Mindfulness Teacher Training Faculty

Meet Your MCMI Certification Faculty

World-Class Academic Credentials Meet Practical Teaching Experience

MCMI MindCoachers Certified Mindfulness Instructor Logo - IMTA Accredited Professional Credential
IMTA Accredited Professional Mindfulness Teacher Training Program - International Certification Standards

Meet the architects of the MCMI credential. Our faculty are published specialists in ACT and neuroscience, dedicated to training the next generation of professional mindfulness instructors.


Frédéric Giraud, CMT-P

Founder & MCMI Lead Faculty  Certified MBCR Specialist & Trauma-Informed Educator

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Watch Frédéric present the MCMI methodology — free, 20 minutes, on demand.

“Why Your Professional Experience Is Not Enough — and What Actually Builds Teaching Authority”

  • Authenticity Through Lived Experience

    I believe the most effective teachers are those who have walked the path they describe. My mission is to move mindfulness beyond the conceptual, training instructors to facilitate with authentic depth and trauma-informed precision—supporting people through their most challenging life transitions.

Key Expertise

✦ Direct MBCR Mentorship: Personally trained and certified in Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery by the program’s founders, Drs. Linda Carlson and Michael Speca (University of Calgary).
✦ Lived Experience Authority: As a cancer survivor, Frédéric brings an unmatched “insider” perspective to the mechanics of fear, resilience, and the healing process.
✦ Crisis & Trauma Response: Currently leading mindfulness initiatives for DANA-affected populations in Valencia, applying real-time trauma-informed crisis response.
✦ Somatic Regulation: Certified in Pranayama and Hatha Yoga (Kerala, India), integrating breathwork and body-based tools into the modern mindfulness framework.

Academic Background & Credentials

✦ Certified CMT-P | International Mindfulness Teachers Association (IMTA)
✦ Certified MBCR Instructor | Trained by Drs. Carlson & Speca (Founders of MBCR)
✦ Mindful Educator Essentials | Mindful Schools Graduate
✦ Advanced Breathwork & Yoga Certification | Sivasoorya Divine School, India
✦ Founder | MindCoachers IMTA-Accredited Training

  • Anchoring Modern Resilience in Ancient Wisdom

    Mindfulness is most powerful when it moves beyond a temporary “hack” into a sustainable way of being. My mission is to help you ground your teaching in 2,500 years of contemplative wisdom, providing the depth and community support needed to transform modern burnout into lasting emotional balance.

Key Expertise

✦ Academic & Contemplative Synthesis: Holds a Ph.D. in Buddhist Theory and Modern Psychology, specializing in the mechanics of stress and emotional wellbeing.
✦ Burnout & Stress Mastery: A leading specialist in addressing chronic stress and emotional overwhelm, particularly for high-achieving professionals and leadership contexts.
✦ Community Architect: Founder of the Balanced Minds Community, bringing 20+ years of experience in fostering sustained, long-term meditation practice and peer support.
✦ Executive Application: Expert in translating complex contemplative concepts into actionable tools for corporate trainers and executive coaches navigating high-pressure environments.

Academic Background & Credentials

✦ Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) | Focus: Meditation, Stress & Emotional Wellbeing
✦ 20+ Years of Meditation Practice and International Teaching Experience
✦ Founder | Balanced Minds Community (Mental Health & Meditation Platform)
✦ Lead Researcher | Integration of Ancient Wisdom with Evidence-Based Psychology

Dr. Corey Jackson, Ph.D.

MCMI Community Lead Teacher | Buddhist Scholar & Burnout Specialist

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  • Science-Backed Coaching for Sustainable Change

    As an expert in acceptance and commitment coaching, I specialise in translating rigorous psychological science into impactful, practical behaviour change strategies. I use contextual behavioural science to help clients navigate complex dynamics and achieve meaningful change. My approach centres on evidence-based techniques designed to foster the deep insight and sustainable growth necessary for long-term professional success and personal wellbeing.

Key Expertise

✦ Acceptance and Commitment Coaching: As an internationally recognised expert, I apply rigorous psychological models to help clients navigate complex challenges and uncertain work environments. This approach fosters the deep insight necessary for sustainable behaviour change and long-term professional growth.
✦ Evidence-Based Coaching Research: I apply rigorous, scientifically-validated ACT-informed coaching protocols that have been proven to enhance senior leader performance, mental health, and goal attainment. My approach is underpinned by doctoral research and randomised controlled trials, ensuring this approach is grounded in measurable, practical outcomes.
✦ Contextual Behavioural Science: By integrating evidence-based research with practical application, I help people navigate intricate organizational or interpersonal dynamics, such as influencing and decision-making. My method focuses on creating measurable performance enhancements in a variety of domains using theory and insight from contextual behavioural science.
✦ Sustainable Performance & Wellbeing: I use ACC to help people, leaders and teams navigate complex challenges, translating behavioural science into sustainable change and growth. My work prioritises long-term sustainability of outcomes, ensuring that performance improvements also support overall wellbeing.

