Online professional training in teaching mindfulness to teens is now offered through Stressed Teens

For parents, teens, and interested parties out there, we hope you will check out Gina M. Biegel’s online classes at Stressed Teens. Gina Biegel, MA, LMFT, co-organizer of our 2012 Bridging the Heart and Minds of Youth Conference  where she will be presenting her popular workshop Mindfulness for Professionals Working with Adolescents: A Training in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program for Teens (MBSR-T), is a psychotherapist in the bay area who has adapted the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program for a teen population. For more information on Stressed Teens Training Institute online classes, please click on the course title of interest below.

The Mindful Parenting: A Course for Parents of Teens provides a two-hour course on using mindfulness in conversations and interactions with adolescents. The Mindful Teen: A Course for Teens is another two-hour course, but this time to directly teach adolescents to handle their own stress.

For professionals, Ms. Biegel offers a ten week training in her acclaimed Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Teens (MBSR-T) program, course titled 10-Session Stressed Teens Intensive Training, and a 3-Session Stressed Teen Intensive Supervision for those interested in learning to lead MBSR-T groups. Two other programs are offered, a three-course Specialty Topics for Professionals and a four-hour introductory session on mindfulness work with teenagers in Mindfulness for Professionals Working with Adolescents.

Mindfulness, Children and Parenting: An Interview with Amy Saltzman, MD

Elisha Goldstein’s, Ph.D. Psych Central, Mindfulness & Psychotherapy blog interview with Bridging the Hearts and Minds of Youth conference workshop leader Amy Saltzman,MD about her work and research with children and teens.

By Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D.

The theory and practice of mindfulness as a way for children to calm their busy minds, self regulate, become more hopeful and happy has been an area of increasing interest. The potential impact on our culture is great as it affects future generations.

It’s my pleasure to bring you this interview with Amy Saltzman, MD a holistic physician in Northern California who has been integrating mindfulness with children and teens for many years. Her current research has found significant impacts on children in the areas of attention, anxiety and compassion. I’ll be watching Amy speak at Bridging the Hearts and Minds of Youth Conference in San Diego on February 4 -5.

Today Amy talks to us about what the still quiet place is for children and teenagers, the impact of her research with children, and a little practice and advice to help us parents, caregivers and teachers along the way.

Elisha: What is the “Still Quiet Place” within for children and teenagers?

Amy: The Still Quiet Place is a way for children and teens to experience pure awareness. Awareness is a concept that may not make sense to young children. However, with guidance most children can discover that stillness and quietness (aka awareness) is alive inside of them. When I introduce mindfulness to children I begin by inviting them to attend to the breath– the feeling of the expansion of the in-breath, the stillness between the in-breath and the out-breath, the release of the out-breath, and the stillness between the out-breath and the in-breath.

They are encouraged to rest in the stillness, and to realize that this stillness and quietness is always with them—when they are breathing in, when the breath is still, when they are breathing out, when the breath is still, when they are frustrated with a math problem, or angry with someone, when they are doing sports, playing an instrument, or hanging out with friends. This stillness and quietness is always with them. They can rest in this stillness and quietness whenever they want. And when they rest in their Still Quiet Place they can observe their thoughts and feelings and then choose their behavior.

Elisha: Give us an overview of your research that originally started with Philippe Goldin, PhD at Stanford and now with renowned neuroscientist Amishi Jha PhD in working with young children and mindfulness.

Amy: This research, which will be published soon, looked at the benefits of offering mindfulness to children in 4th-6th grade and their parents. The children and parents participated in the Still Quiet Place course, an 8-week age-adapted mindfulness training. After becoming familiar with the Still Quiet Place they are supported in learning to rest in the stillness and quietness and observe their thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, and impulses. Through home practice and group discussion we explore how these observations allow us to choose our behavior, especially in difficult circumstances.

For example, say a student is really struggling with math. When he becomes aware of his struggle he could take a few deep breaths, settle into his Still Quiet Place, and observe his experience- a feeling of frustration, showing up in his body as a headache, and tight shoulders, and showing up in his thinking as what I call Unkind Mind- “I am stupid. I can’t do this. I am never going to get this….” Resting in his Still Quiet Place he can remember that “thoughts are just thoughts, and I don’t have believe them or take them personally” and then he can choose what he wants to do next. Take a quick break and get a snack, go for a run, call a classmate, check-in with his teacher in the morning, etc…

As for the results of our research, we showed that after 8 weeks of learning these skills the children had documented decreases in anxiety, and improvements in attention on an objective, computerized attention assessment called the Attention Network Task (ANT). In their own words the students reported decreased emotional reactivity, and increased ability to deal with day- to-day life challenges. Interestingly, the parents demonstrated similar improvements even though the “dose” of mindfulness was lower than that of a typical adult course. And most importantly for parents they experienced increased parenting self-efficacy; this means they felt they were more effective parents.

Elisha: What is an example you have that can show us how mindfulness has helped a child you’ve worked with to handle unhealthy stress?

