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2. Incorporating Mindfulness and Values Within and Outside the Classroom
The Healthy Minds Network Webinar Series
Session #21, August 2017

3. Welcome and About The Healthy Minds Network
Research-to-practice network based at University of Michigan
Public health approach to mental health among young people
HMN Research-to-Practice Objectives:
(1) produce knowledge (research)
(2) distribute knowledge (dissemination)
(3) use knowledge (practice)

4. HMN Announcements Currently enrolling schools for HMS 2017-18
us at
Fill out our online enrollment form
healthymindsnetwork.org/participate/how-to-participate

5. Today’s Webinar
Creating nurturing communities within higher education: Incorporating mindfulness and values within and outside the classroom
Presenters
Jennifer Block-Lerner, Ph.D.
Donald Marks, Psy.D.
Neil Patel, M.A.
Kendahl Shortway, M.S., M.A.

6. Healthy Minds Network Webinar August 8, 2017
Creating nurturing communities within higher education:
Incorporating mindfulness and values within and outside the classroom
Healthy Minds Network Webinar
August 8, 2017

7. The path ahead this afternoon
Introductions
Brief arriving practice
Processes and guiding frameworks
Scope of work
Consent, choicefulness, and creating space
Glimpses into counseling center, academic
coaching, and curriculum-based work
Research and future directions

8. Introductions Jennifer Block-Lerner, Ph.D. Donald Marks, Psy.D.
Neil Patel, M.A.
Kendahl Shortway, M.S., M.A.

9. Arriving practice…

10. Processes and guiding frameworks
Mindfulness - …paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally (Kabat-Zinn, 1994, p. 4)
Psychological flexibility - ...the ability to contact the present moment more fully as a conscious human being, and to change or persist in behavior when doing so serves valued ends (Hayes, Luoma, Bond, Masuda, & Lillis, 2006, p. 7)
Nurturing environments - framework that integrates efforts to prevent multiple problems by focusing attention on the fundamental conditions needed to foster prosocial behavior and prevent diverse mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders (Biglan, Flay, Embry, & Sandler, 2012)

11. Fostering nurturing communities: Some contexts of our work
Counseling Center Services
Groups
Drop-in sessions
Mindfulness in outreach
Collaboration with other student services
Work with athletic teams and staff
Academic coaching with at-risk students
Work with EEO/EOF program
Curriculum-based workshops
Workshops and related programming for faculty and staff
Connections with larger community

12. Consent, choicefulness, and creating space
Consent an ongoing process – choosing and rechoosing
Choicefulness
Making consent as informed as possible
Consent as an ongoing process
Self-care first - offering many possibilities and all as “suggestions”
Attention to space
Request to put away electronic devices
Creating safe space where dialogue is possible
Within and across contexts
Acknowledging professional boundaries and limitations

13. Deeper glimpses into protocols and processes

14. Counseling center services
Counseling groups
Open recruitment or specific to a common presenting problem
Ideal group for students who no longer need individual counseling or have reached session limits, or can complement work in individual counseling
Open mindfulness practices for the campus community
Invite students, staff, and faculty to drop in for practices
Outreach programs
Integrate mindfulness practices into presentations and workshops
Requires creativity to deliver to large groups
Offer mindfulness practices in residence halls during stressful periods
Experiential and an opportunity to reduce stigma associated with counseling
Referral and collaboration with other services
Athletic department, health center, etc.

15. Academic coaching
Collaboration with the Office of Retention and Intervention
Understanding student demographics, problem areas, and strengths
Probation: GPA below 2.0
Values exploration exercise
What makes college meaningful for you?
Present-focused awareness
Establishing weekly achievable goals
Acceptance of prior failures and struggles
Assessment: weekly follow-ups

16. Curriculum-based workshops

17. And another possibility…
Sample protocols (see Block-Lerner & Cardaciotto, 2016; Lenda et al., under review)
One possibility…
Another possibility…
“Big Rocks” story (Covey, Merrill, & Merrill, 1994)
Discussion of mindlessness/ automatic pilot and mindful eating practice
Graduation writing exercise
“The hug” exercise
What’s on our plates? Interactive activity
Graduation writing exercise or a variant (retirement, holiday/summer break anticipation)
“The hug” exercise
And another possibility…
Lectio for living: Mindful poetry reading and listening

18. Let’s imagine…

19. Values exploration: Graduation celebration (Generally conducted imaginally with time for writing/reflection)
Imagine moving through the next days, weeks, months…through the rest of this year and the next one or a few until you get toward the end of your final semester in the completion of your bachelor’s degree. The time comes to plan a celebration of your graduation. This can involve other people (e.g., a celebratory dinner or a party – large or small) or it can be a more solitary celebration (perhaps a hike in the woods, a vacation, or a few hours at the beach). Spend a bit of time and perhaps writing space exploring what this celebration would involve.
At some point in the celebration, the time comes when people make toasts or speak to your experiences completing your degree. If it is a more solitary celebration, this part might involve you actively reflecting on your accomplishments and what the process of completing your degree was like. The opportunity here is to really imagine what you most want to be able to reflect on or what you most want to hear others say. You can speak to the specifics of what you did. However, the focus might more usefully be on how you navigated the journey.
Feel free to write about any or all of your experiences/observations completing this activity in the space below. As a reminder, this is only for you. We will not be collecting these papers.

