Mindful Therapeutic Care for Children

Book excerpt: Mindful Therapeutic Care for Children is an accessible guide to using mindfulness and reflection to improve the quality of care for vulnerable children. Drawing on ideas from attachment theory and neuroscience, Mindful Therapeutic Care for Children explains terms like mindfulness and reflective practice, their importance in the therapeutic care of children and how the theory behind them can provide a key to understanding children's behaviour. This book discusses how the mental and emotional environment around children affects them, and how practising mindfulness can help us generate more supportive environments. The author also features an 'Awareness Pentagon' model for reflective practice, an original tool developed through her training designed to help you to approach cases critically and to focus more effectively on the child's needs. This practical book provides psychologists, therapists, social workers and other professionals working with children, as well as foster carers and adoptive parents with useful tools to develop their capacity for mindful care.