Our children’s lives are increasingly stressful. In addition to the ordinary day to day stress all of our children face, many of our children suffer from ADHD, depression, anxiety and self doubt. In collaboration with colleagues in the Department of Psychology at Stanford University, Amy Saltzman M.D. conducts research evaluating the effects of offering school age children Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. The research is designed to answer the following questions:

Do children benefit if they learn the life skills of Mindfulness while they are young, and remain familiar with the “Still Quiet Place” within themselves as they grow-up? If children learn to experience their thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations without being overwhelmed, are they less prone to the unhealthy effects of stress? If they learn to access a natural sense of peace, and to trust their own inner wisdom are they less susceptible to harmful peer influences, and less likely to look for relief in potentially risky behaviors?

Mindfulness is simply the practice of paying kind attention to ourselves as we live our lives. This special way of paying attention allows children and parents to discover the “Still Quiet Place“ within themselves. In our busy, media saturated culture almost everything teaches us to focus our attention outward. During the Mindfulness course, participants are invited to slow down, turn their attention inward, and make healthy choices.

The preliminary research results show that, after 8 sessions, 4th-7th graders have an increased ability to direct their attention, are less emotionally reactive, and more compassionate with themselves. These increases in focus, calmness, and kindness transform how the children feel about themselves, and produce meaningful differences in the children’s behavior at home and at school. The research results support teaching children these beneficial life skills now, well before they are troubled teens or stressed adults.

Parents who participated in the course also benefited. The parents showed increases in their ability to orient their attention, increases in mindful observation of their experience, increases in self compassion, increases in their sense of efficacy with their child(ren) and decreases in anxiety.

Class offered by Dr. Amy Saltzman.
Dr. Amy Saltzman is a holistic physician, mindfulness teacher, wife and mother. She has been teaching Mindfulness for over 14 years. Her passion is sharing Mindfulness with children and adults. She is currently conducting two research studies through the Stanford Department of Psychology- evaluating the benefits of teaching mindfulness to child-parent pairs, and to children in elementary school. She is trained in Internal Medicine, director for the Association of Mindfulness in Education, a founding diplomate of the American Board of Holistic Medicine, and a founding member of the Northern California Advisory Committee on Mindfulness. Before establishing a private practice in Menlo Park she served for eight years on the Board of Trustees of the American Holistic Medical Association, and as medical director of the Health and Healing Clinic, at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. Dr. Saltzman offers lectures and courses for schools, parenting organizations, education and medical conferences. She also provides individual mindfulness instruction and holistic medical care to children and adults.