MindfulnessGroupCounselingandCurriculum

LateChildhoodandAdolescence

Name: Stress & Anxiety Group

Facilitated by, Elaine Maimon (MSHS Freshman Campus SC) and Vicki Kenney (Intern)
*The Six-Session Program utilized for this group is taken directly from the following source:
Learning to BREATHE: A Mindfulness Curriculum for Adolescents to Cultivate Emotion
Regulation, Attention, and Performance (Broderick, 2013).

Objectives and Theoretical and Developmental Foundations: The Learning to

BREATHE (L2B) program adapts mindfulness-based techniques in a format that is
interactive and developmentally appropriate. L2B integrates themes of MindfulnessBased Stress Reduction (MBSR) (Kabat-Zinn (1990), into a shorter more accessible tool
for teachers and therapists to use with individuals, and is compatible with school
curricula (Broderick, 2013).
The specific goals of the program are:
1. To provide universal, developmentally appropriate mindfulness instruction that
fosters mental health and wellness.
2. To enhance capacity for emotion regulation
3. To strengthen attention and support academic performance
4. To expand the repertoire of skills for stress management
5. To help students integrate mindfulness into everyday life

*Each session consists of three elements: introduction and presentation of theme, activities to
develop the theme, and practice.
Group Content Area: Personal/Social
Group Topic: Mindfulness Curriculum
Group Sequence: Introduction and the L2B Six-Session Program and will be conducted in 30minute weekly group counseling sessions.
Ultimate Goals for the Group: Empowerment/gaining an inner Edge
a. Washington State Learning Standards:
https://www.k12.wa.us/CurriculumInstruct/learningstandards.aspx
List the appropriate Washington State Learning Standards in bullet format here.
Links between L2B and Educational Laws and Standards:
Federal Law: No Child Left Behind (NCLB): Increasing academic success (Performance Goal
1) and improving learning environment (Performance Goal 4).
National Health Education Standards (NHES): Standard 7: Demonstrates the ability to
practice health-enhancing behaviors and avoid or reduce health risks (7.12.1, 7.12.2, 7.12.3).
National School Counseling Standards: Personal and Social Development for Grades 9-12.
Standard 1. Students will acquire knowledge, attitudes, and interpersonal skills to help them
understand and respect self and others. Benchmark 1. The student will acquire and use self-

VickiKenney

SeattleUniversity

Internship20142015

MindfulnessGroupCounselingandCurriculum

LateChildhoodandAdolescence

knowledge: (1) Exhibits positive attitudes towards self and others (2) Uses personal strengths
and assets (3) Understands how attitudes and choices affect behavior (4) Understands change is a
factor in growth and development (5) Demonstrate appropriate social behavior (6) Analyze
appropriate ways to take responsibility for themselves (7) Identifies and uses school and
community resources (Broderick, 2013).
L2B is a way for adolescents to develop social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies.
Many schools have implemented SEL requirements within their academic programs. They have
come to recognize the interconnectedness of academic, emotional, and social learning: Links
between L2B and Educational Laws and Standards (Broderick, 2013).
Group Rationale: provide a rationale for running the group using data from the school and
research literature.
a. Needs Assessment- The MSHS Freshman campus Counseling Department received the
following forms of referrals regarding group participants:
Middle school counselor referral at the beginning of the year for intervention
Teacher referrals confirming and witnessing a need for intervention by
November 2014
Nurse referrals: All group members had come to the nurse prior to December
2015, expressing/displaying anxiety behaviors.
b. Research Literature- What does the national research suggest as it relates to the need for
group?
Materials Needed: The Learning to BREATHE: A Mindfulness Curriculum for Adolescents to
Cultivate Emotion Regulation, Attention, and Performance (Broderick, 2013). Utilizing the
complete descriptions of sessions for L2B (Broderick, 2013). Also include: L2B student
workbook-six session version. Pencils and paper, invite members to bring comfortable blanket or
pillow.
Group Outline: Outlines provided for sessions 1-7
Evaluation/Assessment: Conducted a pre (during session 1) and post (during session 7) to
assess the effectiveness of the L2B with students experiencing stress and anxiety.

