Immersion in mindfulness. Geared towards teaching adolescents.
iBme’s Mindfulness Teacher Training is a yearlong training and certification that prepares professionals who work with adolescents to implement an in-depth mindfulness curriculum in high schools, colleges and other educational settings.
This program teaches mindfulness practices specifically developed for adolescents and the adults who support them, as well as the skills to succeed as effective mentors.
Applications for the 2021 cohort will open October 1, 2020.
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Dates & Locations
October 1, 2020 Application opens
December 31, 2020 Early application deadline. All applications received by this date will be reviewed and admissions confirmed by early February. Priority scholarships will be awarded to any early applicants who are approved. Applications will continue to be approved (and scholarships awarded as available) on a rolling basis after February until the cohort is filled.
June 2021-June 2022. The year-long program begins and concludes with a 5-day retreat, with an additional 4-day retreat held in January. At this time, we are planning for these retreats to be in person in Massachusetts. However, we will continue to follow state and federal guidelines around gathering in groups in response to Covid-19 and may adjust to an online retreat format as needed. Room and board for all retreats are included in the training fee. For any retreat that is held online instead of in person, full pay participants will receive a $300 reduction in tuition (per retreat). Please note this does not apply to those on scholarship.
Anticipated Retreat Dates
June 15-20, 2021
January 14-18, 2022
June 14-19, 2022
Course Structure
- Three residential or online retreats
- Online study between retreats
- Monthly small group meetings
- Monthly cohort-wide facilitated calls
- 1:1 Meditation and facilitation mentoring
- Structured daily meditation practice and regular practice group opportunities
- Individualized feedback from faculty
- Practicum and Certification from iBme
- Graduate Level Credits for Teachers available
- Opportunity to receive certification from International Mindfulness Teachers Association (IMTA)
Who is this training for?
Professionals who are interested in teaching mindfulness in their high school, college or community through classes, workshops or retreats, and who are committed to deepening their own meditation practice as a foundation for working with adolescents and the adults in their community. This includes:
- Public and Private School Educators
- Higher Education Professionals
- Adolescent Counselors & Social Workers
- Health and Wellness Professionals
- Experiential Educators
- Professionals who work with young adults in any capacity
What will you learn?
Personal and professional mindfulness teaching skills, including:
- A depth of meditation experience adequate to embody mindfulness
- Methods for compassionate and playful engagement with youth
- Mindfulness practices for working with parents and colleagues
- Foundations of adolescent developmental psychology
- Science of mindfulness
- Trauma-informed teaching methods
- Ability to create and adapt curriculum based on need/interest
- Understanding how issues of social justice including racism, power and privilege intersect and impact teaching
- Ability to apply mindfulness to creative expression, the natural world, and global issues.
To learn more about a central school mindfulness model for this training, see our blog post Mindfulness in Educational Settings: Spotlight on the Middlesex Program.
See what graduates of iBme Teacher Training are saying
Each video is about 60-90 seconds long
Prerequisites
A strong background in the study and practice of mindfulness, including:
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- A consistent mindfulness meditation practice for at least three years
- A minimum of 10 days total of teacher-led silent mindfulness meditation retreat practice, including at least one retreat of 5 days or more (e.g., two 5-day retreats, or one 7-day retreat and a 3-day retreat)
- At least three years of experience working with adolescents
- Experience teaching classes or facilitating groups is suggested.
