Teaching vs practicing

• Request for help on developing a meditation program by Beth Egan, 12/10/98
  
  

There are a few tranings where you can get a certificate of attendance. But please be cautious of "Certified Trainings" since a 1 or 2 week course can not make you into a "meditation teacher." Instead, it is better to have a serious daily practice, attend meditaiton retreats from experts in the area (such as Zen or Vipassana teachers with 30+ years of full-time meditation practice and teaching) and attend seminars which discuss the application of meditation to patient/client populations.

For instance, there are conferences in Cape Cod which sponsor 1-week trainings in applying meditation to psychotherapeutic issues (see Home Page for Behavior On-line). The Society for Behavioral Medicine has a seminar on the applications of Meditation for Psychotherapy, in San Diego, this March 3-6, 1999. Jon Kabat-Zinn offers some seminars in the use of a Western version of Vipassana meditation for stress reduction, but not for psychotherapy, since he is not a psychotherapist. I have a VideoTape and Manual on the uses of a simplified Tai Chi series and meditation for medically ill patients, and also useful for stress management.

So, I suggest developing your own practice, and then taking seminars on ways to adapt meditation for the specific population you want to reach out to.

Good luck.

• Books by Beth Egan, 2/25/99