Mindfulness Teacher Training
A year-long program for youth-serving professionals & other adults looking to become certified to teach mindfulness to teens & young adults.
Join our July 2023 – July 2024 cohort!
Authentic Real-World Mindfulness
You want to make an impact. You know mindfulness works, but you need more tools + confidence to launch it in your life + career. You want to bring mindfulness to your community, but haven’t quite put the pieces together to make it happen. Your teens are being left out, and you want them in. Sensing truth in any of this? This teacher training is for you.
What will I learn?
Show up in an authentic way
Learn how to bring a fun, lively approach to teaching mindfulness, meet the unique needs of a diverse audience, and develop sensitivity and responsiveness to whoever is in the room.
Help students integrate mindfulness
Support students in how they navigate social situations, make meaningful connections, and step into the challenges of their lives.
Communicate on many levels
Learn how to communicate on an intuitive, relational, and cognitive level. Practice facilitating conversations that dive deep into important issues happening in our world.
Meet the moment
Gain tools to include social justice – inside and outside the classroom – and bring the lens of social justice into mindfulness education.
A Lively, Fun Approach to Teaching
Mindfulness as Play
Benefits from Our Training
Socially-Engaged Mindfulness
Personal Growth
Why take this program?
Personal Growth + Healing
- Gain confidence to step into the next stage of bringing mindfulness into your community.
- Find your voice and a way of teaching that resonates with you.
- Deepen your personal practice. Be more present, patient, and self-aware.
- Give time and space to go deep within a community of like-minded adults.
Make an Impact
- Tap into what’s real, relevant, and alive. Integrate mindfulness into daily life + topics like money, identity, and social justice.
- Become a more compassionate, patient resource for young people.
- Bring mindfulness to your community in a way that fits – so no one is left out.
- Build integrity + social responsibility as a teacher. Lead in a way that doesn’t cause harm and navigate spaces without perpetuating systems of oppression.
One-on-One Coaching with Core Faculty
Go deep, unpack course material, and talk about things you’re grappling with during monthly one-on-one meetings with your mentor. We’re there to support you in all areas of life, not just your teaching and meditation practice.
Accessible Teachers, Small Group Size
We’re shooting for a 64-person cohort with 8 core faculty. That’s a 8:1 teacher-student ratio!
You’ll also be part of a “small group” for mentoring + support, led by one of the core faculty. Capped at 8 people, the groups are a chance to bounce ideas off one another, go deep, and practice teaching.
The small groups, peer feedback, and conversations create a real sense of intimacy – personal, professional, and spiritual – that extends far beyond the training.
Interested?
Enter your name and email to get more details & reminders for this course, and start the application process when you’re ready.
Program Overview
Course Structure:
- Three Teaching Intensives (included in program fee, 5 days each)
- Independent Study between retreats
- Small Group Meetings (1x month)
- Cohort-Wide Facilitated Calls (1x month)
- One-on-One Coaching with Core Faculty (1x month)
- Structured Daily Meditation Practice + Weekly Practice Groups (1x week)
- Practicum
Upon completing of the program, you will receive:
- Certification from iBme
- Graduate Level Credits (available for Teachers)
- Opportunity to receive certification from International Mindfulness Teacher’s Association. (IMTA). We’re the only youth education-focused IMTA accredited program, which allows you to become an internationally certified and recognized mindfulness teacher.
Cost
$7,750 (includes room + board at three retreats)
Learn More.
Dates
Starts: July 17, 2023
Ends: July 21, 2024
Application Deadline
Early application deadline is February 1, 2023; Final application deadline is May 1, 2023.
Dates for Intensives
Three 5-day intensives. July 2023, February 2024, July 2024.
COVID-19 Policy
Who’s teaching?
Khalila Archer
Khalila Archer is a mindfulness and yoga instructor with 20+ years of personal practice. Introduced to yoga and meditation in her teen years, she has attended many multi-day silent meditation retreats, including two month-long retreats. Her background includes over a decade as a wilderness educator leading multi-day expeditions for a variety of educational organizations, as well as teaching interdisciplinary curriculum in formal classroom settings and beyond. She holds a B.A. in Adventure-based Environmental Education from Prescott College and over 500 Yoga Teacher Training hours. Khalila teaches meditation retreats for all ages through Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme) in both residential settings and remote wilderness environments. Her teaching is grounded in nature awareness and connection, mindfulness meditation as a means for insight, care, and well-being, and social justice praxis that recognizes our interdependence and collective need for freedom. Khalila currently serves on the iBme Board of Directors and is part of the core faculty for the iBme Mindfulness Teacher Training.
