Frequently Asked
Questions

Prolonged periods of practice are required to give teachers an opportunity to deepen their insight and to experience the kind of processes that might arise for their participants.

BAMBA registered teachers are required to attend five days of mindfulness and or compassion retreat led practice per year with periods of silence lasting for at least 50% of waking time.  This requirement could be met in the following ways:

Gold Standard:  Five consecutive, residential days, guided by a teacher

For experienced practitioners who have already undertaken numerous guided, silent residential retreats, five days of un-guided solitary retreat would be acceptable periodically. This should be agreed in discussion with the teacher’s supervisor as meeting the practice needs of the teacher at their particular stage of development.

Mitigating circumstances – where personal situations do not permit a single five-day residential retreat, this may be separated into shorter periods such as two weekend retreats or a series of day retreats adding up to five days.  Where even these options are not feasible due to personal circumstances such as major life events, other alternatives may be proposed to BAMBA and will be considered exceptionally on a case by case basis.  Please read BAMBAs Good Practice Guidelines for more information.

Currently (January 2025) online retreat options are also acceptable under BAMBAs Good Practice Guidelines.

Please note:  Supervisor roles are required to complete seven days of retreat annually, to be evidenced at BAMBA renewal.

Teachers are advised to engage in a minimum of 30 hours of mindfulness CPD per year to keep abreast of the evolution of mindfulness teaching and to uphold agreed accrediting standards.

The thirty hours should comprise at least one day (six hours) of face to face or live online training such as a master class.

Other hours could be made up through reading books to deepen development and education of mindfulness based work or theory; listening to podcasts or online material, writing mindfulness-based material, newsletters or internal documents, preparing and delivering new material for teaching or training, delivering presentations, attending regional mindfulness gatherings or special mindfulness-related interest groups, events of conference, accessing mindfulness-informed mentoring.

Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) training is an important part of CPD for all teachers and is strongly encouraged.

The teachers chosen CPD should meet an identified learning need. BAMBA registered mindfulness teachers should keep a record of CPD completed as BAMBA may ask for more information or evidence at renewal application.

Teachers should be familiar with BAMBA’s Ethical Standards as well as any codes of conduct produced by their relevant professional bodies. They should be engaging through personal reflection and an open discussion with their mindfulness supervisor about the ethical and professional issues raised in these documents. Teachers should always ensure they are teaching with integrity and within their level of competence.

The initial registration fee is £120, with an annual renewal fee of £60.

Please note, that the application fee is generally non-refundable once your application has been submitted unless significant mitigating circumstances are presented in writing to [email protected]. In this case, up to a 50% refund may be considered.

Please contact [email protected] to request information on sponsorship or bursaries

  Yes, you can.

We know that many of our registered teachers diversify their work based on experience and that teachers can find themselves teaching in a one-to-one setting, delivering workshops, or delivering shorter programmes.  When it comes to renewing your membership, it is not mandatory for an existing register member to have taught any number of eight-week programmes to qualify for renewal.

When you apply for renewal through the website application process, simply tell us what has been keeping you active in the field of mindfulness by way of teaching, training or supervising others in any capacity.

Yes, you can.

If you have undertaken training in an additional BAMBA-recognised Mindfulness-Based Programme (MBP) and would like to add it to your existing profile, there is an application process you can follow to do this.

Please contact [email protected] for more information.

Please note, the cost is £25 per additional MBP.