Book review: Mindful Parenting (2014)

Book review: Mindful Parenting (2014)

I think I am in the same minds as the publisher, I am truly grateful that Mindful Parenting is finally published in it's current form. I have been training parents in evidence based family behavioural interventions and mindfulness based parenting (PuP) for a number of years, but there was a gap in our understanding of the scientific basis of such approaches.

  It is an easy to read text including an 8 week Mindfulness Parenting course!

My psychological perspective

This text is spot on. It doesn't matter how many skills we provide parents, if they are unable to apply these skills because of emotional stress. And reading through the text, I felt like I was going on a journey with the authors into the development and refinement of the Mindfulness Parenting Course: an 8 week courses detailed in the book complete with handouts. The preliminary evidence shows that it works. Obviously more research is needed, but this is an exciting step.

The Mindfulness Parenting Course is not presented as a mechanical program, but written in such a way as to give insight into the processes of the evolving group program. I love how the authors include the reactions they normally get from parents. It's almost as if I was there with them in the room. And I can definitely picture myself running said group. They also provide a bunch of resources (permission to replicate included :D) to use if one decides to run the program. My critiques of the program.  I really like how the authors have attempted to scientifically study the effectiveness of this program. I like that there is a balance of experience as well as knowledge imparted in the program. I like the encouragement of homework tasks to practice the skills. And I like on follow up, parents continued to improve beyond the program. One of my critques of the program in private practice is that it is a long program, which won't be as big of an issue in the public sector. And personally, I would prefer a greater emphasis on parenting techniques which combine well with the mindfulness based approach, but this wasn't a positive parenting program, it was a mindfulness based parenting program.

I would recommend this book to those who have already been exposed to evidence-based mindfulness approaches, and those interesting in enhancing their parenting skills.

My Christian perspective

Mindfulness parenting just makes sense. We were created differently to animals, and traditional behavioural approaches uses the same strategies to train dogs. Well, it works, kind of, at least in principle it works, and for most parents it does. But it's missing something. And I think Mindfulness Parenting fills that gap well.

My overall rating: 

Superior
This is a fantastic resource or was an extremely great use of time.

 I do rarely give out a superior rating for my reviews. But this book definitely deserves one. This is one of the resources used in developing the Raising Tweens and Teens group in my clinic later this year. This is not really an academic text, but targets those who are already practicing mindfulness. I will be sharing this resource with my psychology students and with some of the parents I am working with.

I guess my interest also stems from parents asking me for an alternative to what is available on the market. And it's still evolving. A lot of my clients are parents struggling with the behaviours of their children (ADHD, challenging behaviours from ASD, self harm, substance use, aggression). This text definitely is one step in the right direction.

Please stay tuned for a new program called: Raising Tweens and Teens: Positive and mindful parenting which I will be running late 2014. It combines Mindfulness Parenting with Family Behavioural Intervention. It is a five session program with ongoing follow up sessions every 6 months as needed. For more information, please contact the clinic or visit www.couragepsyc.com.au/groups.

  This book is available from Springer, Amazon and other online retailers.

I was provided with a review copy of this book but was not otherwise influenced in my review.