Program Goals

The goals of The Center for Mind–Body Medicine (CMBM) Small Group Model for Children and Adolescents are:

• Learn practical mind/body skills (MBS) to balance the physiological response to stress and achieve emotional and physiological balance
• Gain understanding of how stress impacts emotional and physical health
• Reduce symptoms of trauma, anxiety, depression, and chronic illness
• Build personal resilience and self-efficacy for managing future challenges
• Identify individual strengths
• Learn tools to mobilize imagination in order to develop creative solutions to problems and conditions
• Enhance relationships and improve capacity to seek and receive social support

Logic Model

The program representative did not provide information about a Logic Model for The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) Small Group Model for Children and Adolescents.

Essential Components

The essential components of The Center for Mind–Body Medicine (CMBM) Small Group Model for Children and Adolescents include:

• Screening:
• Participants are screened by caregivers, teachers, or other service providers to determine if they are ready to participate in a small group learning process.
• Screening tools will vary based on the setting and what behaviors/conditions are being targeted for intervention.
• Participants are interviewed by the group facilitator to ensure they are interested in learning self-care skills, and ready to commit to a group process with sharing and an expectation for consistent attendance.
• Group Structure and Composition:
• 8–10 group members meet together for 10 weeks, once per week, for 30–90 minutes, depending on age level of group participants
• One facilitator who guides the group process, and also participates in sharing and activities along with the participants
• Group meetings follow the same structure each week:
• Opening meditation
• Check-in
• Didactic
• Experiential
• Sharing
• Home practice suggestions
• Closing meditation
• Essential Group Content:
• Creating A Safe Space
• All About our MBS Group
• Why are we here?
• How our Brains and Bodies Operate under Stress
• The Imagination Superpower
• Our Breath is Our Best Friend for Life; What is meditation?
• All of the Feels - Expressing our Emotions
• Moving to Our Own Beat - Movement & Music
• Our Family Map - Finding Our Safety Net & Supports
• Nourishing Our Bodies - Minding What We Eat
• How Are Your Spirits? - Honoring Our Spirit, Our Culture, and Heritage
• Saying Goodbye and Taking Our Next Step

Program Delivery

Child/Adolescent Services

The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) Small Group Model for Children and Adolescents directly provides services to children/adolescents and addresses the following:

• Symptoms of posttraumatic or chronic stress; anxiety; depression; hopelessness; isolation and loneliness; sleep disturbance; anger; chronic pain; addiction, substance abuse; suicidal ideation; hyperactivity; shame and low self-worth; low assertiveness and passivity; symptoms associated with trauma such as reexperiencing/flashbacks, dysregulation, hyperarousal/triggers, avoidance, and numbing; aggression and aggressive behavior, fighting, bullying; high risk and self-harming behaviors; deficits in social skills; lagging or problematic attachment patterns

Services Involve Family/Support Structures:

This program involves the family or other support systems in the individual's treatment: One-on-one coaching can be provided to parents and caregivers to help reinforce a child participant’s learning in the home environment. Providers can also offer a parallel group for parents/caregivers, if desired.

Recommended Intensity:

Preschool children: One weekly 30-minute session; School-aged children: One weekly 60-minute session; Adolescents and parents/caregivers: One weekly 90-minute session

Recommended Duration:

10 weeks

Delivery Settings

This program is typically conducted in a(n):

• Community Daily Living Setting
• Foster / Kinship Care
• Hospital
• Outpatient Clinic
• Community-based Agency / Organization / Provider
• Group or Residential Care
• Justice Setting (Juvenile Detention, Jail, Prison, Courtroom, etc.)
• School Setting (Including: Day Care, Day Treatment Programs, etc.)
• Virtual (Online, Telephone, Video, Zoom, etc.)

Homework

The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) Small Group Model for Children and Adolescents includes a homework component:

Program participants are encouraged and coached in establishing a regular practice of the self-care skills that are taught during the weekly small group meetings. In each session, they are asked about their experience of the practice, and its benefits and challenges. Program participants are also given exercises to share with family members to encourage dialogue and collaborate practice in the home.