Zac Ispa-Landa
Zac Ispa-Landa (he/him) is a teacher, father, beekeeper and student of the Dharma. Since a young age, he has been deeply curious about the nature of mind, magic, dreams, and the mystery of consciousness. He’s practiced and studied meditation for 20 years – primarily Vipassana (insight) meditation and, more recently, Vajrayana Buddhism. His practice is supported by a broad and eclectic mix of teachings and methods. For the last five years, his primary teacher has been Lama Rod Owens.
At iBme, he is a lead teacher on teen retreats and core faculty in the Teacher Training Program. He’s also a Senior Lecturer in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont and works with people throughout the country as a mindfulness teacher and Dharma facilitator.
He believes we are living in unprecedented times that call for new ways of knowing and being and is devoted to awareness practice as a path towards individual and collective liberation. His practice is inspired by interdependence, diversity, mystery, and the possibility of awakening.
Zac lives in Winooski, Vermont with his partner, son, and tens of thousands of honeybees.
Sara Shapouri
Sara Shapouri is an Iranian-American meditation teacher, artist, parent, and lawyer. A lover of maps and guides to help understand the wildness of human experience, her path and offerings are influenced by Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, Jungian and Depth Psychology, Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy, relational mindfulness, esoteric mystical traditions, and stand up comedy.
Enrique Collazo
Enrique Collazo is a Buddhist meditation teacher and experienced public speaker. Enrique is trained to teach Buddhist meditation by Noah Levine (Dharma Punx). Enrique has also been teaching mindfulness to young people sense 2008. Presently the majority of his work is with youth. Enrique works for Challenge Day during the school year, teaching emotional intelligence and social skills for thousands of young people each year and teaches mindfulness retreats for young people in the summer. He has extensive experience bringing meditative interventions into jails, youth detention centers, and addiction treatment facilities. Enrique believes that one of the key comments so working with young people is by building authentic relationship.
Anthony Maes
Anthony “T” Maes found mindfulness during college when struggling with addiction, and it saved his life. He has practiced mindfulness meditation since 2003 including many weeklong and monthlong silent retreats. He’s been teaching teens in mindfulness retreats and weekly class formats since 2009 for various organizations including Spirit Rock and IBME. On retreat he enjoys teaching emotional intelligence, diversity and inclusion, relational mindfulness, multi-racial liberation, and acrobalance. He is a teacher and coordinator of the weekly Teen Sangha meditation group at East Bay Meditation Center. He has worked as a wilderness mentor for middle-school boys with Stepping Stones Project and Back To Earth. He is passionate about supporting college-aged young adults, and has founded a leadership program for “aged out” iBme alumni. “T” graduated from UC Berkeley in 2004, completed the yearlong Commit2Dharma program at East Bay Meditation Center in 2011, and is currently part of the Community Dharma Leaders training at Spirit Rock Meditation Center.
B. Anderson
Bea Anderson (they/them/theirs) has been working as a meditator and transformative justice space holder for over six years. Bea calls up the traditions, legacies, and medicine of their southern Black American, Jamaican Maroon, and Choctaw ancestry as their healing arts praxis.
In 2008, Bea began training as a Buddhist dharma teacher, community organizer, and music therapist. Later, in 2019, they became a somatic healing therapy practitioner offering a private practice supporting individuals, families, and organizations internationally.
Bea Anderson was a founding member of Harriet’s Apothecary, a healing collective that envisions a world where Black, Indigenous, and People of color have the power, healing, and safety needed to live the lives we desire for ourselves and our communities. Bea currently acts as the founder and director of Song of The Spirit Institute, an international online learning environment supporting the sustainability, health, and well-being of Indigenous peoples, culture, and lands across the globe.
Cara Lai
Cara Lai spent most of her life trying to figure out how to be happy, or at least avoid total misery, which landed her on a meditation cushion for the majority of her adulthood. She’s explored the wild beauty of the human experience through many adventures in consciousness, including a few mind-bendingly long meditation retreats, chronic illness, and the profound experience of motherhood.
In the past, Cara has worked as an artist, wilderness guide, social worker and psychotherapist, but at this point she’s given up on being an adult in exchange for an all-out mindfulness rampage. Her teaching is relatable, authentic, funny and sometimes crass, and is accessible for many people. She teaches teens and adults at Inward Bound Mindfulness Education, Spirit Rock, Insight Meditation Society, and UCLA; ultimately hoping to be able to bend spoons with her mind. And to help people be happier.
