Train to teach.

ME-CL teachers plant the seed of Mindful Eating, a sustainable way of taking care of mind, body and heart. Then with patience and kindness, we water this seed with mindfulness.

Deciding to invest your time, effort and money in a particular field of training is not to be taken lightly. Becoming a mindfulness teacher in this program requires not only teaching skills, but developing a formal and informal mindfulness practice of your own.

Lately, “mindful” and “mindfulness” seem to have become household words. There’s mindful cooking , mindful shower meditations, mindful clothing, and mindfulness beauty products to name just a few.

We purposefully put the word “Mindful” in the title of our training because we personally know there is great value in non-judgmentally paying attention to what is going on in our interior and exterior lives, so that we can be responsive rather than reactive to people, events and even to our own minds. This takes practice, coupled with specialized training and supportive mentoring, which will be of benefit in your life and in turn benefit those you teach.

We believe in having fun teaching mindful eating and that our relationship with food and our body can be one of joy and contentment. So it’s important to walk the talk. That is, our teachers embody what it is to be mindful by continuing to practice mindfulness meditation and mindfulness eating exercises themselves. We never ask our students to do something we don’t practice ourselves.

You can learn what you’ll need to do even before you go to your first ME-CL training. You can find where ME-CL trainings are held in the U.S. and internationally. And how to become a certified ME-CL teacher if that is of interest to you.

How do I get started?

Complete one of these 8-week programs: Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) or Mindful Eating-Conscious Living (ME-CL) program
Take regular classes in yoga or Qigong
Read a summary of the ME-CL1 training to determine if it’s a fit for you
see where the trainings are held
see an overview about certification
contact us with questions

ME-CL Teacher Trainings

There are two ME-CL trainings offered. Anyone who meets the prerequisites for ME-CL1, may take that training. If you wish to become a Certified Teacher, you will need to take both trainings, sequentially, and fulfill additional Certification Pathway requirements.

ME-CL1: Mindful Eating-Conscious Living: A Foundational Professional Training
Facilitators: Jan Chozen Bays, MD and Char Wilkins, MSW, LCSW

How we relate to food, eating and our body, in skillful and unskillful ways, is the focus of this Mindful Eating-Conscious Living™ training. The emphasis is on experiential engagement in mindfulness meditation and mindful eating exercises, so that you will be able to pass on the benefits of these practices to your clients/patients in a variety of settings. This training focuses on building skills as you explore, experience and learn to teach core aspects of mindful eating. An 8-session manual is included.

Upcoming ME-CL 1 Trainings

More About the ME-CL 1 Training

ME-CL2: Mindful Eating-Conscious Living: Deepening your Skills and Practice
Facilitators: Jan Chozen Bays, MD and Char Wilkins, MSW, LCSW

This training is for those who have completed ME-CL1 and have led one or more 8-week ME-CL programs. The training focuses on the cultivation of intentional presence, authenticity, integrity and meeting ourselves and our participants with acceptance, steadiness and compassion. There will be opportunities to strengthen teaching and inquiry skills and community discussions regarding cultural and specialized adaptations. This second training invites a higher level of collegial participation and sharing.

More About the ME-CL 2 Training