International Panel for the Acknowledgement of Mindfulness-Based Programs (IPA)

The International Panel for Acknowledgement of MBPs takes up responsibility to evaluate mindfulness-based programs: newly developed ones and adapted programs, be they moderated or follow-up programs. IPA promotes safe, ethical and inclusive practices in the field of evidence-based secular mindfulness teaching.

MBP – Mindfulness Based Program

MBP means mindfulness-based program. IPA adopts the definition of  R S Crane, J Brewer, C Feldman, J Kabat-Zinn, S Santorelli, J M G Williams, W Kuyken source:
“MBPs are informed by theories and practices that draw from a confluence of contemplative traditions, science, and the major disciplines of medicine, psychology and education; underpinned by a model of human experience which addresses the causes of human distress and the pathways to relieving it; develop a new relationship with experience characterized by present moment focus, decentering and an approach orientation; catalyze the development of qualities such as joy, compassion, wisdom, equanimity and greater attentional, emotional and behavioral self-regulation, and engage participants in a sustained intensive training in mindfulness meditation practice, in an experiential inquiry-based learning process and in exercises to develop.”

The following topics are addressed in the text below:

  • IPA – what & why?
  • IPA Masterclass: Recording
  • Procedures for screening
  • Pre-Screening
  • Full Screening
  • Encouraging Researchers
  • IPA History

IPA – what & why?

The IPA consists of a pool of international professionals – teachers and researchers – and operates independently under the umbrella of eamba.

The reason for creating IPA was a logical consequence of an increase in mindfulness-based training – both in scope and in diversity – and a need to evaluate the relevance and evidence base of these MBPs.

The intention of the IPA is to enable developers with different backgrounds and resources to propose new programs.

Recognition is meant to support endeavours to best serve a greater diversity of populations and contexts.
Currently acknowledged MBPs are listed on this page…

IPA is grateful to the researchers and developers who have been offering their experience and insights on defining what makes a mindfulness-based program, as well as on precautions to be observed when adapting MBPs to current needs (see sources).


IPA Masterclass Recording

The Team of IPA offered a masterclass to qualified mindfulness and compassion Teachers who are developing a new program or are considering to:
why, when, and how to adapt? Here is the link to the RECORDING and to the PRESENTATION.pdf (29th of February 2024)

Crane, R. S., Brewer, J., Feldman, C., Kabat-Zinn, J., Santorelli, S., Williams, J. M. G., & Kuyken, W. (2016). What Defines Mindfulness-Based Programs? The Warp and the Weft. Psychological Medicine, 47(6), 990–999. Read Article…

Loucks, E. B., Crane, R. S., Sanghvi, M. A., Montero-Marin, J., Proulx, J., Brewer, J. A., & Kuyken, W. (2022). Mindfulness-Based Programs: Why, When, and How to Adapt? Global Advances in Health and Medicine, 11, 21649561211068804. Read Article…

Martin P. J. van Boxtel, Sophie A. Sansom and Wendy Kersemaekers  (2022). Intervention Fidelity in Mindfulness-Based Research and Practice: Developing Criteria to Acknowledge New Training Programs. Read Article…

A Framwork for the integrity of mindfulness-based programs, authored by the International Mindfulness Integrity Network.

The International Panel for the Acknowledgement of Mindfulness-based Programs (IPA) is an independent entity evaluating Mindfulness-based Programs (MBP’s) and acknowledging their innovative features. 

European Associations for Mindfulness -eamba- support the work of IPA because we believe that innovative MBP’s deserve visibility to be of benefit to the specific populations addressed.

The current IPA started out in 2019 as a pilot of  VMBN, the Dutch Mindfulness-based Teacher Association.  VMBN invited Bamba to collaborate and they joined forces in 2020. Since 2023 IPA is given visibility on two pages of the eamba website and pre-financed by eamba. The programs acknowledged by IPA are promoted by eamba.

Read further about IPA’s Achievements & History
– Kick off and Objective
– Resources
– Scientific Background
– Instruments and Results

  • Kick off and Objective
In July 2019 VMBN board member Barbara Doeleman van Veldhoven brought a group of experienced mindfulness teachers, teacher trainers, and researchers together, called it MBP Taskforce, and created this objective:

“Developing a clear vision and a testing framework for MBPs. Carrying out 2 pilots on applications that are already there. The recommendations of this group will partly form the basis for further developing the governance structure of the VMBN and setting up the associated processes and procedures around quality policy for admission of members, accreditation of training courses and further and refresher training.”
  • Resources
All expenses of the MBP-Taskforce were paid for by the VMBN: fees for the developers of the evaluation process, of the criteria and the questionnaire; fees for the meetings of the MBP-Taskforce  members; support from the VMBN-office. 

At the start the following people were members of the MBP taskforce: 

  • Barbara Doeleman van Veldhoven – chair [Board Member of VMBN; Founder & Director of BFC Compassionate Care & Mindful Medicine; Mindfulness Teacher and Initiator of the MBP-taskforce]; 
  • Carien Olbers – overall support [Master in Education, Policymaker VMBN, Mindfulness Teacher]
  • Johan Tinge [Drs Andragogy; Co-founder VMBN; Owner Teacher Training Institute; Mindfulness Teacher]
  • Martin van Boxtel [PhD, Associate Professor, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Section Neuropsychology; Fac. Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Psychology; and Neuropsychology at Maastricht University; Mindfulness Teacher]
  • Paul van Gorcom [Board Member VVM w. 200 members; Rehabilitation Physician]
  • Theo Niessen [PhD in Health Ethics and Philosophy; Researcher and Professor at Fontys Hogeschool; Mindfulness teacher] 
  • Wendy Kersemaekers [PhD in Medical Sciences at Radboud University; Senior Researcher; Mindfulness Teacher]

