Mindfulness-Based Treatment Strategies for Children & Adolescents

by Dr. Gayle Cicero

I am excited to be teaching Mindfulness-Based Treatment Strategies for Children and Adolescents, an elective for students in our School Counseling Program in the Spring of 2023. This course is so important for future school counselors because schools are reporting that many students are struggling with regulation, especially post pandemic. This experiential course is designed to teach our future graduates how to help young people regulate effectively so that they can learn. Students in the course will learn a variety of mindfulness and meditation techniques that are appropriate to use in schools and in private counseling practice. Students will experience the techniques and be offered multiple opportunities to practice the skills they will be teaching a future generation of learners.

The Center to Improve Social and Emotional Learning and School Safety (2020) purported that, “Mindfulness can be a valuable approach for creating learning conditions that are responsive to all students, including those who have experienced adversity, such as exposure to trauma.” The need to support people of all ages with a history of adversity and trauma has been at the forefront of various news outlets in the last several years. School counselors are well positioned to address the need of teaching students the skills to regulate effectively so that they can navigate school and life with positive outcomes. The call to help students become successful in life is underscored in the American School Counseling Association’s (ASCA) behavioral standards, specifically self-management skills. ASCA fully acknowledges that learning is far more than developing academic and cognitive skills and calls on school counselors to address non-cognitive factors that impact learning.