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Faculty
Jessica Morey, MA
Jessica Morey, MA is the Executive Director of Inward Bound Mindfulness Education(iBme), a nonprofit organization that offers mindfulness meditation retreats for teens, young adults and parents and professionals who work with teens. Jessica began practicing meditation at age 14 on teen retreats offered by the Insight Meditation Society (IMS). She returned every year for 6 years and then participated for 10 years in an IMS young adult mentoring group. Jessica has attended longer retreats (1-3 months) in Asia and the U.S., and is a founding board member and lead teacher for iBme teen retreats. Jessica leads meditation retreats for youth and adults across the country and beyond at leading centers such as the Garrison Institute, Insight Meditation Society, and the Against the Stream Meditation Society along with iBme retreats. Through her work with iBme, Jessica has taught over 40 mindfulness meditation retreats for teenagers, working with over 1000 teens over the past 9 years in immersive secular depth retreats, in addition to leading high school presentations, ongoing and online classes for teens and presentations and trainings for teachers and parents across the country.Her published works range from the chapter ‘Ordinary Awakening’ in Blue Jean Buddha to Conflict Resolution of the Boruca Hydro-Energy Project: Renewable Energy Production in Costa Rica. Her published articles include an article in the February 2014 Mindful Magazine, ‘Finding My Way,’ about her experience learning and benefiting from mindfulness throughout her young adult years and ‘‘Bodhi Trees’ review of Susan Murphy’s book Minding The Earth, Mending The World: Zen And the Art of Planetary Crisis in the November 2014 issue of Shambhala Sun magazine. Her experience of bringing mindfulness into her work and life was described in a 2012 Shambala Sun article ‘Dharma 2.0.’ Jessica is regularly invited to speak and lead workshops at the leading mindfulness conferences across the U.S. including Wisdom 2.0, the Mindful Leader Summit, the UMass Center for Mindfulness Scientific Research Conference, the Omega Mindfulness and Youth Conference, and UCSD’s Bridging Hearts and Minds conference.
Before joining iBme, Jessica worked in clean energy and climate policy and finance. She holds a BA in Environmental Engineering from Dartmouth College and Masters degrees in Sustainable Development and International Affairs.
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
Charisse Minerva Spencer, MA
Charisse Minerva Spencer brings to the Mindfulness arena a background in Arts, Science, and Youth Development. She earned a B.S. Degree in Medical Technology from the Medical College of Virginia/VCU. However, her love of the Arts led her to divert her path in order to live her passion for dance and choreography. Later Charisse returned to school to get a Masters in Performance Studies with a concentration in Dance Anthropology from Tisch School of the Arts/New York University. Her eclectic professional experience coupled with more than 30 years of practice in the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) Buddhist organization led to her interest in Mindfulness. Charisse brings a scientific and artistic approach to the field investigating the existence of contemplative practices, its individual and cultural significance, as well as how these practices can be introduced in ways that are broad-based. She has worked with Mindfulness in Schools Project (MiSP), Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme), is Mindfulness Coordinator at Friends School of Virginia Beach, and has done workshops in schools, festivals, corporate offices, detention & treatment centers.
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.
David Treleaven
David Treleaven, PhD, is a writer, educator, and trauma professional whose work focuses on the intersection of trauma and mindfulness. He is author of the book Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: Practices for Safe and Transformative Healing published by W. W. Norton, and currently a visiting research scholar at Brown University. Originally from Toronto, David currently teaches with Generative Somatics, a non-profit organization in Oakland, California, that offers trauma-healing work to social and environmental justice organizers. He’s lectured on trauma-sensitive mindfulness at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and the Omega Institute in New York. Trained in counseling psychology at the University of British Columbia, he received his doctorate in psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies and is currently a visiting scholar at Brown University.
