Restless Minds, Anxious Kids: Mindfulness Strategies for Young Clients
Nobody needs convincing that mindfulness is good for children. The difficulty starts the moment you try it: the nine-year-old who will not sit still, the teenager who has already decided this is something adults do to them, the child whose diagnosis has become a fixed idea about what they cannot do. Convincing a clinician is easy. Getting a young client to take part is the whole job.
That is what Chris Willard teaches here. He is a clinical psychologist who lectures on psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, has written about a dozen books, and has spent years working with children, tweens and teenagers, along with training the parents, teachers and counsellors around them. He is realistic about what fails and generous with what works.
Four hours across fifteen short sessions, with practices demonstrated rather than described. Breathing that a child will actually do: elevator breath, ninja breath, the silent sigh. Props and toys, including the glitter jar and the Hoberman sphere that children call a breathing ball. Visualisations, games, and mindfulness through the senses and the arts. He covers the physiology of stress in terms you can pass on, the difference between fight-or-flight and attend-and-befriend, and what mindfulness is not, which is where most resistance comes from. Throughout, the emphasis is on adapting: less verbal children, children with different learning profiles, teenagers who need a reason of their own. And he is direct that your own practice is the foundation, because children can tell.
You’ll walk away with
- Generating buy-in with a child or teenager who has already decided this is not for them
- Breathing practices young clients will actually do, including elevator breath, ninja breath and the silent sigh
- Props and toys used well: the glitter jar, the breathing ball, the mindfulness bell, and how to hand control to the child
- Adapting practices for less verbal children and for very different learning profiles
- Visualisations you can build with a child, and how to guide one that holds their attention
- Mindfulness through play, games, the senses and the arts, rather than sitting still
- The physiology of stress, and attend-and-befriend as the response most training leaves out
- What mindfulness is not, which is usually the source of a young client’s resistance
- Working with a fixed mindset, particularly in children who have taken a diagnosis as a verdict
- Introducing mindfulness through technology and social media rather than against them
- Post-traumatic growth, and what it looks like in young people
- Bringing it into schools, families and other systems around the child
- Your own practice, which he treats as the foundation rather than an optional extra
Watch the course trailer
CPD Information For Mental Health Professionals
Enjoy complete flexibility with 100% self-paced learning you can access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. This course is included with your Tatra Training membership, along with every other course in the library.
Format: fifteen short sessions with practices you take part in, so give yourself somewhere you can do them.
Where this sits: the young-client course in Chris Willard’s set. Working With the Inner Critic covers self-compassion with adults, and Resilience: Strategies for Difficult Times covers resilience more broadly.
Course Duration: 4 learning hours
Certificate and CPD hours: On completion you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion to support your CPD records. Your certificates are yours to keep.
Assessment: Complete a short quiz at the end (80% pass mark), which you can resit as many times as needed.
Revisit Anytime: Come back to the course as often as you like while your membership is active, whenever you want a refresher for practice.
CPD Eligibility: This program may be suitable for CPD for professionals such as:
- Psychologists
- Counsellors and Psychotherapists
- Social Workers
- Community Workers
- Mental Health Nurses
- General Practitioners (GPs)
- Occupational Therapists
CPD requirements vary between professional bodies, so please check with your association or credentialing body to confirm you can claim CPD hours/OPD points for this program and what evidence they require.
Course Content
Meet Your Instructor
Anxious teens, stressed college students, and overwhelmed families struggling with modern pressures need more than traditional therapy approaches - they need clinicians who understand how mindfulness and other neuroscience backed practices can rewire young brains for resilience. Christopher Willard has dedicated his career to making mindfulness accessible and practical, becoming one of the world's leading experts in mindful approaches to youth mental health.
As a Lecturer on Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Willard has visited and trained practitioners across 44 countries in resilience, mental health, emotional intelligence, communication and more. His 20+ books - including Growing Up Mindful, College Mental Health 101, and the upcoming Neuroscience of Negotiation - have been translated into over a dozen languages and earned praise from mindfulness leaders like Thich Nhat Hanh, Tara Brach, Dan Siegel, and Jack Kornfield. His work bridges ancient wisdom with contemporary neuroscience, showing clinicians how contemplative practices can address anxiety, depression, and stress-related disorders for all ages
Dr. Willard's expertise spans mindfulness-based interventions, developmental neuroscience and corporate and educational consulting. His approach combines 20 years of personal meditation practice with rigorous clinical training, giving him unique insight into resilience across the lifespan. He helps clinicians understand when mindfulness is appropriate, how to adapt practices for different challenges, and ways to integrate contemplative approaches with evidence-based therapies.
What sets his training apart is developmental sophistication and practicality. Willard doesn't just water down mindfulness but make it relevant culturally, cognitively and developmentally for a multitasking world. His work from corporations to clinics to classrooms have shown him what interventions succeed or fail in different settings.
For your practice, expect to gain age-appropriate mindfulness techniques, practical tools for treating anxious and depressed youth, and frameworks for integrating contemplative practices with traditional therapy. His methods particularly benefit clinicians working with adolescents, college students, or families seeking alternatives to medication-focused treatment.
Quick Win: Willard's "Alphabreaths" technique gives young clients 26 different breathing practices they can choose from based on their current emotional state - creating immediate buy-in and personalised coping tools they actually use.
Qualifications
- PsyD, Clinical Psychology, Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, 2008
- B.A., English, Wesleyan University, 2001
- Licensed Psychologist (Massachusetts)
- 20+ years of personal meditation practice
Authored Books
- College Mental Health 101 (2025, co-author with Blaise Aguirre & Chelsie Green, New Harbinger)
- How We Grow Through What We Go Through (2022, Sounds True)
- Alphabreaths (2019, Sounds True)
- Raising Resilience (2017, Sounds True, praised by Sharon Salzberg, Tina Bryson)
- Growing Up Mindful (2016, Sounds True, praised by Tara Brach, Jack Kornfield)
- Child's Mind (2010, Parallax Press, praised by Thich Nhat Hanh)
- 20+ total titles including therapeutic games and card sets, translated into 10+ languages
Teaching & Roles
- Lecturer on Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, 2014–present
- Clinical Instructor, Cambridge Health Alliance Department of Psychiatry, 2014–present
- President, Mindfulness in Education Network, 2015–present
- Psychologist & Consultant, Enlightened Livelihoods, 2005–present
- Psychologist, Tufts University Counseling and Mental Health Services, 2009–2014
Speaking & Training
- Harvard Medical School faculty presentations
- Brahm Centre Singapore keynote (2020)
- International mindfulness training and consultation
Ready to help young people develop lifelong resilience skills? Discover how Dr. Willard's mindfulness-based methods can transform your work with anxious and stressed youth while enhancing your own clinical presence.
Feedback & Reviews
This course includes:
- Lessons 2
- Topics 16
- Duration 4 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English