A Clinician's Guide to Teaching Mindfulness

The Comprehensive Session-by-Session Program for Mental Health Professionals and Health Care Providers

by Christiane Wolf M.D., Ph.D. & J. Greg Serpa, Ph.D.

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A Clinician's Guide to Teaching Mindfulness

The Comprehensive Session-by-Session Program for Mental Health Professionals and Health Care Providers

If you want to know the exact how to teach mindfulness, whether you are new or are already sharing mindfulness with others and want to deepen your skills – this book is for you.

This book emerged out of our work with teaching clinicians and other professionals how to share mindfulness practices with their patients, clients, and colleagues. Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman, our beloved teachers and mentors, wrote the foreword.

Here is what experts in Mindfulness say about the book:

“What a practical, thorough, extraordinary book. Wolf and Serpa give a crystal clear road map for any professional wanting to teach mindfulness in clinical settings. Their detailed lesson plans and voice-of-experience guidance are infused with their own deep practice of mindfulness, encouraging support, and clinical acumen. Highly recommended.”
Rick Hanson, Ph.D., author of Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom
“A Clinician’s Guide to Teaching Mindfulness offers a wise and practical immersion into the nuts and bolts of guiding others, and oneself, into the daily practice of mindfulness meditation. Christiane Wolf and J. Greg Serpa build on their years of experience to create this useful, scientifically grounded, step-by-step manual for understanding, planning, and implementing a didactic program to create more well-being in our lives. Take in their sage guidance and the world will be a better place for us all!”
Daniel J. Siegel, MD, author of The Mindful Brain, The Mindful Therapist, The Developing Mind, Brainstorm, and Mindsight; executive director of the Mindsight Institute; founding co-director of the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center; and clinical professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
“I can’t imagine a more ideal how-to-teach-mindfulness manual! This book offers clear and comprehensive support in learning to lead meditations, offer beginners classes, and respond to the natural challenges and questions that arise in introducing mindfulness to clients. Keep this guide close at hand—it will enable you to bring your full intelligence, heart, and confidence in sharing these life-transforming practices.”
Tara Brach, Ph.D., author of Radical Acceptance and True Refuge
“A ‘must-read’ for anyone who wants to teach mindfulness in groups. The authors’ experience and talent shine through every page. They spell out for readers what is often implied in hands-on teacher training. A special bonus is how mindfulness and compassion are seamlessly woven together. Highly recommended!”
Christopher Germer, Ph.D., author of The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion, co-editor of Mindfulness and Psychotherapy, and clinical instructor in psychology at Harvard Medical School
“Broad in scope, yet practical, A Clinician’s Guide to Teaching Mindfulness can serve as a resource for secular mindfulness teacher training programs. Clearly the result of years of experience, this book provides especially good support for new instructors, while those with experience will appreciate its clarity and fresh perspectives.”
Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness and Real Happiness
“A Clinician’s Guide to Teaching Mindfulness is a wonderful guide for far more than only clinicians! There is no one on this life’s journey who cannot deepen their experience and their joy through understanding and practicing mindfulness. When we as clinicians, in the broadest sense of the word, advance our capacity to understand and teach these fundamental concepts, this way of being in the world and in our lives will take root more organically. It will become a fundamental way of being. I would highly recommend this book as a guide to all of us who would like to better help ourselves and others discover, understand, and integrate this way of being.”
Tracy W. Gaudet, MD, executive director of the Office of Patient-Centered Care and Cultural Transformation, US Department of Veterans Affairs
“What a beautiful, wise, and user-friendly handbook on how to teach mindfulness. I also appreciate how the authors provide clear directions on how to support the clinician’s ability to sit in the mindfulness teacher’s seat with greater wisdom and humility.”
Byob Stahl, Ph.D., coauthor of A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook, Living with Your Heart Wide Open, Calming the Rush of Panic, A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook for Anxiety, and MBSR Every Day
“Wolf and Serpa have given us a wonderful gift—a clear, complete, and inspiring guide for teaching the basics of mindfulness. The authors’ deep understanding of this topic from both Buddhist and psychotherapist perspectives is evident throughout and helps to make this book not only a very practical manual but also a succinct and direct guide for how to become a more effective and comfortable teacher or facilitator of mindfulness. This book will be highly valuable for anyone interested in this area, regardless of prior experience. Absolutely the best book on this topic I have encountered.”
Bruce D. Naliboff, Ph.D., a research professor of medicine and psychiatry, and biobehavioral sciences director in the pain research program at the Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer Family Center for Neurobiology of Stress at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
“Thorough, practical, and full of heart and integrity. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is looking to get started or enhance their ability to teach mindfulness individually or in groups.”
Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D., author of Uncovering Happiness
“Teaching and guiding mindfulness require a mindful practice. As with any skill, the more experience one has the more effective they will be. I have found that there is tremendous variance in teachers of mindfulness and some are much more effective than others. This book is the guide I would recommend for anyone who wants to be an effective teacher. It provides strategic tips and supports how your own practice can be authentically shared with others so we can all walk together on a more mindful path. I highly recommend it!”
David Rakel, MD, founder and director of Integrative Medicine at the University of Wisconsin, and associate professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
“This is a book that is really more like a kind and trusted mentor to guide you through the wonderful and rewarding journey of sharing mindfulness with others. Written with a warm and engaging style and informed by deep wisdom and long experience, Wolf and Serpa have found a way to support new teachers in a systematic yet personable way on the path toward teaching mindfulness. The twin threads of solid clinical experience and deep reflection on the dharma provides a unique, complementary, and informative perspective on something that is hard to put skillfully into words. If you seek to teach mindfulness in any sort of setting, you will find this to be a valuable resource that you will refer to often in your journey. You’ll be glad you have this resource at each step along the way.”
Steven D. Hickman, Psy.D., Executive Director, UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness, Associate Clinical Professor, UC San Diego School of Medicine
“Here is a book that actually delivers on its promise. The Clinician’s Guide to Teaching Mindfulness provides a structure and detailed instruction for new teachers of mindfulness that is without parallel. This practical and inspiring book provides both the information for structuring a mindfulness class and numerous examples of how you can improve what you are currently doing in your teaching. Whether you teach mindfulness in schools, healthcare settings, mental health services, or businesses and non-profits, this is a book you must have."
Phillip Moffitt, mindfulness teacher and author of Dancing with Life and Emotional Chaos to Clarity