20. Values exploration: An invitation
Choose one or more values (i.e., how we most want to be, what we care deeply about) that you would like to give more attention to or “put into play” over the rest of the summer. What might it look like to further connect with these values and act consistently with them? How would you like to be amidst this season more generally?
What challenges do you anticipate as you “value with your feet” these parts of your life in the ways that you yearn to? In other words, what might get in the way as you try to live consistently with these values or what matters most to you?
How might we “hold” these challenges or seeming obstacles as we aim to put our intentions into action? Are there ways that we might remind ourselves of our intentions/desires when things get hard, complicated, or just so busy that it is easy to forget? What might these be? How might we support one another in engaging in values-consistent living through the rest of the summer and beyond?

21. How do we hold our emotions? The “hug exercise”

22. Mindful lectio -- listening exercise
Coffee Break
It was Christmastime,  the balloons needed blowing,  and so in the evening we sat together to blow  balloons and tell jokes,  and the cool air off the hills  made me think of coffee,  so I said, “Coffee would be nice,”  and he said, “Yes, coffee  would be nice,” and smiled  as his thin fingers pulled the balloons from the plastic bags;  so I went for coffee,  and it takes a few minutes  to make the coffee  and I did not know  if he wanted cow’s milk or condensed milk, and when I came out  to ask him, he was gone,  just like that, in the time  it took me to think,  cow’s milk or condensed; the balloons sat lightly  on his still lap.
-- Kwame Dawes

23. Work with faculty and staff
“The value of a life does not depend upon the place we occupy; it depends upon the way we occupy that place.”
--Thérèse of Lisieux
Professional development sessions
This teachable moment
Bringing attention to the present moment in the classroom
Introducing an arriving practice at the start of class
“Protecting” time for observing experiences, particularly emotional or stressful experiences
Building in time for reflection regarding course content
Mindful listening to one another (agreeing to “no crosstalk”)
Engaging students in leading formal practices (e.g., reading and listening to poetry, verbal art, or music; mindful drawing)
Addressing sensitive subjects in the classroom panel
Consultation groups
Fostering awareness of socioeconomic roots of psychosocial distress

24. Relevant research projects
Predictors of receptivity – depression, anxiety, and stress; psychological flexibility; and their interaction (Barrasso-Catanzaro, Block-Lerner, Wolanin, & Marks, 2015)
Background music fostering exposure to difficult emotions (Kowarz, Block-Lerner, Wolanin, & Marks, 2015)
Fostering intrapersonal, interpersonal, interprofessional functioning among health science trainees (e.g., Danitz, Orsillo, Lenda, Shortway, & Block-Lerner, 2016)
Examining processes related to the self and addressing identity distress (Moran, 2016)
Incorporating psychological flexibility and self-compassion into first-year experience seminars (Brahmbhatt et al., Marks, & Block-Lerner, in progress)
Building self-compassion and psychological flexibility to address burnout in health sciences trainees (Varon, Marks, & Block-Lerner, in progress)
Incorporating mindfulness- and acceptance-based practices into EEO/EOF workshops and examining trauma history as moderator of response (Espinal et al., in progress)
Curriculum-based yoga and acceptance-based behavioral intervention for undergraduate students with and without trauma exposure (Mullen, Block-Lerner, & Marks, in progress)

25. Future directions
Following up post workshops to better understand their function
Increase dose of intervention with technology-based follow up (e.g., Danitz & Orsillo, 2014)
Social justice-related directions
More adequately putting issues related to histories of discrimination on the table
Partnership with community organizations
Converging paths – so many ways to foster these processes
More coordinated, integrated efforts across university and larger community

26. Questions/conversation

27. Sample resource list On campus opportunities
Drop in practice sessions (come as often as you like; no need to sign up) – Spring 2017 – 1st and 3rd Tuesdays 12-12:30pm; EC 141B
Kean Psychological Services (KPS; clinic on East Campus; staffed by doctoral students supervised by faculty members) offers individual (and some group) services that draw heavily on mindfulness and other acceptance-based practices. If you would like to speak with someone about whether these services might be helpful to you as you cope with difficulties in your life or aim to make behavior changes, please contact KPS at  
Readings (other books coming out regularly)
Harris, R. (2008). The happiness trap: How to stop struggling and start living. Boston, MA: Trumpeter. (and others)
Hayes, S. C., & Smith, S. (2005). Get out of your mind and into your life. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994). Wherever you go, there you are. New York: Hyperion.
Salzberg, S. (2012). Real happiness: The power of meditation: A 28-day program. New York: Workman Publishing Company Inc.
Recordings/CDs
(Orsillo & Roemer)
Mindfulness for Beginners – Jon Kabat-Zinn
Smartphone Apps (search for “mindfulness” and “acceptance and commitment” and you will find others)
Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness Training System
The Mindfulness App

28. Mindfulness and teaching: Select resources
Block-Lerner, J., & Cardaciotto, L. (Eds.; 2016). The mindfulness-informed educator: Building acceptance and psychological flexibility in higher education. New York: Routledge: Taylor & Francis. 
Hyland, T. (2011). Mindfulness and learning: Celebrating the affective dimension of education.  New York, NY: Springer. 
Palmer, P. J., Zajonc, A., Scribner, M., & Nepo, M.  (2010). The heart of higher education: A call to renewal.  San Francisco, CA: Wiley. 
Pistorello, J. (2013). Mindfulness and acceptance for counseling college students: Theory and practical applications for intervention, prevention, and outreach.  Reno, NV: Context Press. 
Rogers, H., & Maytan, M. (2012). Mindfulness for the next generation: Helping emerging adults manage stress and lead healthier lives. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 
Schoeberlein, D., & Sheth, S. (2009). Mindful teaching and teaching mindfulness: A guide for anyone who teaches anything.  Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications. 

29. Thank you for sharing this time with us
Feel free to contact any of us with questions or for more information.