I thought I would keep things interesting by adding book reviews as well to my blog so that you can get a taste of all of the things that I like using in my therapy sessions.
This week I am reviewing a book that I thoroughly love and want to share with you.
Sitting Still Like a Frog: Mindfulness Exercises for Kids (And their Parents) by: Eline Snel is PHENOMENAL! It is set up in an easy to read format that corresponds with the CD of mindfulness exercises that you can use with your clients or children. The chapters each match up with a specific set of exercises (one or more) that the author included which are read by someone with the most calming and positive voice, Myla Kabat-Zinn.
I have personally used one exercise extensively with one of my child clients, titled "The Little Frog." It is a four minute guided meditation that is geared towards children and it teaches them that much like a frog, you are able to sit still and focus on just your breathing. It has worked wonders with him, since he presents with moderate to severe Separation Anxiety Disorder and other behavioral concerns. I have seen him transform from the child who could not sit still in my office to a child who is able to pay attention for an entire 50 minute session after just a few sessions of practice with sitting still like a frog.
There are other exercises on the CD that target specific things, such as fear, anger, and restlessness, and each one is between 4 and 10 minutes, no longer. The author/reader clearly knew their target audience well when they created these exercises.
There is a longer guided meditation for older children that is still focused on the frog metaphor, which I have personally used in my own life when I needed a moment to sit still and recollect my thoughts.
The book includes exercises and even text-based guided meditations that are not included on the CD, which I think is really unique because it gives you the chance to choose between the guided CD version and the text-based version that you say to the client. The exercises that are included in the book can also be used as homework assignments for your client to work on out of session.
I tend to work from an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy focus with my clients, and as a a result of this I use a lot of mindfulness work. This book has been extremely helpful in allowing me the chance to translate the difficult work of meditation to the framework that a child can understand.
I hope that you found this book review helpful. If you have any suggestions for me of books that you think I should check out, please do not hesitate to leave a comment and I will look into it. I have a ton of other books to write Honest Book Reviews about, and as I continue with this blog I will intersperse regular blog posts about my interventions with Honest Book Reviews just to keep things interesting. I don't want you to get bored of me just talking about interventions!
If you are interested in purchasing this book, I inserted a link below to Amazon. It is reasonably priced for what you get- a book and a CD- so I would definitely recommend purchasing it. Once I have the spare funds, this will be my first purchase.
Please don't forget- I'm on Patreon! If you want to support me and my blog, please follow the link below to my page. I would be very grateful!
Thank you so much for reading and keep planting the seeds of change in your little sprouts :)
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