Amy: This story demonstrates that mindfulness is a practice lived moment by moment. When we met, Malia was a lovely, very bright 4th grader and a competitive gymnast. She felt pressure, mostly self-induced, to perform well both in school, and in the gym. Her stress was so severe that she was suffering from migraines. After 4-6 sessions of learning to rest in her Still Quiet Place, attend to her breath, her thoughts, her feelings and her physical sensations she was able to happily participate in both school and gymnastics for about a year.

A year later, as she approached the state meet, her stress and headaches returned; she wanted to quit gymnastics. She let her family know and they called me. As we explored this it became clear that she was afraid of letting herself, her parents, and her coach down. She thought they would be angry if she didn’t perform well. Interestingly, given her level of distress, I initially considered that her assessment of her parents’ and her coach’s expectations was correct, and my basis was that if she were simply competing to fulfill others expectations, it would be healthier for her to quit.

However in discussing it with her parents they felt strongly that they wanted her to see the season through, not to perform at a certain level, rather to learn that she could move forward in the face of fear and distress. With my support her parents were able to hear her distress, minimize mixed messages, clarify why they wanted her to finish the season, and most importantly clearly express that that they loved her no matter what.

That reassurance, along with a funny tailored ritual, allowed to her compete in the state meet with both joy and success The ritual developed out my asking what pre-meet routine would help her remember that her parents loved her regardless of her performance. She said she wanted her dad to make her bacon before the meet. So their code word was “bacon”. As she approached each event she would look at her parents and they would mouth “bacon” to her. This of course made her smile and relax, and reminded her that they did love her not matter what.

When I wrote Malia to ask if I could use her story she wrote back

Dr. Amy,

Yes, you can use my Bacon Story and you can also use my name or I like the name Molly instead of Lilly.

By the way, I have quit gymnastics. I think I might like to try ‘excel’ gymnastics which is less hours a week and a more fun and relaxed competitive program. But right now I’m not doing anything so I can rest my foot and do physical therapy. I miss gymnastics but I don’t miss the practices. I miss bouncing on the trampoline and doing cartwheels.

Malia

This is a beautiful example of family mindfulness. Malia was aware of and expressed her feelings. Her parents heard her, and expressed their values, and their love. They created a joyful, humorous mindfulness ritual which will serve them well for a long time to come. Together they are practicing choosing freshly in each new moment.

Elisha: What is the message you give to parents who seem to be struggling with managing the children and stress?

Amy: As parents we need to recognize that our children’s lives are stressful, and that we contribute significantly to that stress. In fact research from Dr. Georgia Witkin at Mt. Sinai hospital in New York showed that the greatest source of childhood and adolescent stress is not school work, extracurricular activities, or peer pressure, but parental stress. So as parents one of the best things we can do to decrease our children’s stress is to decrease our stress. And of course one the best ways to do that is to take a mindfulness based stress reduction course, or perhaps use the excellent Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook you co-wrote with Bob Stahl.

When we as adults learn mindfulness—paying attention here and now with kindness and curiosity and then choosing our behavior, we can support our children and teenagers in bringing these skills into their lives. If we are in the present, we aren’t worrying about our third grader getting into college and we aren’t passing this stress onto them in our day-to-day interactions. If we learn to witness our anger, fear and sadness with kindness and compassion we show our children that this way of working with intense emotion is possible. If we slow down and choose how to respond to a difficult situation in daily life, and especially if we do it during challenges with our children and “out loud,” “Honey I am really frustrated, that you did X again, I am going to take a few minutes and then we can discuss this.” Then they see that they can do the same with various difficulties. Children learn what they live; the best way to support them in practicing mindfulness is to practice ourselves.

Thank you so much Amy for your important work and what a wonderful message.

To learn more about Dr. Amy’s work visit her at The Still Quiet Place.

NEWLY ANNOUNCED FROM THE UCSD CFM

A Course in Mindful Parenting

A 2-hour workshop in mindful parenting for those who are interested in learning about mindfulness or for those who have participated in a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course.

Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in private practice in West Los Angeles and is author of the upcoming book The Now Effect, co-author of A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook, Foreword by Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of the Mindful Solutions at Work App, the Mindful Solutions audio series, and the Mindfulness at Work™ program currently being adopted in multiple multinational corporations. Join Elisha Goldstein’s Facebook Community to keep up with important information, tips and events.

New brain study sheds light on how mindfulness reduces suffering associated with pain

Mindfulness has been shown in numerous studies to effectively attenuate pain, but a new study about to be published suggested that the way in which this reduction happens is much different than other, more typical coping mechanisms. These findings go to the heart of the difference between pain and suffering, by elucidating the different patterns of brain activation associated with each and showing how suffering is reduced throughout the practice of mindfulness, even when the sensation of pain is present.

In a study comparing meditators to non-meditators by researchers from Giessen University in Germany, Maastricht University in the Netherlands, and Massachusetts General Hospital, much was learned about the neural processes involved in the reduced suffering in the face of pain experienced by meditators. The findings of this study were recently published ahead of print in the journal Cerebral Cortex.

