In January 2025, the Insight Meditation Society and Spirit Rock launched the first joint Teacher Training Program (TTP)  we have run together since 2016. Run sometimes separately and other times jointly by IMS and Spirit Rock for decades, the four-year TTP is the primary means by which lay meditation teachers become qualified to teach retreats at insight meditation centers and communities across the country and abroad. Many of the established teachers who guide IMS and Spirit Rock retreats—teachers you know and love—are graduates of the TTP.

For the 2025-2028 training, 44 candidates were nominated between July and December of 2023, 30 from that group were invited to apply, and in June of 2024, 23 people were notified of their acceptance into the program.  The six lead teachers for this Teacher Training Program are DaRa Williams, Rebecca Bradshaw, and Shelly Graf, on behalf of IMS; and Tuere Sala, Tempel Smith, and John Martin from Spirit Rock. (https://www.dharma.org/teachers/teacher-training-program/