Mindfulness and Self Regulation for Children and Adolescents

101 Mindfulness Exercises for Children and Adolescents
Presented by: Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes
Executive Director, AllCEUs
Objectives
– Core Mindfulness
– Walking the Middle Path
– Distress Tolerance
– Emotion Regulation
– Interpersonal Effectiveness
– Mindfulness Exercises
– DBT Games and Activities
Core Mindfulness
– Three States of Mind
– Reasonable: School Brain, scientist, robot
– Emotional: What your heart says
– Wise: The logical choice that makes you as happy as possible

– Example: Animal rescue
– Example: Extracurricular activities

Core Mindfulness
– Wise Mind What Skills
– Observe: Be a detective. Take in the whole situation.
– Describe: Name your experiences
– Participate: Be actively involved in the moment

– Practice observing, describing and participating
– Discuss things that would stay in the way of observing, describing, participating
Core Mindfulness
– Wise Mind How Skills
– Nonjudgmental: Observable, measurable
– One mind: Focus on the task at hand. Clear your mind of everything else
– Do what works
Walking the Middle Path
– Balancing the ideas of acceptance and change
– Incorporates
– Dialectics
– Both/And
– Recognizing change is the only constant
– Validation
– Active listening
– Tolerating others
– Tolerating self
– Behaviorism
– Reinforcement
– Shaping
– Extinction of maladaptive behaviors

Walking the Middle Path
– Open your eyes to seeing things from different angles
– Change is constant. If it is stressful now; change will happen
– Find both sides of the spectrum and use a both/and approach
– Validate Self: Acknowledging what you feel nonjudgmentally
– Validate Others
Distress Tolerance
– Activities
– Contributing
– Comparison
– Emotions (the opposite)
– Push the experience from your mind
– Think about alternate things
– Sensations (intense)
Distress Tolerance
– Self-soothe with the 5 senses
– Pros and Cons
– Long term goals
– Decisional balance

Distress Tolerance
– Imagery of a relaxing place
– Meaning
– Survived similar situations
– What is important in your life (in comparison, how important is this)
– Prayer
– Relaxation
– One thing in the moment
– Vacation (mental or physical)
– Encouragement Helpful statements about self and others
Distress Tolerance
– Radical Acceptance
– Life can be tough. It isn’t fair
– Some things can’t be changed
– You don’t have to like it

– Identify
– Things you can change
– Things you cannot change
Emotion Regulation
– Identify and label primary and secondary emotions
– Strength
– Sleep
– Take care of self
– Resist unhelpful behaviors/impulsivity
– Exercise
– Nutrition
– Gain mastery
– Take time for yourself (relaxation/pleasant activities)
– Healthy self-talk
Interpersonal Effectiveness
– Cheerleading statements
– Dear Man
– Describe objectively
– Express your feelings
– Assert your wants and needs
– Reinforce by creating a win/win
– Mindful focus on the present
– Appear confident
– Negotiate
Interpersonal Effectiveness
– FAST
– Fairly treat others: The Golden Rule
– Apologize when you make a mistake, not for being you
– Stick to values—What is important to you
– Tell the truth
Mindfulness Exercises
– Transformation: Creative uses for everyday objects (both/and)
– Scents and memories
– Mindful eating
– Blindfolded awareness
– Name 4 and 4
– Create a special place (guided imagery)
– Distress Hat
– Emotions collage
– Nature Observation
– Hold Ice—Pain reaction
– Self-Esteem envelope
– A movie about my life (title, stars, main plot)
– Feelings charades
DBT Games
– DBT Charms
– Self-soothing kit
– Cell phone: Heart rate monitor, knock knock jokes, funny videos, distracting music, sweet images, cathartic/validating images (Grumpy Cat)
– DBT Jeopardy
– DBT Infomercials
– Media DBT –show clips
Summary
– Adolescents are trying to discover
– Their values
– Their niche
– Their goals
– Adolescents are transitioning from the carefree childhood to trying to become adults
– Adolescents almost always have a low to moderate level of stress making them more vulnerable to emotional reactivity.
Summary
– DBT helps adolescents gain control over their emotions
– Mindfulness helps them become aware of the whats and whys of their emotions
– Most adolescents prefer an indirect approach to learning skills
– Through skills groups adolescents can
– Acquire new skills
– Relate them to something they know
– Practice them in a safe environment
– Come to the awareness for themselves why these skills are helpful
Summary
– All of these activities need to be processed and brought back around to how they can be generalized in the real world