Mindful Kids Peace Summit Speaker Info
Speakers Info
Gina M. Biegel
Session Title: Presentation and Interview -Stressed Teens: Riding the Stress Waves
Free Learning Resources:
Doing homework or taking a test mindfully
Resource packet for mindful kids summit part -1
Resource packet for mindful kids summit part -2
Mindfulness for student athletes
Mental toughness free activity
Locker room free activity: an informal mindfulness practice
Gina M. Biegel, LMFT, is a San Francisco Bay area–based psychotherapist, researcher, speaker, and author specializing in bringing mindfulness-based work with adolescents. She is the founder of Stressed Teens, which has been offering MBSR-T to adolescents, families, schools, professionals, and the community since 2004. She created MBSR-T to help teens in a large HMO’s outpatient department of child and adolescent psychiatry, who were not receiving relief or amelioration of their physical and psychological symptoms with the use of a multitude of other evidence-based practices.
Ross Robinson
Session Title: Breathing Love into Communties
Free Learning Resource: https://youtu.be/kH2C3YBe9Ag
Ross Robinson is the Manager of Training, Program Implementation, and Quality at Holistic Life Foundation. He conducts on going staff training, workshops, and evaluates Holistic Life Foundation programming. Ross is certified in trauma-informed yoga through TCTSY’s program. Traveling nationally/internationaly, Ross leads residencies and conducts speaking engagements on HLF’s mission. He is also a certified Health Coach through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition.
Emily and Jo Brierly
Session Title: Coping with Trauma: Manchester
Hi, My name is Emily Brierley and I’m 16. To give you some context I’ve been practising meditation and mindfulness for three years now. I discovered it because I suffered with anxiety and also had a severe panic attack on the plane home from Sri Lanka- mindfulness allowed me to let go of the need to control the future.
I think this has given me the sort of insight that many don’t come across until they’re much older than me. For two years I read dozens of spiritual books and I basically fell in love with a more conscious way of living. I built up a lot of knowledge and in my head I believed I could use what I’d learned to help me in any situation, little did I know that would be tested.
Chelsea Briggs, Teacher, and Madison McEvoy and Jordan Tamares, Students Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Session Title: Coping with the Aftermath of Tragedy & Stopping the Violence: Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Parkland
In this interview with an MSD teacher and 2 MSD students, we discuss how to cope with stress and emotions after a tragedy, how to stay positive and be able to continue with life, and how we can all be doing a better job at communicating with each other, being aware of ourselves and those around us, and work together to make the world a better place.
Session Title: Adam and Helen Opening and School Board Speech
Free Learning Resources:
Join the Kids Association for Mindfulness Education
Fifteen year old Adam Avin, created the Wuf Shanti Children’s Wellness Foundation, to teach mindfulness, so children can live in health and wellness, peace and positivity. Through videos, books, mobile app, music, fun, and games, children learn yoga, meditation, communication, inclusion, social emotional learning, and positive thinking to help them stay physically fit, mentally less stressed, able to cope with emotions, and interact with kindness. Wuf Shanti has been honored to receive many awards, and Adam is honored to have been published in many national publications, interviewed many pioneers for his “Partners of Peace” series, founded the Kids’ Association for Mindfulness in Education, and to be co-founder and hosting the Mindful Kids Peace Summit. Adam is certified in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction for teens, Kidding Around Yoga, and the Emotion Code.
Check out Adam’s TEDX talk at https://youtu.be/2r6TWTqr8FM about getting mindful SEL programs into all schools K-12, why mental health education is so important to stopping violence, and using our voice to make a positive difference in the world.
Buy Wuf Shanti books, shirts, stuffed animals for younger kids
See Wuf Shanti videos for younger kids
Visit me at www.wufshanti.com or like our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/wufshanti
Elayna M. Hasty
Session Title: Teens Stand Up Speak Out
Elayna is nationally recognized as an anti-bullying advocate and openly shares her experiences through public speaking as part of her Girls Against Bullying Girls Workshops. G.A.B. Girls is a non profit organization that promotes leadership, self-esteem, community involvement and communication skills to children of all ages. Elayna has put in more than 1300 hours of community service since 2010 and has done 75 workshops. She helps in empowering students nationwide to be comfortable and proud of their own true beauty. Elementary workshops cater to younger girls by encouraging self-esteem, leadership, and compassion for others. Advanced workshops are designed for middle school girls to open up about the mean girl syndrome, trying to fit in, and finding the courage to go out into the community to make their own positive mark. Boys and girls of all ages benefit from her “Stand Up Speak Out” workshop where she focuses on teaching on preventing bullying happening in their school.
