The East Coast Mindfulness Global MBSR Teachers’ Meeting (MBSR-TM) will gather monthly for learning, professional development, and community building.
The MBSR-TM is open to MBSR teachers who have taught at least one 8-week MBSR course and want to continue to learn, grow, and be in community with other MBSR Teachers and with MBSR Teacher Trainer Rebecca. No matter when you initially trained to teach MBSR, or through which organization you trained, hopefully you never want to stop learning—about teaching MBSR and about yourself as a human and as an MBSR teacher.
During sessions, we will explore topics related to MBSR and teaching MBSR. These may include assumptions about what MBSR is and what it is not; what “good teaching” of MBSR is and what it may not be; what it means to practice mindfulness and MBSR; the underpinnings of MBSR curricula; best practices of teaching MBSR; your personal and professional experience of teaching MBSR; your questions and wonderings; your own meditation practice; and more.
You will be invited to occasionally practice-teach parts of the MBSR curriculum (optional), and to receive feedback from your teaching colleagues and teacher trainers. We will also hold space for exploring what is alive for you around teaching MBSR.
As members of the MBSR-TM, we will all—
Engaging a process at each session will provide a structured freedom to move us toward understanding, acceptance, action, further wondering, connection, and other things we can’t possibly name until they arise in our midst.
The process, with approximate times—
NOTE: Everyone (those present and those who registered but have to miss) will receive an email after each session, with a link to the recording of that session and what to focus on for next time.
Rebecca served as an MBSR Teacher Trainer at the Center for Mindfulness (CFM) at UMass Medical School until it closed in 2019, creating the training for the CFM’s own faculty to deliver their first online MBSR course in 2016, and creating and teaching the first online Fundamentals training at the Center for Mindfulness. She worked with CFM trainees at all levels, from beginning training through Certification. She is certified as a calibrated rater for assessing MBSR teaching using the MBI-TAC tool, and co-author of a subsequent tool (MBI-PAT) that has been developed and validated across multiple studies, giving voice to participants' perspective on teaching quality in an MBSR course. She is also a member of the International Mindfulness Integrity Network (IMI), a worldwide group of teacher trainers exploring ethics and standards of mindfulness training programs.
Rebecca's personal practice is guided by her teacher, Pema Chödrön, and she was featured giving meditation instruction in two courses taught by Pema Chödrön: Making Friends with Yourself and How to Live with Compassion and Courage.
To register for Sunday, October 11, 2026:
1. Make your donation.
2. Receive an email from East Coast Mindfulness containing the Zoom link for the session (please check your Junk/SPAM folder in case you do not see this email).
Your donation makes it possible for us to continue this offering. Thank you!
All times shown are US Eastern:
| Dates | Times | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 112026 | 10AM-noon |
The Curriculum Is the Curriculum, and Yet….
We know that teaching MBSR is never simply delivering a curriculum, and that we’re continually responding: to the individuals in the group and the group itself, to the moment, to what’s emerging, and to what is happening in ourselves.
In this experiential session, we’ll explore the territory between faithfulness to the curriculum and freedom. We’ll work with real teaching situations, take turns “teaching” brief pieces of MBSR, and reflect together on what guides our choices in the moment.
There isn’t a formula for discerning when to follow our teaching plan and when to “follow the room,” or how much to do either. Yet we can consider what informs that discernment. We’ll also consider what’s essential to preserve in the curriculum, and wonder where it is that responsiveness may move from skillful adaptation to simply doing things our way.
Before the session, make notes on the following. Bring them with you.
|
| Sept 132026 | 10AM-noon | Ready (or not). Set (or not). Teach. |
| Aug 92026 | 10AM-noon | Meeting All the Moments in Teaching MBSR |
| Jul 122026 | 10AM-noon | Beyond Self-Improvement in Teaching MBSR |
| Jun 142026 | 10AM-noon | Dialogue in MBSR (Without Preparing Your Reply) |
| Apr 122026 | 10AM-noon | What MBSR Teachers Are Curious About (continued from March session) |
| Mar 82026 | 10AM-noon | What MBSR Teachers Are Curious About |
| Feb 82026 | 10AM-noon | The Why, When, and How of Poetry in Teaching MBSR |
| Jan 112026 | 10AM-noon | Teaching Yoga in MBSR |
| Dec 142025 | 10AM-noon | Open House: Meet Other MBSR Teachers |
| Nov 92025 | 10AM-noon | MBSR Curriculum Review The MBSR Curriculum Review program (8 Sundays that started Oct 19) will take place during the November MBSR-TM time slot. The next MBSR-TM meeting will be on Sun, Dec 14. |
| Oct 122025 | 10AM-noon | Q&A with Jon Kabat-Zinn about Teaching MBSR |
| Sept 142025 | 10AM-noon | Teaching MBSR: “Right Livelihood” or Business as usual? |
| Aug 102025 | 10AM-noon | Habit Energy & Teaching MBSR |
| July 132025 | 10AM-noon | Trauma Sensitivity in Teaching MBSR (continued from June) |
| June 82025 | 10AM-noon | Trauma Sensitivity in Teaching MBSR |
| Apr 132025 | 10AM-noon | Diets, Neutrality, Habit: From Class 7 |
| Mar 92025 | 10AM-noon | Mountain and Lake, Loving-Kindness: From Retreat Class/All-Day Session |
| Feb 92025 | 10AM-noon | Class 6: Difficult Communication |
| Jan 122025 | 10AM-noon | Classes 4 & 5: Stress Reactivity/Responding |
| Dec 82024 | 10AM-noon | MBSR: What We Don’t Know (continued from November) |
| Nov 102024 | 10AM-noon | MBSR: What We Don’t Know |
| Oct 132024 | 10AM-noon | The Stress of Teaching MBSR |
| Sept 82024 | 10AM-noon | What is a skillful MBSR orientation? |
A place to learn mindfulness. A community to practice together. A path to share it with the world.