Academic Background & Credentials

✦ Chartered Coaching Psychologist, Associate Fellow, and Registered Supervisor, British Psychological Society
✦ Chartered Scientist, Science Council
✦ PhD in Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London
✦ MSc in Occupational Psychology (Dist.), Goldsmiths, University of London
✦ BSc in Psychology (Hons.), The Open University
✦ BA in Philosophy (Hons.), Heythrop College, University of London
✦ Accredited Coaching Psychologist, Fellow, and Accredited Supervisor, International Society for Coaching Psychology

Dr. Rachael Skews, Ph.D.

Guest Lecturer | Chartered Coaching Psychologist & ACT Coaching Specialist

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Mila de Koning

Guest Lecturer | Senior MBSR, MBCT & Mindful Self-Compassion Teacher Trainer 

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  • Compassion as a Force for Change 

    After so many years of teaching mindfulness and self-compassion, I still teach with a lot of passion and pleasure. I have been delivering mindfulness and self-compassion courses, workshops and coaching since 2006, rooted in years of clinical work in mental healthcare, as a nurse, sociotherapist, teacher and prevention worker. Passing on mindfulness and self-compassion is something I do with my heart and soul. I truly believe that compassion is a force that can change the world.

Key Expertise

✦ MSC Teacher Training & Supervision: Senior Teacher Trainer and Supervisor in the Mindful Self-Compassion programme developed by Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer; previously coordinated MSC teacher training for Europe and South America on behalf of the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion in San Diego.
✦ MBSR & MBCT Teacher Training: Senior-level trainer and supervisor, supporting professionals in healthcare, education, and coaching to teach evidence-based mindfulness and compassion programmes with competence and ethical grounding.
✦ Mindfulness in Healthcare: Founded the Mindfulness Expertise Centre at VU Medical Centre; co-founded Selfcare for Healthcare and co-authored Heart for the Doctor: Working with Self-Compassion (2020) for physicians and healthcare workers.
✦ Programme Development & Leadership: Founder and Lead Teacher of De Mindfulness Academie and the Self-Compassion Academy, official European partner of the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion, San Diego.

Academic Background & Credentials

✦ Senior Teacher Trainer & Supervisor, Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) | Center for Mindful Self-Compassion, San Diego (USA)
✦ Senior Teacher Trainer & Supervisor — MBSR & MBCT
✦ Certified MSC Teacher | UC San Diego School of Medicine (2016) | Faculty Member of the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness
✦ Co-author, Heart for the Doctor: Working with Self-Compassion (2020)
✦ Founder | Mindfulness Expertise Centre, VU Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam
✦ Over 20 years of experience in mental healthcare and mindfulness-based training


  • Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness & Nervous System Regulation

    My work brings together mindfulness, Schema Therapy, and trauma-informed approaches to help people cultivate greater psychological flexibility, self-compassion, and resilience. As both a clinical and developmental psychologist and a mindfulness teacher, I am particularly interested in how mindfulness can support nervous system regulation and the healing of developmental and complex trauma. In my teaching, I enjoy translating research into experiential learning that professionals can integrate into their own work with confidence, compassion, and ethical awareness.

Key Expertise

✦ Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: I integrate mindfulness with trauma-informed principles, helping professionals understand when and how mindfulness practices can be adapted to promote safety, nervous system regulation, and resilience.
✦ Developmental & Complex Trauma: My clinical work is grounded in understanding how early and chronic relational experiences and unmet emotional needs affect emotion-regulation skills, attachment styles, and patterns of both adaptive and maladaptive coping mechanisms. I integrate developmental and trauma-sensitive perspectives into both psychotherapy and mindfulness-based interventions to support bottom-up approaches alongside top-down, eclectic and integrative methods.
✦ Teaching & Professional Training: Alongside my clinical work, I contribute to university teaching and provide professional training and supervision for psychologists and other helping professionals. My teaching philosophy is grounded in the belief that meaningful learning begins with personal experience — I place strong emphasis on self-reflection, experiential learning, and embodiment, so participants engage with mindfulness practices themselves before exploring the underlying theory.

