Mindfulness teaching in Europe and North America appears to have stalled. Demand for teacher training has dropped, and the organisations that offer that training are facing considerable challenges. Yet mindfulness is now embedded in the modern discourse, meditation is talked about openly, and apps such as Calm are now multi-million or even multi-billion pound businesses. How can something so widely talked about, generally considered beneficial, and clearly making money for some organisations, have a drop in demand for courses?
Contemporary approaches to mindfulness originated with the creation of the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programme originated by Jon Kabat-Zinn. It is typically taught as an 8 week intensive course offered to groups, with participants expected to undertake 30 to 45 minutes of mindfulness practice a day during the course. It has been studied scientifically, and there are a number of adaptations of that course, most notably Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) which has had a number of significant studies showing its effectiveness in the management of depression. A small industry has now grown around the training of teachers for such courses, and steps are being taken to create a professional body – the British Association of Mindfulness Based Approaches (BAMBA) have a register of teachers and are proactively developing professional standards.
The NHS offer mindfulness as a therapy, and there are now a number of organisations training mindfulness teachers. The Mindfulness in Schools Project trains school teachers to offer mindfulness courses. There are university qualifications in mindfulness, and significant research is going on into the effectiveness of mindfulness for health and wellbeing – the number of research projects and publications has been on a steady growth since 2000. This should bode well for the continuing development of mindfulness.
However, people trained to teach mindfulness are having difficulty recruiting to courses. Outside of the NHS, mindfulness teaching in the UK is largely a cottage industry – teachers market their own courses and organise delivery. A decade ago that was a viable way of earning a (not very lucrative) living, but few people today can rely on mindfulness teaching as their main source of income. Yet mindfulness is well known as beneficial, and the success of apps like Headspace, Calm and Insight Timer testify to its popularity. Mindfulness is now part of the vernacular. Why is this?
There is little doubt that well-formed, well-researched courses, taught by well-trained professionals can be beneficial in a number of ways. This is where the focus of attention has been in the development of mindfulness teaching and research. Although there is a dip in public demand for courses, it is unlikely now that demand will fizzle away completely. After nearly 50 years of MBSR-based courses, with well-documented evidence of the effects, there is more than enough impetus to keep contemporary mindfulness approaches alive.
The other success of contemporary mindfulness is evidenced in the market for Apps. Over the last decade there have been hundreds of millions of downloads, demonstrating its popularity. There is much less evidence of the benefit of such Apps, but as people pay for these then it shows significant demand. There are some books on mindfulness that have become very popular. There are also products in the market, such as mindful colouring books. Mindfulness is portrayed in the media with a largely positive spin. The general view of mindfulness is that it is beneficial, even if the public perception of mindfulness is broader than the scientific characterisation.
There is clearly a gap between the intense, demanding courses that have emerged over the last half century and the less intense popular end of the market. If the benefits of mindfulness evidenced in the high end courses are to become more widespread, that gap needs to be addressed. There are some strategies emerging that are helpful, but probably do not fully address the problem.
The growth in mindfulness teacher training was to address a clear demand, but it has now peaked. That training is centred on how to offer MBSR type courses. Professional standards have grown up around such courses. If they are in some way too difficult, then shorter and more accessible courses is a common way of trying to increase access. Most mindfulness teachers will offer lightweight courses, most usually as an introduction with the aspiration that it will lead to people doing the more intense courses. Some success has been achieved in this with the popular Frantic World courses, which are derived from the more intense Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy course. But even those are not likely to completely close the gap.
Another strategy is better marketing, and any teacher who wants to succeed will need to do that or to work for an organisation that does. Unfortunately, in a market where there is over-supply of teachers, it will only marginally increase demand and shift delivery to those with the best marketing. Good marketing will broaden the appeal, and increase demand, but again it is unlikely to completely close the gap.
Another strategy is to use technology more effectively to make the intense courses more accessible. Paradoxically, this could reduce demand for teachers, because it will shift the demand to those with the best technology skills.
The fundamental issue is that the high intensity courses are a big ask for anyone undertaking them, and there are many reasons why people cannot or even should not do such courses. Some research is being done on lighter weight courses and on courses focused on particular needs such as neuro-diversity. The traditional way of teaching mindfulness in an MBSR-derived course is a deterrent rather than an attractor for many, probably the majority. There needs to be a shift in approach if mindfulness teaching practice is to bridge the gap between the intense 8 week course market and the much wider App market.
Rather than jump to solutions, we need to pause on a few questions. What are the skills that a mindfulness teacher needs to reach the wider, more diverse population? How can we embed mindfulness into education? Should we shift from an intervention-centric perspective to thinking about lifelong learning? How do we integrate mindfulness into other forms of health and wellbeing activities?
This is not to minimise or detract from the huge success of mindfulness practice. Rather it is to take the challenge of declining numbers seeking the established ways of learning mindfulness and to explore new possibilities and build on the learning of the last half century.
