Slow down, breathe, and have fun learning brain-based mindful skills for your family. This workbook was created as part of the FocusedKids(TM) program and offers information and fun activities that strengthen and support how families connect to and communicate with one another. You will learn about the developing brain, three key parts and what they do, about self-regulation and co-regulation, and about using mindful activities with your family to promote healthy brain development as well as self-regulation skills, better communication and less conflict. FocusedFamilies is a module of the FocusedKids program. We believe that parents are the key to healthy brain development. To this end, you are encouraged to practice mindful exercises using the breath, the senses, and the body to enhance mind-body awareness and support healthy brain development. Parents who participate in the FocusedFamilies class using this book will be offered a chance to practice with other parents and learn age-appropriate activity-based strategies. As families, what we can do is pause often, settle ourselves, and refocus our attention on what really matters. We hope that with this training you will feel comfortable talking about the brain with your child and practicing simple activities daily to help nurture useful skills to navigate the world in which we live.
About the Author: Kathy has a Master's degree in Child and Family Counseling from the University of Colorado - Denver (UCD), and has had a private practice in the Roaring Fork Valley for 25 years. Post-graduate she trained in Gestalt play therapy with Violet Oaklander, and has worked with children, adolescents, and families both privately and in the schools. From 1998-2010, she served as an adjunct professor at UCD teaching child, adolescent, and family therapy. In 2011-2012 she joined the MindUP program and brought that curriculum to five local elementary schools, helped develop a parent component, and served as interim program director. She also began using a brain-based approach in her practice with families and children. In 2013 she created the FocusedKids(TM) program piloting it with a local non-profit called Valley Settlement Project (VSP). VSP has a very successful approach to helping the immigrant population here integrate and successfully settle into the community. She piloted FocusedKids in their mobile preschool (ages 3-4) where it is still successfully in use. FocusedKids is also offered to the VSP Learning With Love program, serving parents with children ages 0-3. This is offered to families in small groups with children present and participating. FocusedKids is very successful with that program and is the impetus for creating a new module called FocusedFamilies. FocusedFamilies is offered locally to all families with children ages 0-8. It is also offered at the Roaring Fork School District, along with FocusedKids training for teachers and students in pre-k through 3rd-grade classrooms.