The Learning to Breathe Student Workbook: A Six-Week Mindfulness Program for Adolescents

Based on the popular six-week mindfulness curriculum, this engaging student workbook can help adolescents manage emotions, stay focused, and thrive--in the classroom and in life! To be used in conjunction with Learning to Breathe, the professional guide.

Disruptive behavior in the classroom, poor academic performance, out-of-control emotions: if you work with adolescents, you are well-aware of the challenges this age group presents. What if there were a way to calm these students and provide them with the mindfulness skills needed to truly excel in school and in life?

Written by mindfulness expert and clinical psychologist Patricia C. Broderick and based on the popular Learning to Breathe mindfulness curriculum, TheLearning to Breathe Student Workbook offers powerful, teen-friendly mindfulness skills to help students understand their thoughts and feelings and manage distressing emotions. The meditation techniques in this workbook will also empower students by helping to improve emotion regulation, reduce stress, increase attention, and boost overall academic performance.

The workbook integrates themes of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, into exercises that are easily accessible to students, and compatible with school curricula. Students will learn to pay attention in the moment, manage emotions as they happen, and gain greater control over their own feelings and actions. These mindfulness practices can help adolescents develop resilience and healthy coping skills in the face of difficult life challenges.

The workbook is structured around six themes built upon the acronym BREATHE, and each theme has a core message. The six core lessons are: Body, Reflection, Emotions, Attention, Tenderness, and Healthy Mind Habits.

The Learning to Breathe Student Workbook is the perfect tool for empowering students as they navigate the psychological challenges of adolescence.

Patricia C. Broderick, PhD, is a research associate at the Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development at Penn State University, and founder of the Stress Reduction Center at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. A graduate of the mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) advanced practicum at the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Broderick is a licensed clinical psychologist as well as a certified school psychologist and counselor for grades K through 12. She is the author of The Life Span--a textbook for graduate-level students and mental health professionals--as well as Mindfulness in the Secondary Classroom.

Foreword writer Myla Kabat-Zinn, RN, BSN, spent a number of years assisting at births both in the hospital and at home. During those years, she also taught childbirth education classes based on mindful awareness. She is coauthor, with her husband Jon, of Everyday Blessings. She has led workshops on mindful parenting in the US and in Europe.

Foreword writer Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, is internationally known for his work as a scientist, writer, and meditation teacher engaged in bringing mindfulness into the mainstream of medicine and society. He is professor of medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and author of numerous books, including Full Catastrophe Living, Arriving at Your Own Door, and Coming to Our Senses.