By 2020 two pilots had been completed.
In 2020 colleagues from Bamba  joined the MBP Taskforce to test the process on another two MBP’s.
Since January 2023 the MBP-taskforce was called IPA – International Panel of Acknowledgement of Mindfulness-Based Programs and was hosted under the umbrella of eamba. The cost of IPA are initially advanced by eamba, 

Members of IPA are:

  • Barbara Doeleman van Veldhoven – chair [Board Member of VMBN; Founder & Director of BFC Compassionate Care & Mindful Medicine; Mindfulness Teacher and Initiator of the MBP-taskforce]; 
  • Carien Olbers – overall support [Master in Education, Policymaker VMBN, Mindfulness Teacher]
  • Jem Shackleford [Master at Bangor University, Head of Curricula at MiSP, Mindfulness teacher Bangor University]
  • Martin van Boxtel [PhD, Associate Professor, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Section Neuropsychology; Fac. Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Psychology; and Neuropsychology at Maastricht University; Mindfulness Teacher]
  • Sophie Sansom [Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), BSc Academic Psychology, Senior Lecturer by Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice – Bangor University, Mindfulness teaching, research, teacher training and innovation]
  • Scientific Background
In the process of setting and reviewing criteria for MBP’s [between 2019 – 2024] the following papers have been used to study and build upon: 
  • Instruments and Results 
The following instruments were developed:

Also some resources have been published on eamba’s website:

Assessments

  • From 2020 – 2024: 7 programs were fully assessed, of which 6 were acknowledged as MBP.
  • Another five received feedback and realised that their program was premature compared to the IPA criteria and they postponed evaluation.  

Procedures

In evaluating a program, IPA is very attentive to the current state of evidence in support of a program’s efficacy and safety.
Expectations around evidence-based process development of new programs apply.
Feasibility, acceptability, potency, safety and potential contra-indications should have been scientifically examined.

The process of evaluation and acknowledgement consists of two phases:

  1. Pre-screening
    This will establish
    (a) whether the program meets the needs of a population or context that is not currently provided for by an already existing MBP, and
    (b) whether appropriate premises were chosen during development.
  2. Full screening
    If a program passes pre-screening, developers will be invited to submit an application for full screening.
    The program will then be reviewed by a panel that examines,
    (a) whether the program meets the criteria for definition as a mindfulness-based program, and if so,
    (b) whether the evidence base shows that the program is safe and effective.
    Programs are being classified as having either an ‘established’ or an ‘emergent’ evidence base.

Pre-screening

If you have developed a mindfulness program that you seek acknowledgement for, please be informed as follows:

  1. To reduce costs, IPA offers a pre-screening process at €150.
    The investment for the full screening is to be estimated before starting a full screening.
  2. You can read, fill in and sign the evaluation agreement attached.
  3. Request the pre-screening questionnaire to be sent to your email and please complete it.
  4. Send your pre-screening questionnaire together with the signed evaluation agreement to ipa@eamba.net
  5. Send a payment of €150 to the IPA bank account (IBAN NL28 TRIO 0379 3688 62 BIC TRIONL2U)  in the name of eamba / IPA, Doorn (NL), mentioning ‘IPA + name applicant’.
  6. As soon as these documents and your payment have been received, the IPA assessment committee (two IPA members) will perform the pre-screening.

Within two weeks following the receipt of your payment, you will be informed in writing about whether your application is eligible.
If an application for a full screening procedure can be submitted, IPA will send you the questionnaire for the full screening and an estimate of the investment required.

Full Screening

Upon positive evaluation of an MBP you can apply for full screening. Your investment will be between €750-1500, based on the scope and expected workload required for assessing the program and based on the information from the pre-screening.
Costs will be communicated before starting the full screening.
The overall procedure may take up to four months.

Practical steps for full screening are as follows:

  1. When payment for the full screening process has been received, a personalised and protected application file in Google docs will be set up for you.
  2. You will receive a link to this file in order to complete a questionnaire and upload the documents needed to complete your request. We invite you to respond as much substantiation as possible and to upload your file within four weeks.
  3. This file is monitored by the administrator and will only be shared with the IPA members who evaluate your request. All documentation transferred to the assessment committee during the review process will be kept completely confidential.
  4. If needed, the assessment committee will contact you.
  5. You will be invited for an online dialogue with the assessment committee about the program and the information you provided.
  6. On completing the assessment, the assessment committee will create a recommendation and discuss this within the IPA.
  7. Possible outcomes of the discussion within the IPA are that recognition is:
    (a) unconditionally granted
    (b) conditionally granted, pending requested adjustments
    (c) not granted.
    If a), the MBP will be directly announced on the eamba website.
    If the conditions under b) are accepted and adjustments are made by the applicant, the MBP will then be announced on the eamba website.
    If c), there will be no announcement on the eamba website.

Acknowledgement is valid for a period of three years.
Interim adjustments to the training curriculum by the developer of the MBP must be explained in writing to IPA by submitting an amendment. 

Three years after the application, all related files will be deleted from the server, unless you apply for a prolongation of the recognition (if not changes were made) or a renewal of the review of the MBP (if you made adjustments or extensions).

Encouraging Researchers

Mindfulness-based programs are listed as ‘Emergent’ or ‘Established’.
This conveys the current state of evidence in support of a program’s efficacy and safety. Both experiential and scientific knowledge may complement each other in defining the value of a new program.

Researchers are encouraged to consider programs listed as ‘Emergent’ as potentially valuable routes for future scientific inquiry.

History of IPA