How to become a meditation teacher

The meditation market saw strong & steady growth all throughout the 2010s, largely due to the popularization of various meditation apps.  Now that more people are meditating than ever before, there has never been a better time to learn how to become a meditation teacher.

Meditation studios are popping up all around the country and there are limitless opportunities to build a meditation business online today.  

Online meditation teacher training and in-person certifications are also growing in number, as more professionals are seeking to know how to become a meditation facilitator.

With so many options out there, it can be hard to know what choice to make.  So, I hope to bring you some clarity with this article on what the best path is for your specific goals.

In-Person vs. Online Meditation Teacher Training

First off, if your sights are set on getting professionally trained as a meditation facilitator, I suggest you check out my article on selecting the best meditation training for you.  But if you’re still in the consideration phase, keep reading…

Though you can become a meditation teacher without training, through trial and error, I wouldn’t recommend it.  Facilitating a well-orchestrated inner experience isn’t as easy as you might think, and receiving proper instruction can save you a lot of headache.

In-Person Training:

PROS:  There are obvious benefits of receiving any sort of instruction in-person.  You are able to ask your instructor questions and, most of the time, receive 1-on-1 support.  Additionally, becoming a meditation instructor takes practice and requires you to step out of your comfort zone.  In-person programs typically force you to take bold steps and push yourself to facilitate in front of others, which helps you develop quickly.

CONS:  There are two big problems I have noticed with in-person training.  For one, becoming a meditation teacher doesn’t happen over the course of a few days and there is a lot of information that one needs to learn and practice before developing enough confidence to lead a meditation class.  For that reason, in-person training often doesn’t allow enough time or provide enough practical instruction to produce results by itself. The second issue is the absence of support after the training. New meditation teachers require mentorship and support for months to ask questions and receive feedback in order to flourish.

Online Training:

PROS:  The biggest benefit of online programs is the fact that they can provide far more information to the student.  Additionally, if structured correctly, they can be organized in a more practical format than a hyper condensed in-person training.  Accessibility is another benefit for prospective meditation teachers that have a busy schedule. Online training gives working professionals the ability to learn at their own pace.

CONS:  As with anything you buy online, the biggest potential issue with online training is the quality.  To truly learn how to become a meditation teacher online, the program has to be extremely thorough and carefully organized to facilitate the transition from novice to facilitator.  And similar to the in-person training, very few online training provide the on-going support & community new meditation teachers need to feel confident enough to lead their first meditation.

How to Become a Guided Meditation Teacher

Few people recognize the difference between teaching meditation and guiding meditation, but they are two completely different things. In order to find the best meditation training for your goals, you’ll need to understand the difference.

Teaching meditation is instructing people HOW TO meditate, while guiding a meditation is taking people on a journey.

To become a guided meditation teacher, you need to learn much more than what is covered in the typical teacher training, and unfortunately, most programs out there are not geared to create guided meditation facilitators.

Many students of teacher trainings desire to lead guided meditations, but find themselves disappointed when all they leave with is a head full of information about the history & culture typically associated with meditation and a list of breathing techniques.

If you want to become a facilitator, you need to pick a training that teaches the right method of guided meditation. For a hand picked list of the best meditation certification programs, check out my blog on The Top 7 Meditation Teacher Trainings in 2021.

What You Need to Learn to Become a Guided Meditation Teacher:

There are three skills you will need to master to become a great guided meditation teacher:

1. Meditation Delivery:  Guided meditation teachers have to be able to deliver a meditation with proper vocal tone & timing, because their participants are meditating in response to their words.  It’s up to the facilitator to support their audience & not rush their cycle of breath by talking too fast.
2. Technique & Performance:  Unlike teaching meditation, guiding a meditation is a performance.  A guided meditation teacher has to learn how to overcome performance anxiety & have proper technique to create consistent meditation experiences every time.
3. Guided Imagery:  The ability to create visual scenes in the mind of their audience is ultimately what separates a guided meditation teacher from the rest.  Therefore, you’ll need to master guided imagery & visualization to become a true guided meditation facilitator.

If you want to read more about this, I would check out our blog on how to lead a guided meditation.

Learning from Famous Meditation Teachers

There are a few famous meditation teachers out there training people to become meditation teachers.  Overall, I’ve heard mixed reviews, but mostly not the good kind.

While there are some great meditation gurus out there, not all of them are especially great at putting together a professional training program.  After talking with several students famous meditation teachers’ programs, it’s clear that they have a tendency to be centered around the personality of the guru, not the results of the students.

If you want to learn from a well-known meditation facilitator, be sure to take a good look at the curriculum and determine whether or not it’s going to provide you with the outcome you desire.