Completely Free Online Meditation Teacher Training Course

In this completely free online meditation teacher training course, you’ll learn everything you need to know to teach meditation.

Let me level with you: You do not need to pay for a course or certification if you do not want to.

Yes, there are lots of different certification programs online. And many of them will charge you thousands of dollars for the price of admission. But here is the truth of the matter: you can become a coach for free.

Just read my insanely big guide to becoming a meditation teacher. 

If you have read that link, you now know how to start teaching meditation.

And here is why you don’t need formal training.

In most countries, you do not legally require any certification to teach meditation. In fact, there are shockingly few prerequisites of becoming a meditation instructor. You simply need to be good at it and you need to know how to make money from it. And that is about it.

I love mindfulness. And I want to help you become a coach. That is why I have created this completely guide. All of the content is right here on this site. And it is all entirely free.

In this guide, I will share with you literally everything you need to teach mindfulness and meditation, and I will offer you my advice on succeeding in the business too. I will also share insights from how I became a personal meditation coach.

This page itself is just a short intro. But I have included links to valuable and comprehensive guides to everything you need to know.

So, let’s get started.

 Our Meditation Teacher Training Course

1: Train yourself first

If you want to be a mindfulness instructor, start by educating yourself. You need to know your stuff. Essentially, this means that you need to know two things.

You need to know:

• The different types of meditation (just read this guide. It contains comprehensive guides to all major techniques)
• Why people meditate (benefits)

Honestly, between those two guides, you will find more information, for free, than you will in any multi-thousand-dollar course.

Those guides will tell you the how and why of the practice.

You need to know the different types of techniques so you can teach them. And you need to know the benefits because they are the keys to marketing yourself as a teacher. More on this later.

Take a look at those two links above. They contain guides to all the different methods and scientific articles on all the numerous benefits.

After you’ve read those two guides in full, you will already know enough to start teaching.

2: Create a Meditation studio

Actually, knowing how to meditate is only one small part of teaching. If you want to become a mindfulness instructor, you will need a space in which to teach.

This space is insanely important. Because honestly, even though your students will want your advice, they will also just want to go somewhere relaxing and beautiful. That’s why you want your studio to be like a luxury spa.

Don’t sweat. It doesn’t necessarily have to cost a million dollars to create your space. Just be smart with your budget.

It’s important to realise that your studio is both your branding and your product.

Your studio is the place people go to relax. They come and see you for the lesson. They want to relax. So, you’d better have a beautiful space for them to relax in, otherwise, they will go elsewhere.

Just like how when you buy a new product, it comes in a box; your meditation lessons come in the studio. The studio is the packaging. So, make sure your studio looks professional and beautiful.

You’ll also need to have all the essential meditation tools, like a meditation chair, malas, singing bowls and so on.

3: Marketing for Meditation Teachers

• Get my help on your marketing yourself as a coach here

Marketing is really important and often overlooked.

You can know everything in the world about meditation. But if you want to teach it, you need to know how to sell yourself as a coach. Training is worthless unless you can make money out of it. And you can’t do that unless you sell yourself.

This is especially true because the industry is burgeoning right now. Every day more and more people become mindfulness instructors. And you need to compete against them. That means you need darned good marketing, otherwise, you will not stand out from the crowd.

This is also why a lot of mindfulness teachers teach at the gym or at an already successful yoga studio. Because that way you don’t need to market yourself, you just need to get the owner of the gym/yoga studio to give you a spot. It’s a lot easier and a lot less risky (but also not as potentially lucrative).

So here is what you’re going to need to do to make yourself stand out as a coach:

• Get business cards
• Invest in marketing (online / via brochures etc.)
• Tell every single person you know
• Use Facebook ads / Google ads and other online ads (contact me for help with this, or visit PMHarrison.com)

4: Do you need certification?

There are times when you do need to be certified as a meditation coach, and times when you do not.

If the method that you are instructing is trademarked, then you will legally require a certification from that specific school.

Another time when you will want certification or some kind of legally recognisable license is when you are teaching people who have a diagnosed mental health condition. If you are not medically qualified, you should not teach people with mental health conditions. It is not worth the risk to them or to you.

That said, if you are simply training people to meditate, and you’re focusing on helping healthy people to relax, you probably won’t need a certificate for that.

Play it smart. Don’t do something you are not qualified to do.

5: Making money as a meditation coach

Here’s what I hate about most courses. They teach you how to teach. But they do not teach you how to make money.

Let’s be real: you won’t stick to being a mindfulness instructor unless you actually make money from it. And you definitely won’t stick to it if you lose money from it. So here are some of my tips on managing finances.

Firstly, start by investing a few grand. It will cost you a little bit of money to get yourself set-up as a tutor. And most of that money should be invested into either a) your studio, or b) your marketing. The reason is this: Your studio is your product, and you need your product to be good; otherwise, people will not be interested. But you also need to reach people through marketing. So, invest in your product and your marketing.

