There is a growing consensus among psychologists, educators, and the public at large that a more comprehensive vision of education is needed—one that includes an explicit focus on “educating the heart” and intentionally cultivates children’s social and emotional competencies and positive human qualities, including self-regulation, self-awareness, empathy, compassion, and altruism. This explicit and intentional focus …
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No Place Like Home: Decolonizing our American Dreams & the Necropolitics they Bury
Space seems limited these days, limited and limiting. The places we inhabit can inhabit us, leaving our imaginations of how to live otherwise too constrained to resist the tendencies of hoarding, hunting, and fencing that define our ideals, feeding habits of homemaking that have soaked the American Dream in so much violence. Rather than letting …
Our stories are our medicine: Centering culture and healing through story work with Indigenous communities
Indigenous scholars have called for theoretical and methodological research approaches that center on Indigenous knowledge, culture, and history. As such, I adopt a historical trauma theoretical lens in this presentation to explore health issues in Native and Indigenous communities in which the continued impacts of colonial violence is central. In addition, by highlighting the ongoing …
Compassion-Centered Spiritual Healthcare
Although hospital chaplains play a vital role in delivering emotional and spiritual care to a broad range of both religious and non-religious patients, there is remarkably little research on the best practices of chaplaincy training or “active ingredients” of chaplain spiritual consults. The need for rigorous research in this area is highlighted by the demands …
Subjective transformation and actual individual practice among at-risk populations engaged in cognitively-based compassion training
This project investigates the cultural context of contemplative practice in the West through an ethnographic study of Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT), a contemplative meditation practice derived from the Tibetan Buddhist lojong tradition. Addressing lacunae in current studies of secular meditation interventions, this study seeks to elucidate (1) how CBCT, which focuses on the cultivation of …
Building a new theory of contemplative interactions for healthcare
Clinicians (physicians and nurses) who care for patients with serious illness face significant challenges, both intra-personal and inter-personal, that if unaddressed result in stress, burnout, and exacerbation of patient suffering. Recent developments in contemplative neuroscience and theories of compassion indicate that the time is ripe to build a better understanding of how contemplative practice could …
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The impact of mindfulness training on emotion regulation of primary school children in Vietnamese cultural context: Integrating electrophysiological and first-person assessments
Mindfulness is a form of mental training wherein metacognitive awareness, attention control and an attitude of non-reactivity are cultivated. Applied to managing of emotions, mindfulness can be considered an emotion regulation strategy. Only a few developmental studies explored the direct link between mindfulness and emotion regulation and they were limited to Western cultural context. Additionally, …
Developing and testing the effectiveness of a self-compassion intervention for beginning teachers
The first year of teaching can be extremely challenging. Novice teachers face a wide-range of worries and disappointments, which can sap motivation, and lead to burnout and exiting the profession. The current research seeks to design and evaluate contemplative exercises that curb this “burnout cascade” during the transition into teaching. We propose that a brief …
A randomized control trial of an in-person vs. ehealth mindfulness-based intervention for adolescents with chronic illness
This study will compare the efficacy of a mindfulness meditation program for adolescents with chronic health conditions delivered either in person or via eHealth. The eight-week mindfulness program, called Mindful Awareness and Resilience Skills for Adolescents (MARS-A) will combine various meditation practices, group discussions and inquiry. Participants will be recruited from different general and sub-specialty …
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and early life abuse: Does attenuating inflammation reduce depressive symptoms and interpersonal dysfunction?
Early life abuse (ELA) is a risk factor for depression and interpersonal problems in adulthood. Frequent exposure to stress early in life leads to enduring changes in neurobiological systems that regulate stress and emotion. In particular, chronic low-grade inflammation—resulting from sustained activation of the immune system in response to stress—may be a key biological mechanism …
