Mindfulness is increasingly being shared with children and teens in educational, medical, mental health, community, and home settings. It is now widely accepted that mindfulness practice with children & adolescents has myriad benefits: stress reduction, improved emotion regulation and academic learning, reduced anxiety, increased executive function and overall well-being. So, it is understandable why adults would want to start teaching children early on. But how can we engage children in practicing mindfulness when they might not want to – when they fear it might be ‘boring’?
Sara will describe some of the ways she has been sharing mindfulness and compassion with children, adolescents and families over the years: through story, art, music, movement, and ‘formal’ mindfulness practice. Sara will also lead a discussion regarding how adults can continue to share the richness of mindfulness and self-compassion while also following the lead of the next generation.
Sara Marlowe is a clinical social worker, children’s author, university lecturer, musician and mindfulness practitioner and teacher. She currently works as an individual, couples and group therapist at The Mindfulness Clinic and works with children and families in her private practice in Toronto. She is a trained teacher in MSC (Mindful Self-Compassion) and MARS-A (Mindful Awareness and Resilience Skills for Adolescents) and she has had teacher training in MBCT (Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy) and MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction). Sara has developed and facilitated numerous mindfulness programs for children, adolescents, parents and families in mental health, school, hospital and community settings. She is the author of three children’s books, No Ordinary Apple: A Story about Eating Mindfully, My New Best Friend, which introduces self-compassion and The Inside Flashlight, which playfully teaches emotion regulation skills to children. Sara is the co-creator of Mindful Monkey Magazine: Connecting families through practice & play (www.mindfulmonkeymag.com). She is also the author of the chapter Supporting Young Children Visited by Big Emotions: Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation and Neurobiology, in Collaborative Therapy and Neurobiology: Evolving Practices in Action (Marie-Nathalie Beaudoin and Jim Duvall, Eds.). Sara can be found online at www.mindfulfamilies.ca.