Go above and beyond for all your students in the beginning. Word of mouth marketing will be important. You want all your students to talk about you so that their friends want to take your lessons. That’s how you grow. The best way to make this happen is to go above and beyond for your first bunch of students. Make them fall in love with your product. Even if you’re putting in more time than you’re getting paid for, do it, because if your first bunch of students love you, they will rave about you and they will make other people want to take your lessons.

Get insurance: Bear in mind that as a tutor, some of your students could have mental health problems such as anxiety, and they could potentially have a health incident during a lesson. If you do not have insurance, you could face a massive financial blow. Cover yourself and get insured.

How To Choose  

Above I shared my free guide. But what if you want to pay for a course?

When it comes to choosing a course, you are spoilt for choice. Unfortunately, you’re also swimming in a pool full of sharks.

Let me tell it to you how it is: There are a lot of fraudulent websites out there that offer mindfulness teacher training courses online. And a lot of them are absolute scams.

Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely love this business. As an online meditation teacher myself, and as the person who runs THE DAILY MEDITATION, meditation is my biggest passion in life. Well, maybe excluding cats. And because it is such a passion for me, I want to help you choose the best course—online or in the real world (and I’ll compare those options in just a moment).

So, let’s look at how to choose.

1: Online or Offline?

One of the most important decisions to make at the beginning is whether you want to take a course online or offline.

There are benefits to both. The online ones let you stay at home, so you don’t have to travel or stay away. They are also a lot cheaper because you don’t need to pay for accommodation. But there are also a lot of fraudsters who only offer training (if a business has an actual physical building, it is a lot less likely to be a scam).

Offline courses are more expensive, but they are usually better. For starters, you will probably be staying away from home, which means you can focus wholeheartedly on your training. You also get to be with your mindfulness coach trainer, which is a huge benefit. And you’ll be around other people training to be meditation teachers. So, it’s a better option but a more expensive one.

2: Check their reputation  

Because courses are huge right now, there are a lot of players in the game just trying to make money out of you. I highly recommend taking a serious look at the institute you’re interested in attending. How long has it been in existence? Does it have a history of creating coaches who actually succeed in the job? Are there reviews online you can check out? Do your homework, otherwise, you risk wasting your time and money.

3: How Recognised Is The Certificate?

Different institutes offer different certificates. And not all certifications are created equal.

For example, here are some very highly respected courses:

• Centre for Mindfulness Studies Toronto
• Oxford Mindfulness Centre

If you take any of those courses, you can be confident that it will be high quality and that you will be prepared to become a teacher. They are some of the best courses in the world.

Then again, if you book a cheap course, your certificate might be just paper. One friendly warning: Don’t use those websites that offer a course for every subject under the sun. I don’t want to name anyone here, but certain websites offer courses on everything from being a construction worker to being an astronaut. You don’t want to take one of those. Take a class from a highly respected institute. It will be more expensive, but this is your career we’re talking about here. It’s worth it!

4: Who Will Be Training You?

An excellent course will be able to tell you the name of your teacher(s). If they can’t tell you the specific name of the person(s) who will be teaching you, assume the worst.

The mentor they name should also have a good reputation. Google their name. If they’re any good, they will have online pages, websites, social media profiles, and other ways you can contact them. See if anyone has left comments or reviews about them. What did they say? Was the teacher good?

Don’t be afraid to reach out to other people who have taken your course and ask them what they thought of it. If they thought highly of it, they would be happy to share that good experience, and if it was terrible, they would be glad to warn you about it.

5: Do You Actually Need Meditation Teacher Training Anyway?

In the majority of countries, it is not legally required to have a certificate to teach mindfulness (check the law in your country/state). However, that isn’t to say that you won’t get a lot out of it. One of the main benefits you will get is that it will make it easier to get insurance. And yes, you definitely will need insurance.

Let me share another useful tip here: One way to ascertain the quality of your course is to ask insurers. A lot of mindfulness insurance companies will assess your risk based on the quality of the course that you have taken and the certificate you achieved. By asking them before taking a course, you will get a good indication of how good the course is, and how respected the institute is.

Summary

I am madly passionate about mindfulness and meditation. I spend my life helping people learn to meditate and helping meditation teachers to succeed. That’s why I sincerely want you to choose the right course.

The advice I’ve shared will help you dodge the sharks and find the best course for you.

Summary

And that is about all you need to know to teach mindfulness. As an online meditation teacher I am confident that the information in this guide will get you up and running.

This industry is growing big time, and there has never been a better time to train as a meditation teacher.

Good luck!

Paul Harrison

Paul Harrison is a passionate meditation teacher who believes in genuine, authentic meditation. He has more than 15 years experience in meditation and mindfulness. He studied meditation in beautiful Oxford, UK, and Hamilton Ontario Canada, and earned his degree at Staffordshire University.

“My goal is to provide the most authentic meditation sessions so you can harness the power of your own mind for personal transformation” – Paul Harrison