From Trauma to Peace: Mindfulness Program at Willard Middle School

Heidi Brown 11/26/183:22 PM

From Berkeley Public Schools Fund, March 22, 2018

Once a week at Willard Middle School, there’s an unexpected sight of a classroom full of students sitting still with their eyes closed. With the support of our Strategic Impact Grant, Willard Middle School has implemented a weekly Dynamic Mindfulness program where students engage in mindful ABCs (Actions, Behaviors, and Centering) during their Advisory period. The 15-minute program involves grounding activities from listening to a bell until the last note dissipates to mindfully stretching one’s body while paying attention to one’s breathing and awareness.

When I sat down with Corey Cohen, Willard school counselor, what struck me was how she used the phrase “trauma-informed practice” as a reasoning behind implementing mindfulness. She described trauma as coming from a range of external factors, including the difficulty of navigating everyday life as a student coming from a disadvantaged background. For these reasons, many students experience trauma in the form of chronic stress.

Dynamic Mindfulness is a secular program that advocates that mindfulness is for “anybody, anytime”. Dynamic Mindfulness has been field-tested with thousands of educators, mental health professionals and others and has been shown to positively impact hundreds of thousands of students. It is one of four mindfulness programs from around the world that meets the stringent research criteria for evidence-based practice set by the national Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL).

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Bob LancerMember

Absolutely Heidi!

In fact, we need regulated adults to avoid dis-regulating children (originally or further). In my parenting work and professional development for teachers (including preschool and chid care pro's) I help adults recognize how and when child behavior triggers their own disregulated and thus disregulating reactions, and how to transform their responses with mindfulness, a process I call The Method, and the 7 Mindsets. I've been doing this work for over 30 years. I also work directly with teens to develop the 7 Mindsets that over-ride traumatic brain patterns for their positive empowerment, social development and happiness going forward.