You’ve found something in your mindfulness practice that helps. And like anyone who discovers something good, you want to share it.
With your team. Your clients. The people in your life who are clearly overwhelmed.
The problem is that knowing something in your own bones is different from knowing how to teach it. Enthusiasm is not a method. And nobody wants to be the person cornering colleagues about their breathing.
This program is for people who want to share mindfulness skillfully – without being annoying about it.
Foundations of Mindfulness Teaching
Starting point for everyone | 8 weeks + opening Saturday | A complete course on its own
- Starting point for everyone
- 8 weeks + opening Saturday
- A complete course on its own
You’ll learn to guide brief practices — breath, body, sound — use language that is clear and grounded, stay close to what people are actually experiencing, and hold a welcoming and inclusive container. Some people stop here. That’s a complete outcome.
After Foundations:
You can guide short mindfulness practices in meetings, with clients, or in community spaces.
(Currently available only as part of the full Pathway. Stand-alone registration for Foundations and other modules will be available later this year. Subscribe to Mindfulness Northwest’s newsletter to stay in the loop.)
Want to learn more about our Mindfulness Training Pathway? Drop in on one of our FREE 1-hour info sessions.
Certification Pathway
For those who want to go further | Continues beyond Foundations
- For those who want to go further
- Continues beyond Foundations
More practice, more depth. Science and stress physiology. Body-based practices. Loving-kindness and compassion practices. RAIN, an insight practice for working with difficult experience. Poetry as a teaching tool. Guidance for serving diverse populations, helping all to feel seen, valued, and welcome. And a practicum where you actually teach — with feedback from real teachers, not just a checklist.
There’s also a practical session on building a teaching life: WHAT to charge, how to talk about what you do, insurance, liability – the nuts and bolts stuff that nobody ever tells you.
(Teaching Lab, Poetry, Compassion & Insight Practices, and the Business & Practical sessions are offered as electives within the Pathway.)
After completing the pathway:
After completing the pathway, you’ll be a Certified Mindfulness Instructor. You can design and lead a structured mindfulness program. You know how to work with what comes up in a room. You’ve taught in front of real people and gotten real feedback. And you carry a credential that reflects that depth. If you eventually want to pursue MBSR Teacher Training, this is a strong on-ramp.
The Practicum
For those who want to go further | Continues beyond Foundations
- For those who want to go further
- Continues beyond Foundations
The practicum is where everything you’ve been practicing gets tested in the real world. You’ll teach live sessions, get structured feedback from experienced faculty, and submit a recording for review. It spans several weeks and includes a weekend intensive, enough time to not just demonstrate your skills, but develop and deepen them.
The goal isn’t a flawless performance. It’s showing up ready to guide others with enough clarity and self-awareness to know what you still need to learn. Feedback supports you in developing meaningful content and a warm, connected presence.
Teaching Lab
Ongoing development | Optional
- Ongoing development
- Optional
Once you’re out there teaching, it’s easy to keep doing what you’ve always done. Most teacher training programs don’t have anything built in for what happens after you’re certified. That’s where habits calcify.
The Teaching Lab is a single optional session in April, open to current trainees and to graduates of any mindfulness-based teacher training. You bring a short video of yourself teaching. The group watches together, and faculty guides the feedback.
Newer teachers see what development looks like over time. More experienced teachers get a mirror they rarely get elsewhere. The mix is part of what makes it work.
You don’t have to submit a video to show up. Come and watch first if you want.
Worth Being Clear About
This is not MBSR Teacher Training.
(We have that, too.) It doesn’t prepare you to teach an 8-week MBSR course, and it doesn’t position itself as equivalent to that.
What it is: A serious, supported pathway for learning to share mindfulness in everyday settings — workplaces, communities, professional practice — with real teachers, real feedback, and a credential that means something. For those who eventually want to pursue MBSR Teacher Training, this is a natural first step.
Who This Is For
You might be:
- A yoga teacher, therapist, healthcare worker, or educator who wants to bring mindfulness into what you already do
- Someone in a leadership or community role who wants to be able to open a meeting or a session with something that helps people settle and connect
- An MBSR or meditation practitioner who’s ready to take a next step
- Someone who keeps getting asked, “How do I learn to do this?” and wants to be able to point people somewhere good — including yourself!
- A teacher from a previous training who wants continued development and a community to support continued growth
- Ready to deepen your practice. The best way to learn is to teach.
For organizations:
Some organizations send employees through this program to build internal capacity — someone who can lead a brief practice before a difficult meeting, or support a more present team culture. If that sounds like something worth exploring, we’re happy to talk.
Full Pathway
This program welcomes people of all backgrounds, bodies, and identities. Scholarships are available for those who need them.
FACULTY
Carolyn McCarthy
Carolyn McCarthy is a certified teacher of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC). With a background in Latin American Studies and Women's Studies, she brings mindfulness into the work of social justice, helping trainees turn toward what's difficult with steadiness and compassion. Carolyn's teaching is marked by zest, warmth, and wit. She helps trainees develop a teaching voice that's direct, alive, and unmistakably their own.
Karen Schwisow
Karen Schwisow, E-RYT 500, is Mindfulness Northwest's Executive Director. She has taught MBSR since 2011 and has guided countless classes, workshops, and retreats, including over 60 MBSR courses. Certified by the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, she also serves as an MBSR Teacher Training mentor with the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness. Drawing on more than two decades of experience teaching
Tim Burnett
Tim Burnett founded Mindfulness Northwest and has taught MBSR since 2010. Certified in MBSR, Mindful Self-Compassion, and Compassion Cultivation Training, Tim also brings nearly four decades of meditation practice and three decades of training as an ordained Soto Zen priest. Grounded in decades of practice, his mentorship helps trainees embody mindfulness with warmth, integrity, and compassion.
Tushar Bhagat, PhD
Tushar Bhagat, PhD, teaches MBSR and other mindfulness-based programs at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center, where he is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Oncology. He also conducts research exploring the effects of mindfulness-based well-being programs for healthcare professionals. Having practiced meditation since childhood, Tushar brings a unique integration of contemplative practice, clinical experience, and scientific inquiry to the training of future mindfulness teachers.
Bryant Alexander
Bryant Alexander Jr. is an MBSR instructor trained through Brown University's Mindfulness Center and the founder of Reframe Coaching & Consulting, an executive coaching practice serving clients like Google, Calm, and Airbnb. An ICF-certified coach (PCC), Bryant left a corporate career to build his own business around mindfulness, leadership, and personal brand. He leads the Pathway's Business & Practical session, helping trainees think through what it actually takes to market yourself and build a teaching practice of your own.