Contact Hours

A Contact Hour must take place in the physical presence of a faculty member. Content of Contact Hours must be intended for teacher trainees rather than the general public, specifically:

• The content of these hours advances the education of trainees as demonstrates explicitly through the course syllabus and its Learning Objectives.
• These hours fall into the normal content flow of the overall training entailing discussion, reports submitted by trainees on their experiences, related homework, projects, or the like.
• Faculty for these hours meet IMTA Accredited Mindfulness Teacher Training Program faculty qualifications and are designated in the syllabus as training faculty.

Non-Contact Hours

Non-Contact Hours are the number of hours of learning that occur without a faculty member present. All Non-Contact Hours must be relevant to the Competency Areas. These outside resources should be thoughtfully chosen to support the training.

Non-Contact Hours must be an assigned part of the curriculum and examples of allowable Non-Contact Hours may include:

• Reading, audio/video or Internet resources that are integrated into the curriculum via reports, class discussions, presentations, tests, or the like;
• Webinars on mindfulness-related topics;
• Written assignments on mindfulness -related topics that may be counted for all categories except Practicum;
• Group activities including directed discussion, technique practice or teaching practice;
• Attending mindfulness classes outside of the program with the following stipulations:
  • Each class must be evaluated via a written or oral exercise, and
  • These hours may count toward the Techniques, Training and Practice, Teaching Methodology or Practicum categories.

Examples of unallowable Non-Contact Hours include:

• Personal private practice, and
• Attending classes intended for the general public without entailing discussion, reports submitted by trainees on their experiences, related homework, and the like.