Mindfulness-Based Movement Program for Calm and Anxiety: Interview with Lisa Danahy

Your Anxious Child: 5 minute solutions and interviews with experts

Lisa Danahy is a registered yoga therapist who recently published Creating Calm in Your Classroom: A Mindfulness-Based Movement Program for Social-Emotional Learning in Early Childhood Education. She also directs www.CreateCalm.org a nonprofit organization dedicated to educational programming for schools, teachers, children and special populations.

Although her book is focused on the classroom, it is actually quite appropriate for families and health care professionals. She emphasizes the importance of understanding the energy level of the child in front of you and what their body may need in order to function optimally. In her book, she has a series of movement exercises appropriate to the different energy levels a child may show especially around transitions. In the interview, we talk movement/breathing exercises appropriate for a child who is afraid of throwing up and has just gone to the nurses office and several other situations.

Her book can be found at https://amzn.to/4jOI4W1

The movement exercises discussed in the podcast can be seen in at https://youtu.be/h2IxJNuzuDc