Academic Background & Credentials

✦ Ph.D. in Psychology, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
✦ MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) and MBCT (Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy) Teachers’ Training, with formal supervision completed
✦ Mindful Parenting Teachers’ Training under Prof. Dr. Susan Bögels
✦ Adjunct Lecturer in Mindfulness (Health and Sport Psychology, Master’s Program), Kadir Has University
✦ Principal Investigator, Lifelong Wellbeing Lab
✦ Published researcher on mindfulness-based interventions and psychological wellbeing, with peer-reviewed articles and book chapters in clinical psychology and mindfulness-based therapies
✦ Clinical Psychologist and Developmental Psychologist in private practice since 2016

Dr. Gizem Çeviker, PhD

Guest Lecturer | Clinical & Developmental Psychologist, Certified MBSR, MBCT & Mindful Parenting Teacher

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Susan Hargreaves, B.Ed, MSt (Oxon)

Guest Lecturer | Counsellor, Educator & Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy Specialist 

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  • Grounding Wellbeing in Everyday Practice

    My work sits at the meeting point of education, counselling and mindfulness. Across schools, universities and private practice, I have supported children, young people and adults through some of their most difficult moments — and I have seen how a compassionate, mindfulness-based approach can build real, lasting resilience. 

Key Expertise

✦ Counselling & Wellbeing: Extensive experience supporting children, young people and adults across school, university and private practice settings, including work as a school counsellor, counsellor in a multidisciplinary private practice in Hong Kong specialising in children aged 4–25 with neurodiversity and anxiety, and with the University of Oxford Counselling Service and various Colleges.
✦ Mindfulness-Based Approaches: Specialist training and teaching experience in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), MBCT for Life, Deeper Mindfulness, Introduction to Mindfulness, and Paws b/Dot b courses, alongside a range of mindfulness and wellbeing workshops.
✦ Education & Student Support: A broad background in education, including teaching, further education lecturing and student welfare. Susan has also worked as Welfare Officer at Jesus College, supporting students’ wellbeing and pastoral needs.
✦ Integrating Education, Counselling & Mindfulness: Brings together experience as an educator, counsellor and mindfulness teacher to offer practical, compassionate approaches to emotional wellbeing, resilience and self-awareness.

Academic Background & Credentials

✦ Masters in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) | University of Oxford
✦ Graduate Diploma, Counselling | Australian College of Applied Psychology
✦ Bachelor of Education | Deakin University


  • Embodied Presence for Modern Leadership

    Real change in leadership doesn’t come from the neck up alone. My work brings together somatic practice, mindfulness and neuroscience so executives can build resilience they can actually feel in the body — not just understand in theory. 

Key Expertise

✦ Executive Coaching & Leadership Development: Senior Consultant in Sustainability & Impact Executive Programmes at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and coach within the Oxford Coaching Network, working with senior leaders, founders and C-suite professionals to strengthen leadership capability, resilience, career development and strategic impact.
✦ Somatic Facilitation & Embodied Mindfulness Teaching: 18 years as a Chartered Senior Yoga and Meditation Teacher, teaching yoga, meditation and mindfulness to senior leaders and professionals across global corporations, organisations and industries through executive and leadership programmes at Saïd Business School and other leading academic institutions within the University of Oxford.
✦ Resilience & Neuroencoding Coaching: Certified Neuroencoding Specialist and PQ Coach (Positive Intelligence), helping professionals shift from stress and overwhelm toward resilience and sustained performance.
✦ Sustainability & Impact Leadership: Five-year co-chair of the Green Impact sustainability programme at Saïd Business School, contributing to multiple Gold Award-winning initiatives.

Academic Background & Credentials

✦ Oxford School of Climate Change — Core Science, Policy & Politics of Climate Change | University of Oxford
✦ Business Sustainability Management | Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, University of Cambridge
✦ MBSR trained mindfulness practitioner
✦ Certified Neuroencoding Specialist | The Neuroencoding Institute
✦ Certified PQ Coach | Positive Intelligence — Executive Coaching & Mindfulness for Leaders
✦ Certified Mental Health First Aider
✦ Chartered Senior Yoga & Meditation Teacher (18+ years)

Kristine Navarro Homoki

Guest Lecturer | Senior Yoga & Meditation Teacher, Executive Resilience Coach at the University of Oxford

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Dr. Tamara Russell, PhD

Guest Lecturer | Chartered Clinical Psychologist – Mindfulness-Based Approaches

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  • Expanding the Potential of Mindfulness

    I believe we have not yet reached the full potential of mindfulness based approaches. Wise contextualisation and thoughtful creative adaptations will allow us to meet our clients at their own unique place. Deepening our understanding of the mechanisms of mindfulness is our most essential task.