Heather Stang
Session Title: Dealing with Grief as a Teen
Free Learning Resource: Free Course on Grief and Mindfulness
Heather Stang, MA, C-IAYT is the author of Mindfulness and Grief and is the host of the Mindfulness and Grief Podcast. She has a Master’s Degree in and is a certified yoga therapist in the Phoenix Rising tradition. Heather is a member of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) Board of Advisors, and partners with survivor and grief-professional organizations on self-care and meditation for grief, and is the founder of the Frederick Meditation Center in Maryland. Learn more about Heather at MindfulnessAndGrief.com
Jennifer Miller
Session Title: How to Fit In and Stand Out and be Confident Teens
Free Learning Resources:
“Our Hearts” -Teaching Kids about Name-Calling
10 Kids that changed the world
Pitt River Middle School – Random Act of Kindness – AKA “The Breakfast Club”
For twenty-five years, Jennifer Miller has dedicated her work to the well-being of young people of all ages by improving the skills and understanding of the adults – teachers and parents – who love them. She is author and illustrator of the blog, Confident Parents, Confident Kids with more than 22,000 followers in 152 countries world-wide. She serves as a regular expert contributor to the Webby Award-winning site, NBC Universal’s Parent Toolkit. Her book, “Confident Parents, Confident Kids: How to Manage Your Own Big Feelings While Helping Kids Manage Theirs” is coming to bookstores this Fall, 2019.
Jennifer Fraser
Session Title: When Adults Talk Trash- How to Handle Negative Self Talk when it Orginates from an Adult in your Life
Free Learning Resource Free Course
Jennifer Fraser has a PhD in Comparative Literature which means she is trained to put different discourses into dialogue like journalism and psychology or literature and neuroscience. An author, researcher and teacher, in recent years, Jennifer has become an advocate for youth who are suffering from abuse whether emotional, physical or sexual. She believes that we need to work together to shift from a bullying / abuse paradigm into an empathy / compassion paradigm. Mindfulness is a cornerstone of this shift.
Dr Lee Anne Gray
Session Title: Your 3 Anti-Bullying Mantras
Free Learning Resource-Lesson Plan
Dr Lee Ann Grey is an author, psychologist, educator and speaker. She has trained 1000s in how to work with Self Compassion and Teens.
John Shearer
Session Title: We are All One, One with Spirit, One with Life.
Free Learning Resource- The Mindful Way
John Shearer has been on an extraordinary journey that has culminated in him becoming an internationally recognised Australian Mindfulness Master. He is a Psychotherapist, Intuitive Life Coach, Hypnotherapist, ACT Therapist, Modern Day
Shaman and Spiritual Healer. In 2015, John founded mindfullyMAD.org and the Mindfulness Mentoring Institute to train Peer Support Workers and Volunteers.
Alexandra Penn
Session Title: How to Handle Bullying & Cyberbullying in School
Since 2004, i have worked to improve the lives of kids, parents and educators by helping them manage and overcome the violence in the lives and remove the obstacles that impede learning – such as, fear.
I founded champions against bullying in 2004, in Toronto Canada, following my work as a special education counsellor with the Toronto board of education.
My breakthrough work with a child on the autism spectrum, resulted in a teaching video at the Toronto psychiatric hospital.
Co – trained teachers on methods to implement a behavior modification program in their classrooms for kids with conduct and attentions difficulties.
Laurie Grossman
Session Title: Exercise: Exploring Me Meditation – In Spanish
Free Learning Resource:
Introduction to Inner Explorer
Laurie spent 32 years seeking social justice for low-income communities when she wondered if teaching mindfulness to kids would be a good idea. As Community Outreach Coordinator of Park Day School, she could not believe her ears when on the first day of piloting a program to bring mindfulness into public schools, a third grader said, “I think if we do this every day we aren’t going to fight anymore.” At that moment, Laurie knew how she would be spending the rest of her career. Within two months, Laurie and her colleagues, started a new organization called, The Community Partnership for Mindfulness in Education, now called Mindful Schools. Within the first year of the program, thousands of low-income children benefitted from the program. Laurie is delighted and feels fortunate to be working with Inner Explorer because the program teaches mindful awareness to students and teachers simultaneously, in a remarkably effective, sustainable and scalable way. Born in NJ, Laurie now resides in California. The loves of her life are her husband, David, her two kids, Ariel and Perrin, her sisters, family, friends, autumn leaves, whales and, of course, mindful awareness. Laurie’s mom used to call her Lucky Laurie and she is sincerely grateful for her good fortune every day.
Patti Criswell
Session Title: Stand Up for Yourself and your Friends
Free Learning Resource Stand Up For Yourself PPT
Patti is a Clinical Social Worker, speaker and author living near Kalamazoo, MI. She has been working with girls and their families for over 30 years to help girls gain the skills they need to grow into strong and powerful women. Areas of specialty include relational aggression and developing a healthy body image. Patti is a recognized expert in the area of tween girls. Her work includes individual, family and group therapy with girls and their parents as well as working with young women in transition. Additionally, she is on the faculty of Western Michigan University where she teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in College of Health and Human Services in the School of Social Work.
Dr. Laura Martocci
Session Title: Understanding the Relationship between Shame and Bullying
Free Learning Resource – Psychology Today Blogs
Laura Martocci, a former Associate Dean and faculty member in the Department of Sociology at Wagner College, began working on issues of bullying as a National Trainer with the Ophelia Project in 2001. She has worked intensively in schools and with professional organizations in the New York area since that time. Most recently, she partnered with
the Social BlackBelt, an NFL players alumni association sponsored social-emotional learning initiative (SEL), and worked to digitize programming that promised to help young people understand their feelings, and to develop the skill sets necessary to manage emotions and make responsible choices.