Languages

The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) Small Group Model for Children and Adolescents has materials available in languages other than English:

Arabic, Creole, French, Hebrew, Russian, Serbian, Spanish

For information on which materials are available in these languages, please check on the program's website or contact the program representative (contact information is listed at the bottom of this page).

Resources Needed to Run Program

The typical resources for implementing the program are:

• 1–2 CMBM-trained small group facilitators
• Small group meeting room for 10–12 people (or digital meeting platform such as Zoom, if meeting online)
• Crayons or other coloring tools
• Paper
• Pens
• Temperature-sensitive Bio-squares or Thermistors for biofeedback exercise
• Puppets
• Smartphone or other device for playing music

Manuals and Training

Prerequisite/Minimum Provider Qualifications

There are no educational prerequisites to be trained in the CMBM Small Group Model for Children and Adolescents. Facilitators should be motivated and able to participate in a self-reflective learning process. Facilitators must be committed to learning the CMBM material presented, practicing the techniques themselves, and bringing what they have learned to others.

Manual Information

There is a manual that describes how to deliver this program.

Program Manual(s)

Manual details:

• Gordon, J. S., Kimmel, J., & Erb, M. (2020). Bringing mind-body medicine to your community and practice. The Center for Mind-Body Medicine.

Training Information

There is training available for this program.

Training Contact:

• Diego Zaragoza, Associate Director for Domestic Programs
  cmbm.org/work-with-us/training
  dzaragoza@cmbm.org
  phone: (202) 980-5025

Training Type/Location:

Public, regional and/or online trainings are held 1–2 times each year. A local, community-wide training can also be arranged for 100+ participants.

Number of days/hours:

To become a group facilitator, the following two trainings are required:

• The initial Professional Training Program which is 28 hours of experiential and didactic training
• The Advanced Training Program, Children & Teens Track, which is an additional 28 hours.

The following workshop is recommended:

• An 8-hour workshop for specialization in work with children.

Implementation Information

Pre-Implementation Materials

There are pre-implementation materials to measure organizational or provider readiness for The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) Small Group Model for Children and Adolescents as listed below:

After completing the training, facilitators typically receive 16 weeks of ongoing supervision and mentoring through weekly phone or teleconference calls with a CMBM faculty member. This supervision is optional, but strongly encouraged for all newly trained facilitators, and required for those seeking Certification. The supervision process provides coaching and fidelity monitoring and evaluates facilitator effectiveness.

For those interested in a higher level of expertise with the model, there is an option to go through CMBM’s Certification process. This is a deeper level of training and mentoring that strengthens facilitator skills and is a necessary next step for someone who wants to be on CMBM's faculty, training other facilitators. It entails additional training and three written papers.

Fidelity Measures

There are fidelity measures for The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) Small Group Model for Children and Adolescents as listed below:

Fidelity measures ensure that the essential components of the model are being incorporated into the group process and gauge the facilitator’s method of leading a group to ensure their approach is consistent with the model’s established method. All those who provide groups are assessed by fidelity measures in the Advanced Training. When trainees facilitate a group during the Advanced Training Program, they receive direct feedback from a CMBM faculty member who is observing and participating in the small group they are leading. The faculty member takes detailed notes on the performance of each trainee, shares the content of the notes with the trainee, and also with other CMBM faculty who may be providing posttraining supervision. Further assessment through supervision is optional.

Following the Advanced Training, fidelity is assessed through written, self-reported, process notes, that are submitted to the supervisor and discussed during weekly supervision calls (phone or video) with a CMBM faculty member.

Fidelity measures can be obtained by contacting CMBM's Clinical Director, Lynda Richtsmeier Cyr, PhD, at lynda@cmbm.org.

Implementation Guides or Manuals

There are no implementation guides or manuals for The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) Small Group Model for Children and Adolescents.

Implementation Cost

There are no studies of the costs of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) Small Group Model for Children and Adolescents.

Research on How to Implement the Program

Research has not been conducted on how to implement The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) Small Group Model for Children and Adolescents.

Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research

Child Welfare Outcome: Child/Family Well-Being

Additional References