Choosing a mindfulness course

There are a lot of mindfulness courses out there. Most of the good ones share the same roots, but they're built for different people and different moments in life.

This guide explains the three structured eight-week courses you're most likely to come across in the UK and online, what each one is for, and what to look for in a teacher. It's written so you can choose well, whether or not you choose this course.

The three eight-week courses

• MBSR: Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction

  The original eight-week mindfulness course, developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1979. It was created to help people living with stress, pain and illness, and most mindfulness courses since have grown from it.

  Sessions are usually around two and a half hours, with a longer day of practice part-way through, and daily home practice of around 45 minutes.

• MBCT: Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy

  Developed by Zindel Segal, Mark Williams and John Teasdale, MBCT combines the MBSR approach with ideas from cognitive therapy. It was designed for people who have experienced repeated episodes of depression, to help prevent it coming back, and NICE recommends it for that purpose.

  The format is similar to MBSR. It's usually taught by a teacher with a clinical background, and is sometimes available through NHS talking therapies.

• Finding Peace in a Frantic World

  Based on the best-selling book by Professor Mark Williams (one of the developers of MBCT) and Dr Danny Penman. It adapts MBCT for everyday life: for people who are busy, stressed or rushing through their days on autopilot, rather than as a clinical programme.

  Sessions are shorter than MBSR or MBCT, and the home practice is lighter, which makes it a gentle first course. This is the course Stillwaters teaches: eight 90-minute sessions, live on Zoom, in a small group.

Other ways to learn mindfulness

Apps are a good way to try short guided meditations, and many people start there. What they can't offer is a teacher who answers your questions, or a group going through the same difficulties at the same time. Most people find it hard to keep going alone.

Drop-in classes are lovely for keeping a practice going once you have one, but they don't build skills week by week the way a structured course does.

Books, including Finding Peace in a Frantic World, can take you a long way. If you're deciding between the book and a course, this page compares the two.

Retreats give you time to go deeper, and are usually best once you have some experience.

Online or in person?

Live online mindfulness courses have become common, and for many people they work just as well as meeting in a room. You practise at home, which is where the practice needs to live anyway, there's no travel, and you can join from anywhere in the UK or beyond.

What matters is that the course is live, with a real teacher and a group, rather than pre-recorded videos. You'll need a quiet room, a laptop or tablet with a camera, and a reliable connection. The FAQ covers the practical details.

How to choose a good teacher

• Training. Ask where they trained to teach the specific course, not only mindfulness in general.
• Their own practice. A good teacher has a long-standing personal practice and takes part in ongoing supervision.
• Good practice guidelines. In the UK, the British Association of Mindfulness-Based Approaches (BAMBA) publishes good practice guidelines for teachers. It's reasonable to ask whether a teacher follows them.
• A conversation before you start. A careful teacher will ask about your health and circumstances first, to check the course is right for you now.
• Group size. Smaller groups mean more time for your questions. Around ten to sixteen people is typical for an eight-week course.

Which one is right for you?

If you've experienced repeated depression, an MBCT course with a clinically trained teacher is the one designed for you; your GP or NHS talking therapies service can help you find one. If you're living with chronic pain or illness, MBSR was built for that. If you're simply stretched thin and want a calmer, clearer way of meeting everyday life, Finding Peace in a Frantic World is a kind place to begin.

Whatever you choose, it's worth reading whether now is the right time before you start. No mindfulness course is a replacement for medical or mental health care.