Mindfulness refers to a specific inner stance of purposefully paying attention to experiences in the present moment in a nonjudgmental way. For example attention is focused on the sensory aspects of a sensation alone, rather than the cognitive and emotional reactions to those sensory experiences. In mindfulness, these sensory aspects are investigated with curiosity and acceptance. Instead of being reactive and judgmental of sensations, people become fully aware of the experience in the present moment and relate to it in an objective and neutral way.

Thirty-four healthy individuals participated in the study; 17 of them were experienced mindfulness meditators. While brain activation of participants was measured in the MRI scanner at Giessen University, participants received mildly painful electric shocks on the left lower arm. Participants were instructed to relate to the shocks in different ways: with mindfulness, and with a normal, daily life stance. Participants were then asked to rate the intensity and unpleasantness of the shocks, and the anticipatory anxiety in regard to receiving the shocks.

During the practice of mindfulness, experienced meditators experienced the pain as significantly less unpleasant. In addition they reported less anticipatory anxiety, even though they didn’t perceive the intensity of the sensations differently. The MRI images revealed interesting changes in brain activation during the state of mindfulness in mindfulness meditators: increased activation in brain regions that are involved in processing the sensory aspects of the pain experience (posterior insula/secondary somatosensory cortex), but decreased activation in brain regions that are involved in regulating pain through reappraisal (lateral prefrontal cortex). Thus, the meditators fully experienced the pain, but they suffered less from it.

This pattern of brain activation is in sharp contrast to other psychological pain modulation strategies: When participants reduce pain by reappraising it (i.e., a cognitive reinterpretation), there is an increase in activation in the lateral prefrontal cortex. Activation in sensory brain areas on the other hand typically decreases. While the pattern of brain activation revealed in this new study is in sharp contrast to other pain modulation strategies, it is well-aligned with theories of mindfulness.

“The increased activation in sensory pain areas in the brain, that we found during the practice of mindfulness seems to be aligned with the increased focus on the sensory aspects of the pain that meditators report”, says Tim Gard, first author of the study. “Simultaneously we saw decreased brain activation in brain regions that are involved in reappraisal. During the state of mindfulness, meditators seem to be in contact with the present moment experience as it is, without reappraising or evaluating it.”

“It is very interesting that the pattern of brain activation that we observed during the attenuation of pain in a state of mindfulness is in sharp contrast to other forms of pain modulation”, says Tim Gard. “It indicates that mindfulness really is a different way of reducing pain. These findings might have interesting clinical implications. The revealed unique mechanisms of pain modulation might be utilized to improve or develop new strategies for the management of chronic pain”, according to Tim Gard. “While the current study investigated the effects of the state of mindfulness on pain perception in healthy subjects, future studies are required to test whether the findings can be generalized to chronic pain.”

Reference:

Gard, T., Hölzel, B.K., Sack, A.T., Hempel, H., Lazar, S.W., Vaitl, D., & Ott, U.: Pain attenuation through mindfulness is associated with decreased cognitive control and increased sensory processing in the brain. Cerebral Cortex, published online on December 15 2011, doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhr352

http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/12/14/cercor.bhr352.abstract

Mindfulness as a Fundamental Form of Literacy, Gems from an Interview with Rick Hanson

Mindful.org’s On Teen Life blogger Gina M. Biegel, MA, LMFT, founder of  Stressed Teens , psychotherapist, and author, has posted a fascinating interview with Rick Hanson, Ph.D., neuropsychologist and author of Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom and the newly released Just One Thing: Developing a Buddha Brain One Simple Practice at a Time.

In her blog post, Biegel notes that “Hanson . . . says mindfulness can help young adults learn and recognize that they do, in fact, have power and control, and can adjust their own minds. He’ll often ask them, ‘Who is in charge of your attention? Are you a hammer or a nail when it comes to your attention? Most people are nails being pounded on all day long.’ Read the rest of the post at mindful.org.

Join Gina, Rick, and a number of other presenters who are at the forefront of bringing mindfulness to youth at the Bridging the Hearts & Minds of Youth: Mindfulness in Clinical Practice, Education and Research conference, February 4-5, 2012 at the Catamaran Hotel in San Diego.

Noted Neuropsychologist and Author of “Buddha’s Brain” To Offer Public Talk in San Diego in Feb.

Don’t miss Dr. Rick Hanson’s public lecture, Taking in the Good: Helping Children Build Inner Strength and Happiness at the UC San Diego Medical Center, Hillcrest Auditorium, San Diego, CA February 3, 2012, 7:00pm. Rick is a neuropsychologist and noted authority on the effects of mindfulness on the brain. He is the author of Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom and can be seen in this video highlighting some of the points he will cover in more depth in February.

Register Now $15 Per Person

Dr. Hanson will also be delivering a keynote address, Managing the Caveman Brain in the 21st Century at the Bridging the Hearts and Minds of Youth: Mindfulness in Clinical Practice, Education and Research Conference being held at the Catamaran Hotel, San Diego, CA February 4-5, 2012. This activity has been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 36,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 13 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.