Mindfulness Practices for Complex Behaviours, Sydney

Despite its inherent joys, the challenges of parenting can produce considerable stress. These challenges multiply — and the quality of parenting can suffer — when a child displays complex behaviours associated with ADHD or autism. Even under optimal circumstances, the constant challenges faced by these children can contribute to family conflict and tax parents’ inner resources, often undoing the best intentions and parenting courses.

Children with ADHD or autism, and their families, face many unique daily challenges such as inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, which affect self-management and self-regulation. These families can become chronically frustrated or stressed out, which makes achieving a range of tasks in school or family life that much harder. For professionals working with such families these stressors can often impact the effectiveness of interventions or therapeutic goals underscoring the need for parents to take care of themselves in order to meet the challenges of caring for a child with complex needs with calmness, kindness, and consistency.

Mindfulness practices have enjoyed great success with managing mental health issues such as anxiety, depression and trauma. In recent years these practices have been applied to people with complex disorders such as ADHD and autism with similar success. Drawing from a standardized nine-session program this introductory workshop explores effective Mindfulness practices for helping both parents and children with complex behaviours to stay cool and collected while remaining compassionate, flexible, resilient, and mindful. Delivered in a reassuring style and with opportunities to view and practice exercises for both parents and children.

You will learn:

• How to conceptualise complex disorders such as ADHD and autism in a Mindfulness framework
• What adaptations to traditional mindful practices are required for children with ADHD/autism
• How to work with groups of children or young people with ADHD or autism
• How to instruct Mindful Parenting exercises to parents
• About the scientific evidence for mindfulness practices for children with ADHD/autism and their parents
• How to work with children and parents together in a mindfulness training
• Why integrating mindfulness practices can strengthen the efficacy of your other interventions.

This workshop is suitable for all professionals working with families affected by the challenges of complex behaviours associated with disorders such as ADHD and autism.

Dr Esther de Bruin is an Associate Professor at the Research Institute of Child Development and Education at the University of Amsterdam, as well as a licensed health care psychologist and mindfulness trainer for children at UvA minds, an academic outpatient treatment center for children and families in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She completed her PhD in studies of children with autism and psychotic disorders. Her current research relates to evaluating newly developed mindfulness trainings, specifically for children with ADHD and autism and their families.