inner kids model

Susan is a mindfulness educator and author, specializing in distilling global wisdom traditions and scientific research into straightforward everyday practices. In the early 2000s, she helped pioneer the introduction of secular mindfulness into classrooms through her Inner Kids model. Over the decades, educators, parents, therapists, and other adults who’ve worked with children have found the very same mindfulness concepts that were designed for children to be powerful in their own lives. Many of these adults have reached out to express how, before working with the Inner Kids model, they struggled to infuse mindfulness into their lives, and how after they’ve been able to integrate it more successfully.

Here is a little bit of background about the Inner Kids model and Susan’s unique and compassionate approach to mindfulness education:

Activity-based mindfulness (or mindful games) explore the following important elements derived from psychology, philosophy, theology, neuroscience, education, and contemplative traditions: 

• Six social, emotional, and academic life skills — quieting, focusing, seeing, reframing, caring, and connecting — that help us become less reactive and more aware of what’s happening within and around us

• Six introspective methods — anchor practices, awareness practices, body scans, analytical practices, movement, and visualization — develop these crucial social, emotional, and academic life skills

• Universal themes that help us navigate the ups and downs of life with wisdom and compassion

The Inner Kids model is loosely designed to follow the sequence Play, Practice, Share and Apply. The last three steps of this sequence track my favorite shorthand description of the scientific method, one that comes from Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "See first, think later, then test."

For more on the various elements of the Inner Kids model check out the articles below.