Mark Wax
Mark Wax is deeply grateful to be working with iBme. Mark has been practicing meditative arts for 20+ years, and is a passionate student/practitioner/devotee of several culturally rooted wisdom traditions. He has worked for Yoga International, The Himalayan Institute, and Spirit Rock Meditation Center. He has had the privilege to spend many months of his life on silent meditation retreats as well as 5+ years deepening his practice through living in spiritually-centered communities. He has multiple certificates as a yoga teacher and an Ayurvedic Yoga Specialist.
Mark has worn many hats at iBme since first mentoring on a retreat in 2015. He participated in the first cohort of iBme’s Teacher Training and currently helps lead retreats and other programming as well as serves on the Teachers Advisory Council and a few other committees inside of iBme’s collaborative leadership system.
Mark currently lives in Northern New Mexico and spends his free time learning music and language, connecting to the natural world, supporting grassroots activism for heart-centered systemic change, and writing poems that sometimes come out pretty good if he may say so…
Makeda Gershenson
Makēda Gershenson (she/her) has practiced mindfulness for 10+ years. She is a graduate of iBme’s Teacher Training program and has been a part of iBme retreats since 2017. She is a certified emotional intelligence educator, life coach for teens and digital behavioral coach.
Makēda is committed to compassionate transformation through healing-centered education, cultivating connection and confidence in community and leading with joy. She is a staff developer focused on bringing restorative practices to public school educators and also lectures at International University in Berlin. Her key areas of focus include Coaching & Education, Social Emotional Learning and Emotional Intelligence.
She is a Masters Candidate for Futures Research at Freie University in Berlin, Germany. She loves learning 🤓 and is currently committed to un-learning pretty much everything that she knows, especially oppressive patterns of thinking, being and relating to what’s possible. As an educator, innovator and artist, Makēda dreams of empowering youth by celebrating their innate genius and practicing optimism about a future only they can design.
Curriculum
Origin and Definitions of Mindfulness
- Unit 1: Mindfulness, Awareness, and Attention
Mindfulness of Self
- Unit 2: Stress, Relaxation, and the Body
- Unit 3: Emotions and Thoughts
- Unit 4: Forming the Adolescent Identity
- Unit 5: Trauma, Addiction, and the Descent
Mindfulness in Relationship
- Unit 6: Teaching as Mentorship
- Unit 7: Mindful Communication
- Unit 8: Social Justice, Intersectionality, and Power
Mindfulness in the World
- Unit 9: Play, Culture, and Creative Expression
- Unit 10: Nature Awareness
- Unit 11: Building Mindful Communities
- Unit 12: Livelihood
Interested?
Enter your name and email to get more details & reminders for this course, and start the application process when you’re ready.
Program FAQs
Why is iBme offering a mindfulness teacher training program?
How many people will the program be open to?
Where does this training take place?
What does the mentoring consist of?
What does the curriculum consist of between retreats, and what kind of learning activities does it include?
Is there a set curriculum to implement in schools and youth settings?
Is this training appropriate for people who are working in non-educational contexts, such as hospitals or youth detention facilities?
Is the training based on a specific meditation lineage?
Will this training prepare me to become an iBme teacher on a teen & young adult retreat?
Are there recommended retreat centers to meet the prerequisites?
What if I don’t teach youth? Is this Teacher Training still for me?
Will this program be offered again?
Application FAQs
If you have any additional questions, please contact us at teachertraining@ibme.com.
Prerequisites
Is there an application fee?
What are the application steps?
How do I submit letters of recommendation and is there a specific format it should be in?
When will I know if I’m accepted?
The application requires that I list my meditation teacher. What if I don’t have a meditation teacher?
What if I have been practicing on my own and don’t have a meditation teacher who knows my practice well enough to write a letter of recommendation?
What if I don’t have a minimum of 10 days total of teacher-led silent mindfulness meditation retreat practice, including at least one retreat of 5 days or more?
Tuition + Scholarship FAQs
Do you offer tuition assistance?
Do I have to commit to the program before I know how much scholarship I’ll be awarded?
Do I have to pay more for Graduate School Credits?
How does payment for the program work? Can I pay on a payment plan?
Interested? Apply now!
Apply now to join our iBme Teacher Training for 2023.