VickiKenney

SeattleUniversity

Internship20142015

MindfulnessGroupCounselingandCurriculum

LateChildhoodandAdolescence

Group Session 1
1. Theme or Focus: Getting to know each other and previewing what the group will be like.
2. Goal: To increase knowledge about stress and anxiety and learning new skills to help
reduce stress and anxiety by building physiological, cognitive and behavioral coping
strategies.
3. Utilizing: The Learning to Breathe (L2B) curriculum: How mindfulness can help in our
day to day lives, by becoming mentally stronger and more balanced by being more
mindful (S1: B1) (ASCA National Standards for Students).
4. Materials: pencils, paper, music, pre-survey, and getting to know you Skittles game and
Tell me about yourself form.
5. Descriptions of the Activities:
a. Orientation: Group rules and contracts brainstorming for other rules from
members
i. Confidentiality Contract this means what we say in the group stays in
the group and listening to others talking guidelines.
ii. Why might this be important for everyone?
iii. As the leaders, we may have to break confidentiality in three different
situations:
1. If you report harm to self
2. If you report harm to others
3. If you report someone is harming you
b. Icebreaker - Introduce music activity
i. Each week someone will bring a song that helps them relax and we will
play it during the first few minutes of group
ii. Introduce leader song and why it is helpful
1. Pre-survey: fill this out during the song (5 min)
c. Introductions members
i. Ice Breaker activity Getting to know you with Skittles game
1. Have members pick 1-3 skittles out of the bag: Using the color
chart:
ii. Interest Handout sheet- Tell me about yourself - Break into pairs
d. Processing/Preview next week (5-10 min and/or end of session)
e. Group feedback: Answer any questions or concerns students may have about the
group
Group Session 2
1. Theme or Focus: Theme B: Body

VickiKenney

SeattleUniversity

Internship20142015

MindfulnessGroupCounselingandCurriculum

LateChildhoodandAdolescence

2. Goal: Listen to you body. Distinguish mindfulness and mindlessness through listening,
sensing, and moving.
3. Materials: pencils, paper, members invited to bring a personal pillow or blanket for body
scan activity.
4. Session Objectives:
a. Introduce programs acronym BREATHE
b. Describe what mindfulness means and how it relates to wellness and health
c. To experience how the body holds tension and practice awareness of the breath
and the body.
5. Essential Message: Mindfulness of paying attention to our breath and body. It increases
calmness, balance, inner strength, and reduces stress. Mindlessness is inattention
(automatic pilot).
6. Activities
a. Mindful Listening
i. Involves paying attention to sounds
b. Mindful Walkabout
i. The object is to observe something in nature closely and mindfully and
share it with the group through art or poetry.
c. Body Scan
i. Designed to help the body relax and pay attention. What is the body
feeling and what might it be saying.
d. Processing/Preview next week (end of session)
e. Group feedback: Answer any questions or concerns students may have about the
group

Group Session 3
1. Theme or Focus: Theme R: Reflections (thoughts)
2. Goal: Reflections (thoughts) are just thoughts. Observe thoughts and notice their variety
and universality
3. Materials: pencils, paper, members invited to bring a personal pillow or blanket
4. Session Objectives:
a. To understand inner self-talk
b. To understand the interrelationships between thoughts and feelings
c. To investigate the effects of self-talk on attention and performance
d. To work with thoughts by observing them and letting them go
5. Essential Message: The mind constantly chatters. We can work with the chattering mind
by paying attention to thoughts and watching them come and go. We dont need to
believe everything we think.
6. Activities
VickiKenney

SeattleUniversity

Internship20142015

MindfulnessGroupCounselingandCurriculum

LateChildhoodandAdolescence

a. The Big Event

i. Observe thoughts, and notice their variety and universality
b. My Mind Is A Cast of Characters
i. Note the difficulty of trying to deal with unwanted thoughts by
suppressing them.
c. Mindfulness of Thoughts
i. A short practice to cultivate present-moment attention.
d. Processing/Preview next week (end of session)
e. Group feedback: Answer any questions or concerns students may have about the
group

Group Session 4
1.
2.
3.
4.

