In the educational system, there is no one size fits all and we understand that funds are tight. We will do our best to secure outside sponsorship and support for time spent with your students, and make every attempt fit with your school's budget to tailor a program that works for your specific population. Our initial consultation and first visit to your building are always free. Please contact us for a pricing quote based on your programming needs and budgetary constraints.
Personal and Professional Development Offerings:
1. So you want to bring mindfulness to your classroom? Formal and Informal Mindfulness Practice for Educators. Delivered in a series of 3 sessions.Supporting teachers with self-care and stress reduction: Awareness of breath, mindfulness of body and emotions, mindful walking and movement, heartfulness, seeing thoughts as thoughts, perspective taking, recognizing negativity bias and cultivating self-compassion. What it looks like in students: emotional regulation, focused attention, and impulse control.
2. The Five Literacies of Mindfulness: Physical, social, emotional, mental, global. This session explores the work of Daniel Rechtschaffen and “The Mindful Education Workbook”, as well as the benefit of available trainings, and sample lessons from the five literacies. Additionally, this session includes strategies for empowering students with a call to global citizenship and to a new level of awareness and mindful action. Other organizations that offer teen meditation retreats, mindfulness trainings, and personal care for teachers will be explored
3. Available Curricula and Resources: The Mindful Schools Curriculum, the Research, Teacher Trainings, and Classroom Resources (Includes a brief exploration of additional organizations and programming for teachers and students, such as MindUP and Inward Bound Meditation): Explores the resources available through the Mindful Schools organization, one that is having a tremendous impact in California and throughout the west coast, having created a clear curriculum for K-5 and 6-12 Grades, and in-depth certification programs and trainings for teachers and administrators. This organization is moving more and more towards whole-school implementation, conducting effective and valuable research, and providing much-needed support and self-care practices for teachers. Teachers will walk away with a toolbox of mindfulness-based practices for themselves and for students.
4. Mindful games and focused attention strategies for every classroom:10 easy mindfulness lessons you can use nowto help your students focus their attention, cultivate present-moment awareness, support emotional regulation, and reduce anxiety and stress for all. Pulling from the work of Susan Kaiser Greenland, Jan Chozen Bays, MD, and Daniel Rechtschaffen, these activities can engage any class in mindfulness practice in a way that is energizing and supportive of the whole student.
5. Fight, Flight, Freeze: Exploring the effects of stress on the nervous system, and the benefits of mindfulness, from developing neural pathways to changes in the pre-frontal cortex over time. Additionally, we’ll explore data from clinical trials and medical settings, as well as narratives from schools that have implemented school-wide mindfulness programs. This presentation is thoroughly grounded in the current neuroscience research and provides a foundation for the safe and trauma-informed practice of secular mindfulness in the classroom as a complement to social-emotional learning programs and as a much-needed support for teens in the face of epidemic rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidality.
6. Trauma-informed Mindfulness.This is a study of current trauma research and neuroscience, focused on students and their moment-to-moment experience with difficult events as it manifests in their classroom and academic patterns. Participants will identify symptoms of trauma stored in the body; practice techniques of psychological first aid; discuss triggers for dissociation, flashbacks, and panic attacks; and use invitational language in delivering guided practices that creates an atmosphere of safety for all students.
7. Three-session series on Reducing Stress with Mindfulness. Participants will engage in practices and inquiry that support a gentle attitude of self-compassion and curiosity. These practices and this experiential model of learning are drawn from the research-backed Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction course created by Jon Kabat Zinn at the UMass Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Healthcare, and Society.
2. The Five Literacies of Mindfulness: Physical, social, emotional, mental, global. This session explores the work of Daniel Rechtschaffen and “The Mindful Education Workbook”, as well as the benefit of available trainings, and sample lessons from the five literacies. Additionally, this session includes strategies for empowering students with a call to global citizenship and to a new level of awareness and mindful action. Other organizations that offer teen meditation retreats, mindfulness trainings, and personal care for teachers will be explored
3. Available Curricula and Resources: The Mindful Schools Curriculum, the Research, Teacher Trainings, and Classroom Resources (Includes a brief exploration of additional organizations and programming for teachers and students, such as MindUP and Inward Bound Meditation): Explores the resources available through the Mindful Schools organization, one that is having a tremendous impact in California and throughout the west coast, having created a clear curriculum for K-5 and 6-12 Grades, and in-depth certification programs and trainings for teachers and administrators. This organization is moving more and more towards whole-school implementation, conducting effective and valuable research, and providing much-needed support and self-care practices for teachers. Teachers will walk away with a toolbox of mindfulness-based practices for themselves and for students.
4. Mindful games and focused attention strategies for every classroom:10 easy mindfulness lessons you can use nowto help your students focus their attention, cultivate present-moment awareness, support emotional regulation, and reduce anxiety and stress for all. Pulling from the work of Susan Kaiser Greenland, Jan Chozen Bays, MD, and Daniel Rechtschaffen, these activities can engage any class in mindfulness practice in a way that is energizing and supportive of the whole student.
5. Fight, Flight, Freeze: Exploring the effects of stress on the nervous system, and the benefits of mindfulness, from developing neural pathways to changes in the pre-frontal cortex over time. Additionally, we’ll explore data from clinical trials and medical settings, as well as narratives from schools that have implemented school-wide mindfulness programs. This presentation is thoroughly grounded in the current neuroscience research and provides a foundation for the safe and trauma-informed practice of secular mindfulness in the classroom as a complement to social-emotional learning programs and as a much-needed support for teens in the face of epidemic rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidality.
6. Trauma-informed Mindfulness.This is a study of current trauma research and neuroscience, focused on students and their moment-to-moment experience with difficult events as it manifests in their classroom and academic patterns. Participants will identify symptoms of trauma stored in the body; practice techniques of psychological first aid; discuss triggers for dissociation, flashbacks, and panic attacks; and use invitational language in delivering guided practices that creates an atmosphere of safety for all students.
7. Three-session series on Reducing Stress with Mindfulness. Participants will engage in practices and inquiry that support a gentle attitude of self-compassion and curiosity. These practices and this experiential model of learning are drawn from the research-backed Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction course created by Jon Kabat Zinn at the UMass Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Healthcare, and Society.
- Week 1: Learn techniques for managing worry, anxiety, overload, and stress in the body.Waking up to autopilot, and arriving at our own door. Practices include mindful walking, mindful eating, and the body scan.
- Week 2: Work with the stress-reactivity triangle and the circle of awareness, perspective-taking.Cultivate your mindfulness muscle and learn to skillfully manage the “Flashlight of Awareness”. Practices include mindfulness of breath and body, mindful seeing, and mindful listening.
- Week 3: Mindful communication and boundary setting:This experiential practice, involving role-playing and mindful awareness, brings tremendous awareness to personal edges around effective communication. This is supportive of working with students, colleagues, administrators, and parents, and can be helpful for navigating parent-teacher conferences. Practices include awareness of breath and body, somatic explorations of boundaries, and skillful self-management.