Cheetah House First Do No Harm Meditation Safety Training

A comprehensive, evidence-based training by the world’s top experts

  • Asynchronous, on-demand

    Faculty Q+A: May 2026

  • Total duration: 9 hrs

    Didactics: 6 hrs

    Faculty Q+A: 3 hrs

    APA-approved CE Credits: 4

  • Willoughby Britton, PhD

    Scott Lippitt

    Jennifer Lang

  • $200 didactics only

    $270 didactics + Faculty Q+A

  • Asynchronous, on-demand

    Faculty Q+A: Summer 2026 TBA

  • Total duration: 41 hrs

    Didactics: 32 hrs

    APA-approved CE Credits: 29

    Faculty Q+A Hrs: 9hrs

  • Willoughby Britton, PhD

    Nathan Fisher, PhD

    Pierce Salguero, PhD

    • $1050 didactics only

    • $35 for each Q+A

    • Level 1+2 bundle= 10% off didactics ($1145)

    • All access pass =20% off, including Q+As ($1000)

  • Fall, Winter

    with Cohort + Faculty

    By Application only

  • Didactics: 7 hrs

    APA-approved CE Credits: 7

    Supervised skills practice = 23 hrs

  • Willoughby Britton, PhD

    Nicholas Canby, PhD

    Scott Lippitt

    Mandy Johnson

  • TBA

LEVEL 4: ADVANCED PRACTICUM

  • Faculty shadowing

  • Live Sessions with meditators-in-distress

  • Capstone Project

  • scheduled with faculty mentor

    By invitation only

  • TBD

  • Willoughby Britton, PhD

    Nicholas Canby, PhD

    Cheetah House Care Team

  • TBA

SPECIALTY TRACKS + ELECTIVES

  • Asynchronous

    self-paced

  • TBD

  • Depends on courses

  • Item description

TRAINING FACULTY

Training faculty consist of top experts on meditation-related challenges, including clinicians, researchers, religious studies scholars, yoga and meditation teachers. Perhaps most importantly, the Cheetah House safety training includes individuals who have lived experience of meditation-related difficulties and what was helpful, unhelpful and harmful. Many of the training faculty serve on theCheetah House Care Team and actively provide support to meditators-in-distress.

See FULL LIST of TRAINING FACULTY

TRAINING OVERVIEW

The full training is 4 levels.

Levels 1 + 2 are self-paced didactic videos paired with periodic discussion/Q+A sessions with faculty. A comprehensive, all access package is available here.

Levels 3 and 4 are group practicum experiences directly supervised by faculty. Space is limited and acceptance is by application.

Level 1 is an introductory overview of meditation-related difficulties and 2 survivor stories.

Level 2 has 4 parts: 2 on Phenomenology, one on cultural competencies, and one on interpersonal dynamics

Levels 2A +B take a deep dive into different types of meditation-related challenges (phenomenology), including fear and terror states, traumatic re-experiencing, energy-like somatic experiences (ELSEs), visual hallucinations, delusion-like ideation, changes in sense(s) of self, and meditation-induced dissociation.


Level 2C explains the central role of Buddhist Modernism, and includes sessions on the historical Buddhist view(s) of “meditation sickness.” “kundalini,” the role of worldviews, and criteria for distinguishing between “progress” and pathology and when to intervene.

Level 2D is a module on interpersonal dynamics, power and control with experts in cultic dynamics, coercive control, institutional betrayal, tradition-specific ideologies and the lived experience of helpful and harmful teachers.

PRACTICUM EXPERIENCES (APPLICATION REQUIRED)


Level 3 (intermediate practicum) provides hands-on, individualized training in specific competencies, including:  Creating site-specific Monitoring and Crisis Protocols; Active listening and Scaffolding; Meditation Assessment Process (myMAP). Each topic consists of a didactic video followed by an experiential opportunity to practice those skills and get feedback from faculty.


Level 4 (advanced practicum) is for meditation teachers and clinicians who want to be fully competent with or specialize in working with meditation-related difficulties. The advanced practicum includes shadowing members of the Cheetah House Care team in their individual sessions and support groups for meditators in distress, followed by a one-on-one supervision with the Care team member. Completion of other modules is a prerequisite for acceptance into the advanced practicum.