Theme or Focus: Theme E: Emotions

Goal: Surf the waves of your emotions
Materials: pencils, paper
Session Objectives:
a. To understand the role our feelings play in our sense of wellness, balance, and

inner strength.
b. To understand and experience the rising and fading away of emotions
c. To learn to work with emotions mindfully
5. Essential Message: Emotions are like energy surges. We can handle them by paying
attention to them and watching them come and go.
6. Activities
a. The Lineup
i. To demonstrate emotions are a part of everyones experience and are
necessary for survival. Discussion of helpful and unhelpful emotions and
everyone can experiences particular emotions in different ways.
b. Emotion in Three Acts
i. The separate acts provide a gradual experience of connecting emotions to
their felt sense in the body and to thoughts. Demonstrate that emotions we
often call positive and negative can be called pleasant,
unpleasant, or neutral.
c. The Great Cover-Up
i. To illustrate how people tend to avoid unpleasant or uncomfortable
feelings.
d. Processing/Preview next week (end of session)
e. Group feedback: Answer any questions or concerns students may have about the
group

VickiKenney

SeattleUniversity

Internship20142015

MindfulnessGroupCounselingandCurriculum

LateChildhoodandAdolescence

Group Session 5
1.
2.
3.
4.

Theme or Focus: Theme A: Attention

Goal: Attention to body, thoughts, and feelings is good stress reduction
Materials: pencils, paper
Session Objectives:
a. To understand key concepts about stress and the bodys stress response
b. To integrate knowledge about thoughts, feelings, and sensations with the

understanding of stress processes

c. To bring mindful awareness to the stressors in our lives.
d. To practice mindful movement.
5. Essential Message: Stress comes from external and internal events. Paying attention to
how the body feels, what we think, and what emotions we experience prevents the
buildup of problems that can harm the mind and body.
6. Activities
a. Case Study
i. Discussions may include issues of chronic stress, awareness of chronic
stress, and ways of coping.
b. Cross the Line (Stressors)
i. Encourages the students to notice that many people feel the same things.
This reduces the sense of isolation and normalizes the experience of stress.
c. How Much Can You Handle?
i. Illustrates how difficult it is to do many things at the same time.
d. Mindful Movements
i. The point of mindful movement practice is not to have any special
experience, but to experience fully whatever you are experiencing
(examples in the book).
e. Processing/Preview next week (end of session)
f. Group feedback: Answer any questions or concerns students may have about the
group

Group Session 6
1.
2.
3.
4.

Theme or Focus: Theme T: Tenderness

Goal: Learn to be kind to yourself
Materials: pencils, paper
Session Objectives:
a. To understand that the mind is a trainable organ.
b. To learn ways to train the mind to support well-being and happiness.

VickiKenney

SeattleUniversity

Internship20142015

MindfulnessGroupCounselingandCurriculum

LateChildhoodandAdolescence

c. To connect mindfulness practice to self-care and care for others.

d. To practice cultivating the mind in ways that support health, wellness, and inner
strength.
5. Essential Message: We can not only reduce distress by learning to be mindful, but also
train our attention and practice healthy habits of mind, such as kindness and compassion,
to improve inner strength.
6. Activities
a. Practicing Mental Habits
b. Ways We Care for Ourselves, or Not
c. Loving-Kindness
d. Processing/Preview next week (end of session)
e. Group feedback: Answer any questions or concerns students may have about the
group

Group Session 7
1.
2.
3.
4.

Theme or Focus: Theme H: Habits

Goal: Practice healthy mind habits to reduce stress and increase inner strength
Materials: pencils, paper
Session Objectives:
a. To identify ways to apply mindfulness in daily living
b. To discuss ways of developing a personal mindfulness practice
c. To review the major points of the course
5. Essential Message: Take these mindfulness tools and use them in your life
6. Activities
a. Mindful Quilt
b. Closing-Mindful Listening and Mindful Speaking
c. Processing/Preview next week (end of session)
d. Group feedback: Answer any questions or concerns students may have about the
group

Appendix A
Anxiety Group Interview

VickiKenney

SeattleUniversity

Internship20142015

MindfulnessGroupCounselingandCurriculum

VickiKenney

SeattleUniversity

LateChildhoodandAdolescence

Internship20142015

MindfulnessGroupCounselingandCurriculum

LateChildhoodandAdolescence

References:

VickiKenney

SeattleUniversity

Internship20142015

MindfulnessGroupCounselingandCurriculum

LateChildhoodandAdolescence

Broderick, P. (2013). Learning to breathe a mindfulness curriculum for adolescents to cultivate

emotion regulation, attention, and performance. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (1990). Full catastrophe living: Using the wisdom of your body and mind to face
stress, pain, and illness (hardcover ed.). New York: Delacorte Press.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994). Wherever you go, there you are: Mindfulness meditation in everyday life.
New York: Hyperion.

VickiKenney

SeattleUniversity

Internship20142015