A Candidate’s Preparation on California Teacher Training

“Come with an empty cup,” they said. “Come with a beginner’s mind but most of all come properly prepared.”

To begin with, I attended Athene’s (my primary TCC teacher) classes and practiced TCC regularly for more than two years. I attended Ed Altman’s last TCC Intensive held in Santa Barbara last January, which brought a new awareness to my TCC practice. I learned a lot and explored further. I was attending three classes a week taught by three great teachers (Athene, Sandy, and Linda Braga) and I watched, listened, and practiced with Justin’s two videos, Justin’s audio cassette tape (Justin Speaks), and Pam Towne’s video. I used my TCC “bible” (Justin’s TCC book) a lot and I also read some of Justin’s other books as well as his and Ed Altman’s articles in the Vital Force. I read the Vital Force from cover to cover to keep up with what is going on with the TCC community. I visited the TCC community and the Northern California TCC websites often, to find out if there was something new that I could use in my TCC practice. I attended Pre-TCC Teacher’s Training class offered by Athene together with six other teacher candidates to make our comfort level as high as possible by knowing what to expect and by being well prepared for Teacher Training. As of this writing, the seven of us are now accredited teachers. All of the above helped me approach Teacher Training with an “empty cup,” ready for Sandy and all the auditing teachers to take over and the journey went on, as we started back from Step One.

I sincerely and highly recommend to future teacher candidates to go through TCC Intensive and a Pre-Teacher Training Class (if available) before they go to Teacher Training. They will bring you to another level of feeling, exploring, and refining, as well as deepening your practice. Most of all, they allow you more quality time to enjoy the experience, the joyful transformation, the peeling of a layer, during Accreditation Week.