Susan M. Pollak: Self-Compassion for Parents: Nurture Your Child by Caring for Yourself

Excerpt

Parents and mindfulness teachers, Kabat-Zinn and Kabat-Zinn (1997), wrote a seminal book coining the term “mindful parenting:” the interrelational mindful practice of being present and attentive to one’s child, accepting their behavior, and responding deliberately and kindly rather than impulsively. Their book catalyzed a new niche of mindfulness practice, and inspired research and clinical work investigating the indirect spillover benefits of mindful parenting for supporting children (e.g., ADHD, behavioral difficulties, developmental disabilities, intellectual disabilities, and risky behavior). For example, Singh et al. (2006) developed a 12-sesssion mindful parenting curriculum (that included reading the aforementioned Kabat-Zinns’ book) and found that the children of parent participants evidenced reduced rates of aggressive behavior despite the intervention having no direct focus on targeting child aggression. Concurrent to the development of mindful parenting applied research, investigators also began exploring the utility of self-compassion training into parent focused programming (e.g., Neff and Faso 2015). This combined surge of interest into mindful and self-compassion parenting from researchers, clinicians, and parents suggests that there is a growing interest in more mindful parenting materials generally, and materials that incorporate self-compassion training specifically. There is a need for accessible materials, geared toward the practical implementation that details mindfulness and self-compassion training in a clear format, and based on cutting-edge research. …