12-Week Live Online Cohort-Based MSC Teacher Training

From the beginning, teacher training in Mindful Self-Compassion has been offered as a 6-day residential intensive with groups from 30 to 60 trainees, typically with one teacher trainer per 14 trainees. This is a model that has worked well over the years and CMSC expects it to be the “gold standard” for MSC teacher training for the foreseeable future.

However, there are a number of factors that make an online Teacher Training potentially useful, especially under the current circumstances, but even beyond the limitations imposed by the COVID-19 crisis. A few of the features of this online, cohort-based model are:

Eliminating barriers for people in isolated geographical regions
Enables people with physical challenges and disabilities to participate much more easily
Reduces financial barriers by cutting the total cost of attendance (including travel) at an in-person teacher training by more than half in many cases. People also would not need to miss a week of work or close a private practice for a week.
Provides a more intimate, personalized experience with significantly more contact between trainees and trainers over a 12-week period rather than 6 days. This format also provides a much smaller cohort of trainees with more opportunity to develop supportive relationships with peers.
Allows trainees to experience the full MSC program as participants for a second time in the demonstration program, which does not happen in current teacher training. In addition, many teacher trainees have taken MSC as a 5-day Intensive, and so experiencing an 8-week MSC course would be extremely valuable.
Provides a week between sessions of teaching or teachbacks for preparation, review of reading material, and personal MSC practice
Provides an opportunity for the cohort members to connect between sessions through the online platform of the MSC Teacher Café with a private space dedicated to the cohort for mutual support, encouragement and camaraderie.

The Live Online Teacher Training (LOTT) is Step 1 of the Teacher Training Pathway and includes the following elements:

A cohort of 24 trainees who have met all the usual prerequisites for MSC Teacher Training, including: having taken the MSC course greater than six months prior to the training; having an established practice of mindfulness and compassion; and having completed a 5-day or longer teacher-led, silent residential meditation retreat. NOTE: No exceptions to these requirements will be made.
Registrants will complete a Teacher Training application during the registration process that will also include an item or two addressing online learning and the registrants concerns or desires about this format of training.
Upon acceptance into the training, all participants are required to purchase the Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program book and to read Part 1 of that book prior to the start of the training.
Trainees must attend and participate in ALL scheduled sessions to successfully complete the program. Trainees who miss more than one session of the MSC course or the teacher training component may not be allowed to complete the training
NOTE: This teacher training is intended to train people to teach the in-person 8-week MSC course. If you wish to teach MSC online, you will also be required to attend the Teaching Self-Compassion Online (TSCO) 2-day course during or after Step 2 of the pathway.
NOTE: Only Trained and Certified MSC Teachers may teach certain adaptations of the 8-week MSC course, depending upon teacher status.

Training Sessions Include:

Two initial introductory 3-hour sessions in the first week.
Nine-week, 3 hours per session MSC course (led by two Certified MSC teachers who are not the Teacher Trainers), with a one-week break in Week Eight of LOTT. (Some schedules vary, view individual course pages for course time zone schedules.)
Weekly “teachback” (practice teaching) sessions of 1.75 hours in groups of 12 held between each session of the online MSC program (each session led by one trainer as a sub-cohort with a mid-course re-assignment to new sub-cohorts). There are two Teachback sessions (in Week Six and Seven) that are 3 hours long.
A final 3-hour wrap-up session to address next steps, nuts and bolts of teaching MSC and CMSC policies, procedures and ethical guidelines.
All trainees who successfully complete the online teacher training (just like those who complete the traditional in-person training) will then be eligible to join a Teacher Training Practicum as the next step in their process toward becoming a Trained Teacher of MSC.

MSC Trained Teacher Status:

This online training is the first step in a three-step process towards becoming a fully trained MSC teacher authorized to teach the 8-week MSC course. For more information about the MSC teacher training pathway, including prerequisites and stages of training, please view this page on Becoming an MSC Teacher.

Training in an Online Format:

Online learning is not for everybody. Some people thrive in an online environment and others don’t. Everybody is different. Please ask yourself, honestly, if you feel you can be as present and embodied in the online environment as you might be when you are physically present with someone. In this teacher training, we will be providing multiple opportunities for trainees to interact with one another, even more than in the regular teacher training, but some people might have a deeper and more comfortable learning experience when they are with others in person. Kindly reflect on your own learning needs before applying for this training.