Training To Become An Instructor

To become an instructor it is necessary to successfully fulfill all the tasks listed under the heading of Training Requirements, be recommended by the advisory council, and selected by the director. The training period is expected to last between one to two years.

The Training Requirements section specifies what the trainee must accomplish within the training period. It specifies the number of class presentations, interviews, sessions, evaluations, and timeframes required of the trainee. In addition, you will learn the business and office aspects of Jin Shin Jyutsu, Inc. as well as complete interviews with the director and advisory council.

Each trainee works with a faculty mentor. You will be required to make arrangements with a faculty member to be your mentor during your training period. Your mentor will provide you with advice, training support, and may advocate for you should the circumstances warrant.  Note that your mentor might not be the same faculty member as your sponsor.  Please understand that agreeing to be your sponsor does not imply that the faculty member also agrees to be your mentor.

If chosen to participate in this program, the Forms & Worksheets section of this document will provide you with the various forms to be used during the training program.  It is your responsibility to provide copies of the forms, ensure their completion, and submit them in a timely manner.

Training Requirements

The actual training program consists of practice teaching at five Jin Shin Jyutsu classes, interviews, giving hands-on sessions, and receiving feedback and evaluations. 

Your practice teaching will be in the form of ten presentations from the texts appropriate to your training.  Additionally, you will participate in the hands-on segments (if any) of each class, give a hands-on session to each class’s instructor and solicit feedback/evaluation in all of these areas.  The feedback forms are found at the end of this document in the Forms & Worksheets section.

You must also participate in a five-day administrative intensive in Scottsdale, Arizona, in which you will meet the office staff.  You will give a practice teaching presentation (30 to 60 minutes) on a topic from the appropriate textbook to the staff and give hands-on sessions to two of the staff and to the director.  You are expected to learn about our policies and procedures, office operations, financial and other documentation necessary for seminars, etc.

Finally, we want to meet and get to know you.  You will have three interviews.  One will be with the director, in person, and two will be with advisory council members, by phone.

Trainee Responsibilities

You are responsible for making advance arrangements with individual instructors to attend a class, give your presentations, and give each instructor a hands-on session.  You are responsible for ensuring the submission of all evaluation forms.  Also, you are responsible for arranging the three required interviews.  (You will provide the evaluation form but the interviewers are responsible for submitting a report.)  No evaluation is expected for the administrative intensive; however, you must arrange the three hands-on sessions you will be giving at the office and solicit feedback by providing the evaluation forms to those individuals.

Financial Obligations

The trainee agrees to assume the responsibility for the financial requirements associated with the training program, such as airfare, hotel, meals, and other related expenses.

Training Withdrawal

Issues and concerns may arise during a training program.  The advisory council and your mentor will work with you in good faith to resolve such concerns, but it is your responsibility to meet all requirements.  A trainee may be withdrawn from the Instructor Training Program at any time by the director.  If appropriate, you may be given consideration for future openings in the Instructor Training Program.

If you must withdraw from being a trainee, you are expected to speak to both your mentor and the advisory council.  A personal letter of withdrawal must be sent to the advisory council.

If a trainee is withdrawn for any reason, the advisory council will determine whether a replacement is needed. If an additional trainee is required, the advisory council will convene immediately to recommend another applicant.

Confidentiality

The Instructor Training Program selection is based upon applicant qualifications and utilizes feedback from Jin Shin Jyutsu, Inc. administration and staff, faculty, and other sources.  All information contained within the applicant/trainee files including selection process, evaluation forms, and discussions governing the criteria for selection are maintained in the strictest confidence by the advisory council and Jin Shin Jyutsu, Inc.

Final Selection

Upon successful completion of the training program, the advisory council will recommend the trainee to the director of Jin Shin Jyutsu, Inc. to become an instructor.  If approved, the director will formally invite the trainee to join the faculty as an independent contractor.

Please note that entry into the Instructor Training Program and participation in the training does not guarantee final selection as an instructor.

Mentoring Guidelines

Each trainee is required to have a mentor from the Jin Shin Jyutsu faculty.  The mentor should be an instructor of the same type of class the trainee intends to teach, either the Basic 5-Day or Living The Art seminar.   The mentoring relationship is established in the following sequence:

1. The trainee invites a faculty member to mentor
2. They agree upon terms of availability and communication;
3. The faculty member accepts.

A mentor has two principal, overlapping responsibilities.  The first is to the trainee.  The mentor’s job is to guide the trainee through the Instructor Training Program by offering the wisdom of one who is already established in the position the trainee is seeking to obtain.  This would include the following:  assistance in resolving misunderstandings; advising on practical matters such as scheduling, financial details, establishing a working relationship with organizers, time management, etc.; developing pedagogy; helping to clarify the trainee’s understanding of the established materials; and by providing constructive feedback and counsel. 

The mentor’s second responsibility is to Mary Burmeister’s Jin Shin Jyutsu, which includes supporting the work of JSJ, Inc. and its family of instructors, students and organizers.  The task here is to work closely with the advisory council to ensure that the trainee merits selection as an instructor upon completion of the ITP.  The advisory council recommends trainees who have a high probability of becoming instructors.  However, the ITP may expose weaknesses or deficiencies resulting in extending the training, increasing the training requirements, or even leading to the decision to deny selection of the trainee as an instructor.

Mentoring Responsibilities

1. Be accessible and available.  Before entering into a mentoring relationship, the instructor and the trainee must determine, as specifically as possible, the instructor’s availability for performing this role and the extent of the trainee’s expectations/needs for the mentor.  The trainee must agree to the instructor’s parameters for availability.  If the trainee requires more than the instructor is prepared to offer, the trainee may need to seek a different mentor.
2. Respond promptly.  Trainees’ needs for mentoring will vary from trainee to trainee.  Since the needs of the trainee may be intermittent with occasions of urgency, responding promptly within the parameters you establish will be critical to a successful mentoring relationship.
3. Evaluation.  The mentor will provide feedback to the advisory council that will be utilized to determine the trainee’s ability and readiness to become an instructor.

Notices

1. Requirements presented in any of the three stages may be waived based on the needs of the organization.
2. Additional requirements may be added at the discretion of the advisory council.
3. At our discretion, certain requirements of the organization such as language proficiency specific to a geographic area and the willingness to relocate may be determining factors for applicant consideration.