The University of Oxford Mindfulness Centre (OMC) is working in collaboration with Positive East. The collaboration includes mindfulness teacher training for Positive East staff and provides a physical venue for this training.

Positive East is an innovative charitable organisation aiming to improve the quality of life for people affected by HIV throughout East London. The charity provides a range of services from HIV testing to psychotherapy, education, mindfulness, and holistic wellbeing initiatives.  The Charity offers support groups for people affected by HIV which includes members of the LGBT community, people from Black African and other Minority Ethnic Communities

This collaboration includes training Positive East staff and supporting them long term to teach MBCT in the heart of the marginalized communities serviced by Positive East.  We are delighted to have brought about this partnership as we know that without such collaborations, the OMC is unable to deliver on the vision of truly increasing accessibility.

The OMC Teacher Training Programme

The aim of this training programme is to develop the knowledge, skills, and professional competencies required to teach MBCT with supervision. This training programme is suitable for those intending to teach in general population contexts, workplaces, and educational settings, and for healthcare and mental health professionals planning to teach in clinical settings.

Applicants must be willing to commit to continuing professional development and adherence to professional ethical standards after training.

All those who wish to join must meet the following pre-requisites:

• Have a regular personal mindfulness practice ideally for at least one year
• Completed an MBCT-L course, either in-person or online, within the last year
• Knowledge and experience of the population and context where you would like to teach MBCT; for example, workplace, education, criminal justice, physical or mental healthcare, or general population
• Skills for working with individuals and groups

For more information please visit our Teacher Training Programme page on the website

Logistics

During the training, OMC will have sole use of a large training room (sufficient for any Covid-19 distancing requirements), access to a breakout room and a large garden which can be used for practice and training when the weather is favorable. We will share the communal spaces with Positive East staff and clients.

We welcome applications for this in-person course from people living in London and the immediate surrounding counties. It is currently not suitable for people who would need to travel from further afield due to unpredictable Covid-19 travel restrictions.

For the online training elements, applicants must have access to suitable technology, space, privacy and the technical ability to join an online training programme via Zoom.

Selection Criteria 

Applications will be prioritised from those who have access to a population and setting where they are actively involved and will be able to introduce MBCT. Specifically we will prioritise applications where there is the potential to engage with marginalised or underrepresented communities and where we might be able to support the implementation of MBCT into non-English speaking communities through training bi-lingual teachers.

The OMC aims to remain engaged with, and support teachers beyond completion of their training, we endeavor to offer more than a standard training programme but a lifelong relationship of support and mutual engagement. Therefore, it is important for the OMC that there be some alignment to OMC vision and our trainee cohort aspirations.

To enable appropriate consideration of applications and allocations to the training, the application will as you to addresses the following:

• A clear statement of why you would like to teach MBCT
• Reference as to why you would like to teach MBCT and not any other mindfulness programme
• Details of the population and setting where you would like to introduce MBCT
• Details of your background and access of your chosen population and setting

Dates 

The 12 month programme (day release in blocks), commences in March 2021 and includes the below dates:

05/03/2021 12/03/2021 19/03/2021 26/03/2021 07/04/2021 09/04/2021 23/04/2021 30/04/2021 30/06/2021 06/09/2021 07/09/2021 08/09/2021 09/09/2021 10/09/2021 26/11/2021 03/12/2021 10/12/2021 07/01/2022 14/01/2022 21/01/2022 28/01/2022 04/02/2022 11/02/2022 25/02/2022 04/03/2022

Fees

The 12 month programme commences from £3,550

Apply

To apply for the training please click on the below link

Application form