Key Expertise

✦ Chartered Clinical Psychologist: British Psychological Society and Health & Care Professions Council Registered Practitioner Psychologist.
✦ Creative Mindfulness-Based Approaches: For individual work, specialising in severe and enduring mental health conditions and healthcare workers.
✦ Body in Mind Training: Founder of a movement-based mindfulness teacher training offered to practitioners and professionals from a variety of backgrounds.
✦ The Mindfulness Centre of Excellence UK: Founder and Director of a leading think tank for innovation in mindfulness-based approaches with a focus on widening access.
✦ Brainwise Mindfulness Adaptations: For those who can’t, won’t, or struggle to still (specialisations: ADHD, Bipolar, Psychosis, Post-Natal Depression, Depersonalisation, Health Care Workers).

Academic Background & Credentials

✦ PhD in Experimental Psychology – King’s College London
✦ Doctorate in Clinical Psychology – University College London
✦ MSc Neuroscience – King’s College London
✦ Black Belt, Shaolin Kung Fu (Dung Sai Do System)
✦ Editor and Contributor, British Psychological Society “Mindfulness Based Approaches for Psychologists” (2022)
✦ Author of three books on mindfulness: Mindfulness in Motion, #whatismindfulness, and What Colour is Your Dragon (Portuguese)
✦ Published author and active researcher in mindfulness-based approaches (ORCID)
✦ Director, Mindfulness Centre of Excellence, London
✦ Founder, Body in Mind Training

Train with this faculty. Earn your dual certification.

Enroll now or speak with a faculty member directly about your professional goals.

World-Class Credentials Meet Practical Teaching

Skip the theory and start teaching. In our Mindfulness Teacher Training, you don’t just watch—you lead. Guide real practices every week, get immediate feedback, and build your skills in a safe, supportive environment.

MCMI Methodology Architects

Our faculty designed the MCMI credential by integrating ACT, trauma-sensitive protocols, and neuroscience. Led by Dr. Nikki Rubin (UCLA) and Frédéric Giraud (MBCR), this team created the specialized methodology that defines the MindCoachers standard.

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IMTA Accredited

The MCMI curriculum meets the highest global competency standards. This IMTA accreditation ensures your training is recognized in 40+ countries, providing the professional portable status required for clinical insurance billingand Fortune 500 corporate contracts.

Published & Field-Experienced Specialists

Learn from field-experienced experts who have authored influential works in mindfulness and psychology. Our specialists bridge the gap between academic research and practical application, ensuring you graduate with proven, evidence-based tools.

Faculty & Expertise FAQ

Common questions about the mentorship and professional standards of our Mindfulness Teacher Training.

Our faculty combine academic expertise, professional teaching credentials, and long-standing mindfulness practice to deliver the MindCoachers Certified Mindfulness Instructor (MCMI) credential—the only IMTA-accredited programme integrating ACT, trauma-sensitive protocols, and neuroscience foundations.

The team includes IMTA-certified mindfulness teachers, university-based faculty contributing expertise in ACT-informed and evidence-based psychology, and senior practitioners with extensive experience teaching mindfulness across healthcare, education, and organizational settings.

For example, Dr. Nikki Rubin, Assistant Clinical Professor at UCLA, contributes her expertise in psychological flexibility and ACT-informed mindfulness education within professional training contexts. All faculty teach within clearly defined ethical and professional boundaries, ensuring the training remains focused on mindfulness teaching competence, not clinical qualification.

This combination ensures your training is rigorous, evidence-informed, and professionally grounded, while remaining fully consistent with IMTA standards and scope of practice.

Yes. Unlike “video-only” courses, our faculty teach all 12 live modules and workshops. You will engage in direct Q&A, observe live demonstrations, and receive expert feedback. Faculty review the capstone assessments and participate in the Community of Practice.

Standard mindfulness trainings often focus on what to teach, but not why certain approaches work—or when they may be inappropriate. Our faculty provide in-depth, evidence-informed instruction in ACT-informed mindfulness (values clarification, cognitive defusion, psychological flexibility) and trauma-sensitive teaching principles (nervous system awareness, choice-based language, and pacing).

This foundation helps you teach responsibly and effectively in healthcare-adjacent, corporate, educational, and other high-stress environments—where generic mindfulness instruction can fall short—while staying firmly within your professional scope of practice.

Yes. Guest expeYes. Select guest experts are strategically integrated into specific modules throughout the 12-week curriculum. These contributors bring specialized perspectives from complementary fields, enriching the training with diverse professional lenses.

Their participation expands the learning beyond a single methodology, creating a multidisciplinary, international masterclass experience while remaining fully aligned with the program’s core teaching standards..

Ready to Learn from World-Class Faculty?

Join our January 2027 cohort and study with UCLA faculty and trauma specialists who bridge academic research with practical teaching skills.

January 2027 · Cohort limited

— or, not ready yet? —

Masterclass: Watch Frédéric present the methodology – free, on demand.  ·  Or download the prospectus