Become an Approved Provider
Here's how it works:
First, you connect with one of our Mentors so we can learn about your service and your personal needs.
Then, you complete our free online wellness training program, called the Preliminary Practices.
Once you've completed the Preliminary Practices, you begin one-on-one mentoring, as we take you into your free Provider Training.
Mentorship progresses according to your specific needs. After completing your mentorship, you become an Approved Provider, and join our network.
Contact us here and a mentor will call you.
There is no fee for these services.
Our Approved Providers are the heart of our service, and our investment in the global community. All that we ask of you is that you share stories about your experience, share our free resources with your community, and most importantly, create new free resources.
You do not have to be a wellness professional to benefit from Middleway Method training.
We train artists and musicians, small business owners, hair stylists and estheticians, social workers, grocery store cashiers, and retired professionals. If you work with people, we work with you.
Program Description
The first section of the Approved Provider Training is the Preliminary Practices – the free wellness program that we provide for everyone. The second section of the training is the actual Approved Provider Training Program. Once you’ve completed the Preliminaries, then we will connect you with a group and set your start date for the Approved Provider Training. A group starts when we have at least 4 candidates who have completed the Preliminaries. The training takes about three months.
The Preliminary Practices
The Preliminary Practices Program is the basic wellness framework that we offer as a simple, free service to everyone. It encourages people to participate in their own wellness in free, easy, and accessible ways. The first reason you are doing the Preliminaries is that a basis of personal wellness is essential for effectively serving others.
For people outside the Approved Provider Training program who are just doing the wellness practices for themselves, we don’t hold them to any standards of accountability. For Approved Provider Candidates, we track your progress and ask that you actively improve your personal wellness and explore each facet of the Practices.
We also ask that you actively participate in the Middleway Community, sharing your progress and struggles as you go. Sharing stories is fundamental to the Middleway process. When people share their personal stories, the message and truth is much clearer and more accessible than when it comes from an authority. In the bigger picture, you develop unique content that connects deeply with individuals of many different perspectives.
The Provider Training Program
The Approved Provider Training Program is based online. During your training, you will meet twice with your group and twice with your Mentor. Meetings are held online via GoToMeeting. In some cases, local groups form and can meet in person.
During your training, we will support you as you create your own Middleway Service Plan. Your Service Plan describes your personal wellness practices, your service wellness practices, and your community contribution practices. Your personal wellness practices are an extension of the Preliminary Practices, as you modify them for your own needs. Your service wellness practices are the ways that you implement the professional skills you’ll learn during your training. Your community contribution practices are the ways that you contribute to your community and the Middleway Network, and may include the nonprofit work that you aspire to do.
The service wellness practices are the core of the training process. You will develop three elements of service wellness: interpersonal, intrapersonal, and transpersonal. Your interpersonal work is your interaction with others. Here we cover basic professionalism, with a focus on warm-hearted interactions. Your intrapersonal work is your interaction with yourself, your inner awareness and growth. Here we support you as you develop inner awareness and connect to your natural intelligence and kindness. Your transpersonal work is your connection to something greater than yourself. In the case of Middleway Method, the transpersonal element is focused on compassion and altruism. We use compassion and altruism to create meaning and purpose in our lives and the lives of others. In Middleway Method we hold all transpersonal perspectives, which are often spiritual and religious in nature, to be precious personal and cultural expressions of the basic goodness of humankind.
What It Means To Be An Approved Provider
An Approved Provider is a person who:
Actively engages in personal wellness
Practices warm-hearted professionalism
Is consistent, timely, and prepared
Supports others’ wellness and creativity
Engages in Middleway Network activities
Shares stories
Creates and shares resources
Supports other Practitioners and Providers
Volunteers and fundraises
As an Approved Provider you may choose to work with your Mentors, Providers, and our sponsors at the Ink People Center for the Arts to develop your own nonprofit wellness education programs and services.
Your non-profit service project can be anything that you imagine, as long as it freely benefits people in need. For example, one Middleway Network project is the development of a free program to train recovered opioid addicts to become Peer Community Health Workers who help others in treatment. In the long run, one of the goals of Middleway Method practice is to develop your Life’s Work. That is work that is fulfilling to you personally by being beneficial to others. Your service project is the beginning of your Life’s Work.
Middleway Network Approved Provider Training Outline
Complete the Preliminary Practices.
About 30 days, 10-30 minutes a day
Demonstrate engagement with the material and participation in the Middleway Community.
Document lifestyle activities that reflect your commitment to personal wellness.
Provider Training begins after you complete the Preliminary Practices.
Upon completion of the Preliminaries, we will connect you with a group and set your start date for your training.
Provider Training consists of:
Online assignments
Two one-hour group meetings via GoToMeeting
Two one-hour private meetings with your mentor via GoToMeeting
The time commitment for the training includes:
30 minutes to 1 hour of coursework, 3-5 days a week, for three months
15 minutes meditation, 5-7 days a week
45 minutes exercise, 4-7 days a week
Possible dietary and lifestyle changes
At least 1 hour per month local volunteering
Certificate of Completion and entrance into the Provider Network is awarded to participants who complete all coursework, engage in group and community activities, and receive Mentor Approval.
If you are not awarded a Certificate of Completion, you may redo the program once every six months.
Upon completion of the training program, you will be Approved for one year, and then we review your participation. Approval is automatically renewed for Providers who regularly contribute to the Network. If you are not re-approved at the end of the year, then you are given the opportunity to update your approval by working with a Mentor.
Once you become a Provider, we ask that you contribute directly to the further development and enhancement of the Network, developing resources for the people who you serve, and sharing those resources with everyone. We also ask our Providers to offer peer-support for people in the Preliminary Practices and the Approved Provider Training. Our program is free to everyone because everyone volunteers their time to make it happen. Our Approved Providers are the heart of our service, and our investment in the global community.