was easy to understand.
Why is the Meditation & Mindfulness For Beginners Course a compulsory prerequisite?
You may be wondering why we ask you to complete a ‘Beginners’ Course, especially if you’ve been meditating for years and have completed other meditation courses.
You might feel that you know how to meditate and would be wasting your time and money on a course for beginners.
We understand these concerns. Many of our prospective teacher training students share them. Consequently, we offer the following reasons:
Reason 1: Accreditation
The Meditation Association of Australia sets standards for all accredited Meditation Teacher Training Courses. Under these standards, all courses must include at least 80 hours of training, of which 30% must be conducted face-to-face. Your participation in the Meditation & Mindfulness for Beginners Course ensures that you meet these requirements.
Reason 2: Foundational Training
Most Meditation Teacher Training courses do not focus exclusively on teaching you how to teach. Instead, significant time is spent introducing you to various types of meditation.
Our Teacher Training Course, however, focuses on teaching you how to teach meditation, not on teaching you how to meditate.
Therefore, we need to ensure that you already know how to meditate, that you’re familiar with a broad range of approaches and techniques, and that you understand the concepts, principles and techniques unique to our Beginners Course.
When we first ran our Meditation Teacher Training course we didn’t require participants to complete the Beginners Course beforehand. Consequently, we spent a lot of time reviewing material from the Beginners Course and bringing people up to speed. This was unfair on participants who had completed the Beginners Course and meant that we lost a lot of time focusing on revision rather than on material pertinent to teaching.
We know from experience that students with decades of experience are often unfamiliar with the principles and approaches we share. They frequently say (in hindsight) how valuable the Beginners Course was, both in consolidating previous learning but also in exposing them to new techniques and new ways of understanding and thinking about meditation.
Reason 3: Our Approach is Unique
Every meditation course is unique. Ours, however, draws upon concepts from some unusually innovative teachers and traditions. You’ll be introduced to ideas and material that you are unlikely to find elsewhere.
We’ve also spent decades refining and experimenting in order to present meditation in an unusually clear, accessible style that suits the needs and temperaments of the contemporary world — and we continue to experiment and evolve. So, while our course has obvious similarities with other meditation and mindfulness courses (e.g. MBSR), it also has significant differences. If you do decide to enrol, I am sure you will be exposed to new and useful ideas, some of which could completely transform your undertsanding and practice of meditation.
Every teacher (or school) presents meditation in their own way, using their own terms, concepts and metaphors. Completing a course elsewhere does not guarantee that you will understand or be familiar with what we teach.
Reason 4: Purpose of Participation
Completing the Beginners Course allows you to participate from the perspective of a Teacher Trainee. It allows you to consider what the teacher is doing, rather than just what’s in it for you. This is the main reason we ask you to do the course in person, rather than online — because you completely miss out on the teaching component online (as there are no other students and no teacher/student dynamics at play).
Notes
It is possible to complete the Beginners and Teacher Training Courses concurrently. You do not have to have finished the Beginners Course to commence the Teacher Training Course.
The Meditation & Mindfulness for Beginners Course is included as part of the Teacher Training Retreat.