Course Curriculum and Themes

Whether you’re new to mindfulness or an experienced meditator, you are welcome here! The course is open to parents, teachers, clinicians, and anyone who cares for or about children. Each session is presented via Zoom video conferencing and will include time to practice, learn, reflect, and connect. Let’s take a deep breath together as we set our intentions for calm and clarity in the New Year.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

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January 14 – Session 1:

Mindfulness Theme: What is Mindfulness?

We’ll explore grounding meditation, mindful eating, and body scan.

Parenting Theme: Self-Compassion

Self-compassion is a way of relating to ourselves with sensitivity, kindness, and understanding. We’ll explore the three steps to this practice and how to implement it in our daily lives.

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January 21 – Session 2:

Mindfulness Theme: Be Right Where You Are

We’ll continue with body scan and explore mindfulness of breathing.

Parenting Theme: Empathy

Empathy is about understanding—putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and feeling with them, not for them. We’ll explore the power of empathy and the best way to use it when responding to our kids.

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January 28 – Session 3:

Mindfulness Theme: Our Storytelling Minds

We’ll explore mindful movement and mindfulness of sound.

Parenting Theme: Validation

Validation is a process of seeing and hearing what your child is expressing and then reflecting back what you observe. It demonstrates a recognition of your child’s inner experience and conveys attentiveness, acceptance, understanding, and care. We’ll discuss simple ways to validate our children’s experiences and why it’s so important.

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February 4 – Session 4:

Mindfulness Theme: Cultivating Kindness for Self and Others

We’ll explore loving-kindness and mindfulness of breathing.

Parenting Theme: Connection

Connection is the feeling, sense, or understanding that an attachment exists between and among people. We’ll explore ways to strengthen and increase connection within our families and share simple ways to keep connection at the forefront of our relationships.

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February 11 – Session 5:

Mindfulness Theme: Willingness to Be with Things as They Are

We’ll deepen our exploration of mindful movement, mindfulness of breathing, and loving kindness meditation.

Parenting Theme: Reframing

Reframing is a process of examining if an initial interpretation of an event might be unhelpful and then stepping back in order to see it more clearly and respond more mindfully. We’ll look at challenging dynamics with our kids and how the practice of reframing can help us find solutions more intuitively.

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February 18 – Session 6:

Mindfulness Theme: Moving Forward

We’ll explore loving-kindness and mindfulness of breathing with spaciousness.

Parenting Theme: Maintaining Support and Daily Practice

We’ll set our intentions to access support and create plans to maintain our mindfulness practice so that the benefits of this course will sustain us in the months and years to come.