November 2026 – May 2028

From May 2025 until November 2026, this English-language MBSR teacher training near Berlin offers a compact format of seven modules online and two modules live.

Successfully in use worldwide

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, also known as MBSR for short, has been used successfully in many hundreds of clinics of various types and health centres around the world. In Europe, the program has also been used successfully for many years in Switzerland, Germany and other European countries. The Institute for Mindfulness-Based Approaches (IMA) has been running its teacher-training program since 2002. It takes place several times a year in Germany and regularly in Switzerland, Poland, France, Austria and Japan. We have also offered programs in Ireland, Norway and Turkey.

Scientifically researched and proven

Numerous scientific studies have underlined the effectiveness of the MBSR program. The studies impressively document that course participants experience, among other things, a lasting reduction in physical and psychological symptoms, more effective coping with stressful situations, an increased ability to relax, growing self-confidence and acceptance, more joie de vivre and vitality. Course participants who have experienced significant relief from their symptoms by attending an MBSR course include people with cancer, AIDS, heart disease, headaches, sleep disorders, anxiety and panic attacks and stress-induced gastrointestinal complaints. Although MBSR started in a hospital environment, it has spread throughout society and can be found in many different settings including but not limited to schools and university-health care programs, the business world, employee health care programs. Burn-out prevention, coaching and private therapeutic practices, rehabilitation and mental-health clinics, and many more environments.

Our Program is also a Mindfulness Teacher Training

Completing our training program not only prepares you to teach MBSR but also Mindfulness courses in general. Many of our graduates use the skills they learn in our program to offer mindfulness courses in various settings. They also offer follow-up programs and retreats. Our training provides you with a wide variety of skills and possibilities that can be applied to broaden one`s course offerings.

What can you expect from this training program?

The aim of the training is to prepare you to teach MBSR and Mindfulness. To this end, we will teach you the content and the specific elements of the MBSR program interactively and experientially, e.g.:

• Body scan, mindful movement and sitting meditation - what are the main exercises of the MBSR program all about?
• What are the pedagogical aspects of meditation and how do I deal with participants' questions and problems?
• How do I conduct an "inquiry" - the exploratory conversation - as an important instrument of mindfulness-based approaches?
• What practical questions would I like to clarify on the subject of teaching and learning?
• What is the role of MBSR teachers and what are their own limits?
• How can I deepen my own mindfulness practice and develop my competence in teaching mindfulness?
• What resource does the opportunity for collegial exchange represent for my future work as an MBSR teacher?
• How do I create my own course materials (including three audio recordings for the main exercises of the program) and how do I run my own first MBSR course?
• What is the current state of research on MBSR?
• and much more.

Our information packet includes detailed information about the training program and the online orientation day.

"I have never taken part in a training course where so much of what was taught was actually put into practice and where so many participants in the course actually practised what they were trained to do... in this case, teach MBSR."

(Note from a graduate)

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