Mindful Parenting

Foreword.- Part I. Theoretical and Empirical Background .- Chapter 1. Introduction to Mindful Parenting.- Chapter 2. An Evolutionary Perspective on Parenting and Parenting Stress.- Chapter 3. Effects of the Mindful Parenting Course.- Part II. Mindful Parenting: A Guide to the 8 Week Program .- Chapter 4: Overview and Guidelines for the Mindful Parenting Program.- Chapter 5: Session 1: Automatic Parenting.- Chapter 6: Session 2: Beginner's Mind Parenting.- Chapter 7: Session 3: Reconnecting with our Body as a Parent.- Chapter 8: Session 4: Responding vs. Reacting to Parenting Stress.- Chapter 9: Session 5: Parenting Patterns and Schemas.- Chapter 10: Session 6: Conflict and Parenting.- Chapter 11: Session 7: Love and Limits.- Chapter 12: Session 8: Are We There yet? A Mindful Path Through Parenting.- Chapter 13: Follow-up Session: Each Time, Beginning Anew.- Chapter 14: Voices of the Parents: Life After the Mindful Parenting Course.

Susan Bögels, Ph.D., is a professor in Developmental Psychopathology at the University of Amsterdam. Her research focuses on the intergenerational transmission of psychopathology, through parent-child and family interactions, with a specific focus on the father, on the role of attentional processes in psychopathology, and on child and family interventions, including mindfulness. She is also the director of the academic center for the treatment of parents and children, UvA minds, in which evidence-based cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness interventions are offered to families. She is a member of the workgroup on Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum, PostTraumatic, and Dissociative Disorders of the DSM-5.





Kathleen Restifo, Ph.D., is a clinical and developmental psychologist specializing in family interventions for children and parents with emotional disorders. She is a practicing family therapist and a mindfulness trainer. Herclinical interests include integrating mindfulness and compassion practices with psychotherapeutic approaches for children, couples and families. Her research interests include evolutionary perspectives on parenting stress, effects of mindfulness-based interventions on children, and family processes in development of psychopathology. She is the founder of Mindful Families, a center which provides mindfulness and psychotherapy for children, parents and families, and is adjunct faculty at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands.

"When we wrote the first edition of our book on mindful parenting, published in 1997, it did not include a formal program for parents, nor a curriculum for training health professionals to teach parents.  Such a curriculum is long overdue. We are grateful to the authors for bringing it to life in this form.  Their program is both profoundly practical and at the same time, potentially transformative and healing. One of its main virtues is that it spans and unifies two different ways of knowing:  that of empirical scientific understanding, in this case clinical and behavioral psychology research, and that of contemplative mindfulness-based programs and practices, which are themselves increasingly resting on a firm scientific foundation. At the same time, these mindfulness-based programs tap into an orthogonal dimension of wisdom and compassion going back several thousand years, mostly derived from the universal elements underlying Buddhist meditation, of which mindfulness is often said to be the heart."

- From the Foreword by Jon and Myla Kabat-Zinn

From the book reviews:

"Susan Bögels and Kathleen Restifo present a treatment based on ancient traditions to cultivate equanimity in the face of the unpredictable cacophony of modern life with children. ... Rooted in evidence-based practices and a solid research base, this book will guide therapists to help parents bring full awareness to raising children with compassion and wisdom. ... Bögels and Restifo's work will instantly become a trusted source for mindfulness teachers and mental health professionals, especially child and family therapists." (Shirley N. Pakdaman, Mindfulness, Vol. 5, 2014)

"It is an easy to read text including an 8 week Mindfulness Parenting course! This text is spot on. ... The Mindfulness Parenting Course is not presented as a mechanical program, but written in such a way as to give insight into the processes of the evolving group program. ... I would recommend this book to those who have already been exposed to evidence-based mindfulness approaches, andthose interesting in enhancing their parenting skills." (CouragePsyc, couragepsyc.blogspot.com.au, March, 2014)