Teaching Mindfulness

This is a rigorous, systematic guide for the professional development of mindfulness practitioners across the range of professional clinical settings. It is also a hands-on text covering both the academic theory and the concrete skills required in teaching mindfulness to groups and individuals. Part 1: Responding to Profound Needs situates the demand for meditation teachers within the context of the dramatic changes underway in our society, such as the high levels of stress and dissatisfaction in the workplace and daily life, the growth in psychotherapeutic interventions based on mindfulness meditation, the expanding acceptance of complementary and alternative medicine, and the growing interest in personal spiritual practice both inside and outside of institutional religion. It looks next at who may be suitable to act as a teacher of applied meditation and how such individuals may react to the calling to teach. Finally, Part 1 attempts to define the essential qualities an applied meditation teacher would possess, as well as the behaviors, attitudes, and skills such a teacher needs to cultivate for professional success.Part 2: Applying Meditation presents a practical model of adult growth and change that synthesizes the insights of field anthropology, postmodern psychotherapy, transformative learning in adult education, and personal and executive coaching. This model is used as the basis for presenting and exploring the characteristics and skills the applied meditation practitioner must bring to encounters with students in various phases of growth and change. Approaches to teaching and development of curricula for groups and individuals flow naturally from these discussions, as do discussions of how to find and work with a practitioner. Part 2 is the core of the book. It is in these chapters that practitioners will recognize their own strengths and weaknesses.Part 3: Learning and Practicing presents valuable opinions and advice from a range of recognized experts on different facets of instruction in and working with meditation as an applied skill. These independent essays are essential teachings in their own right, while helping to define a wider scope of resources for further inquiry'”made actionable in Part 4. These essays will give the book an authority and appeal that a single author could not provide.Part 4: Exploring Further is an exhaustive resource, with an annotated bibliography on applied meditation; a listing of the emerging courses, institutions, and certification opportunities that may assist development of objective credentials for the applied meditation practitioner; and a listing of resources for practitioners' personal development.

Diane C. Reibel, Ph.D., is a research associate professor in the Departments of Emergency Medicine and Physiology at Thomas Jefferson University School of Medicine. She is also director of the Stress Reduction Program at the Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine of Jefferson University Hospital. Dr. Reibel has taught mindfulness-based stress reduction programs to patients, physicians, and other health care providers for 10 years. She participated in professional training under the direction of Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., and brings both a scientific foundation and heartfulness to her work. Marc Micozzi, M.D., Ph.D. is professor of medicine and director of the Policy Institute for Integrative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. He is the past executive director of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Prior to joining the College, Dr. Micozzi was the founding director of the National Museum of Health and Medicine and a Distinguished Scientist with the American Registry of Pathology in Washington, D.C. Dr. Micozzi is the author of Fundamentals of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, the first textbook on this subject for physicians and medical students, now in its third edition. He was the founding editor of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. Dr. Micozzi has worked to foster communication and cooperation between mainstream and alternative medicine on issues of policy research and education.