A superb course with humble and experienced facilitators. I attended the Birmingham Teacher Training course with Nick, Rachel and a guest teacher from Oxford. They all brought something different and held the space beautifully. I've attended and taught many courses in related field, so I am pretty fussy! I was not disappointed. And the experience for myself was elevating and revitalising. I plan on returning for a refresher or more courses.

I attended this 5 day intensive teacher… I attended this 5 day intensive teacher training course, and cannot recommend it enough. Nick and Maddy have a wealth of experience in mindfulness and have put together a really well structured and informative course. They guided us through each element of the Mindfulness Now programme, always checking in to ensure we fully understood what they were teaching us. I felt totally at ease and comfortable to ask questions and share with the group when encouraged to. It was an incredible week of learning with a wonderful group of people and inspiring teachers. I now have access to a wide range of resources and feel fully armed to begin my own mindfulness teaching journey.

Mindfulness teacher training I have studied Mindfulness as part of a diploma/Masters Degree and I thought it would be nice to get some formal training. Avoid this these trainers if you are looking for trainers with experiential knowledge of mindfulness that will have a deep understanding of the process and be able to guide you on your journey to becoming more mindful and integrated into the present. Its more akin to the blind leading the blind. you would have at least hope that they would be somewhat practiced in leading the way in what they teach. These trainers had poor language skills in the training sessions using negative and sarcastic language models to try to teach what mindfulness was about. The whole course was mainly reading scripts, stories and poems a few discussions and no actual training on how to teach. There was no higher level learning and development, the course was basic. There was 1 exercise on discussing mindfulness with a potential group and the trainer I was with failed to give feedback in a constructive way, this was really quite unpleasant, luckily one of the other students gave some constructive feedback that enabled a more compassionate experience in this learning environment. During the readings of mindfulness scripts and mechanically going through the mindfulness movement techniques at quite a rate the trainer asked for feedback on our experiences stating it was a safe place to even say if your experience wasn't good. So I honestly thought it would be ok so I stated that I had found myself to be frustrated in the practices as it felt like there was too much going and too fast going from one exercise to the next there was little time to experience any mindfulness, it just seemed like too much doing and little being. this was not received well which was demonstrated by a lack of mindfulness in attitude and behaviour following this feedback for the rest of the course, and sometimes in rather petty ways. What else was shocking was their reaction to feedback on some of their content being inappropriate due to cultural appropriation, there response to this was dismissive and that it didn't really matter and it wouldn't make sense to change it! Which came a cross as lacking awareness and empathy. There was a complete rejection that mindfulness could be taught to people with serious mental illness and it should not be attempted. This was weird as there is plenty of studies and research to say this is exactly the kind of people that would benefit from it most. There was obviously some serious lack of knowledge around mental illness and a fear driven lack of empathy and understanding. I decided to not hand in the final work for this course, as I didn't feel that an accreditation or any further training/group meetings from these trainers would really add any positive value. I would say that it was a complete waste of money, I did end up with a manual of scripts, which actually can mostly be found online anyway but it’s not £800 worth of scripts though... hmm maybe £800 worth of good books or a nice Holliday would have been better ... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Mindfulness Now Teacher Training College This is a five day non residential course which teaches you the format of their own version of the classic MBSR and MBCT 8 week courses. You essentially leave with a handbook a few meditation techniques and a course syllabus to use. Teaching how to hold space for students or groups is not featured, and minimal opportunities for practice teaching is given. The assessment time framework is rigid and takes no account of individual needs and circumstances even if a trainee experiences any family life crises or loss within the assessment timeframe. Very little to no support is given during the assessment window. Don’t waste your time or money.

An excellent course with expert support This was an excellent course with good opportunities to learn from various methods, including didactic, group exercises, exploration of issues and direct practices of mindfulness. The setting of St John’s College, Oxford was amazing. I would thoroughly recommend it!