Rod Owens
Lama Rod Owens (Mdiv) is an author, activist, and authorized Lama (Buddhist Teacher) in the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism. Lama Rod is the co-founder of Bhumisparsha, a Buddhist tantric practice and study community. Lama Rod is also a teacher with the Daishin Zen Buddhist Temple, the Urban Yoga Foundation, Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme), a visiting teacher with Natural Dharma Fellowship and the Brooklyn Zen Center. Lama Rod has been a faculty member for the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s professional education program in mindfulness for educators and has served as a guest faculty member for the school’s course Mindfulness for Educators. He holds a Master of Divinity degree in Buddhist Studies from Harvard Divinity School where he focused on the intersection of social change, identity, and spiritual practice. He is a co-author of Radical Dharma, Talking Race, Love, and Liberation, which explores race in the context of American Buddhist communities. Lama Rod is a founding teacher for the Awaken meditation app that offers meditations and contemplations focused on social change. He has been published and featured in several publications including Buddhadharma, Lion’s Roar, Tricycle, The Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Spirit Magazine, and contributed the chapter on working with anger for the recent publication Real World Mindfulness for Beginners. He is a regular guest on SiriusXM’s Urban View hosted by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and publisher Karen Hunter. He has offered talks, retreats, and workshops for many organizations and universities including New York University, Yale University, Harvard University, Harvard Law School, Columbia Law School, Tufts University, University of Vermont, and Boston College. Lama Rod facilitates undoing patriarchy workshops for male identified practitioners in Brooklyn and Boston. His current writing projects include patriarchy in spiritual communities, White supremacy in Tibetan Buddhist communities, sexuality and ethics, as well as fatness and spirituality. Lama Rod’s next book will explore transformative anger and love and is due out June 2019. Lama Rod can be reached at www.lamarod.com.
Doug Worthen
Doug Worthen is the Director of Mindfulness Programs at the Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts. Since 2010 he has been supporting and educating the Middlesex School community (students, faculty, staff, parents, and alums) in mindfulness. Doug began practicing mindfulness meditation in 1999 as a member of the UVA national championship lacrosse team and has been a dedicated practitioner ever since. Living through two bouts of lymphoma, including a bone marrow transplant in 2007, Doug has also experienced how supportive mindfulness can be when living with illness. Doug has attended several 1-3 month-long mindfulness retreats, a variety of teacher trainings, and is dedicated to supporting other schools in creating full-time mindfulness faculty positions. He regularly staffs iBme retreats and served on the iBme board from 2010–16. You can read about his classes at Middlesex.
Wendy Hasenkamp, PhD
Wendy Hasenkamp, PhD, currently serves as Science Director at the Mind & Life Institute. Wendy holds a PhD in Neuroscience from Emory University, where her graduate and early postdoctoral training centered around understanding the pathology of schizophrenia, utilizing techniques ranging from single-cell gene expression to psychophysiology, and from cognitive testing to neuroimaging. More recently, growing out of her personal interest in contemplative practice, she used brain imaging to investigate the neural correlates of dynamic cognitive states that occur during focused attention meditation. In her time at Emory, Wendy was central in the development of the Emory Collaborative for Contemplative Studies, organizing an interdisciplinary seminar focused on exploring the application of contemplative practices in our modern society. She also has been involved in developing neuroscience curriculum and teaching Tibetan monastics in India through the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative since 2009; she has taught summer sessions in Dharamsala for two years and is co-author and editor of several neuroscience textbooks developed through this program. Wendy currently teaches contemplative neuroscience for Lesley University’s Masters Program in Mindfulness Studies, and is also the editor of the forthcoming book on the 2013 Mind and Life dialogue with the Dalai Lama in Mundgod, India.
Miki Kashtan
Miki Kashtan is a practical visionary pursuing a world that works for all, based on principles, tools, and systems that support true collaboration without compromising efficiency. Miki co-founded Bay Area Nonviolent Communication and the Center for Efficient Collaboration, and has taught and consulted with individuals and organizations on five continents. She is the author of Reweaving Our Human Fabric and blogs at The Fearless Heart.
Program Fee
Partial Scholarships will be available
The $7,500 Program Fee covers:
- Three 5-day residential retreats with room and board
- Online curriculum
- Individual personal/professional mentoring
- Practicum supervision
- Monthly small group meetings
- Guidance for structured daily meditation
iBme is committed to training diverse leaders in the growing field of secular mindfulness who can serve a wide range of communities reflecting racial, gender, economic, and religious differences.