Maria Napoli

Mindfulness Training for Teachers: A Pilot Program:

This article discusses the results of three elementary school teachers’ feedback from a mindfulness-training program. Mindfulness is the ability to pay attention to what’s happening now without judgment. The training consisted of breathwork, bodyscan, movement, and sensorimotor activities. Results of interviews with the teachers revealed that teachers used the mindfulness skills to (a) aid in curriculum development and implementation, (b) deal with conflict and anxiety, (c) improve the quality of their personal lives, and (d) facilitate positive changes in the classroom.

Sense of Belonging in School as a Protective Factor Against Drug Abuse Among Native American Urban Adolescents

ABSTRACT This article presents the results of a study conducted with 243 Native American students who were part of a multi-ethnic sample of adolescents attending middle school in a large urban center in the Southwest region of the United States. Native adolescents who felt a stronger sense of belonging in their school were found to report a lower lifetime use of alcohol and cigarettes, lower cigarette and marijuana use in the previous month, lower frequency of current use of these substances, fewer substances ever used, and a later age of initiation into drug use than other Native students. Research implications are discussed in relationship to school environment, culturally-grounded prevention curricula, and school social work practice.

A Proposal for a Mindfulness-Based Trauma Prevention Program for Social Work Professionals

The pervasiveness of traumatic events and the increasing awareness of their persistent and sometimes devastating effects on individuals and populations has repositioned trauma from a peripheral topic of interest for social workers to a mainstream subject of study. This article explores the personal and professional challenges that mass trauma presents to social workers and provides a rationale for, and description of, a proposed mindfulness-based trauma prevention program. This program is designed to guide social workers and other health professionals in learning effective self-directed techniques to maintain equanimity in the face of danger and human suffering, thereby reducing the incidence of secondary trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder. Components of the program include mindfulness of breathing, body scan, and trauma-releasing exercises.

Holistic Health Care for Native Women: An Integrated Model

Providing health care services to Native women has become a challenge owing to the severity of illness--in particular, diabetes, alcoholism, and arthritis--in this group today. If comprehensive health care is to be offered, coordination of services between health and mental health practitioners is needed. Gathering together to support each other has been a traditional custom for Native women. An integrated health care model is discussed that offers Native women an opportunity to deal with the challenge of mental health and health issues through traditional activities, enhancing their physical and spiritual health and receiving education while creating an atmosphere of empowerment and mutual support.

Treatment of prostitution using integrative therapy techniques: A case study

This case study examines a pattern we believe to be common among female prostitutes: a woman (“Bonnie”) who, like most prostitutes, is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. Bonnies prostitution is part of the unconscious ‘repetition compulsion’ common in trauma victims; by prostituting herself, Bonnie re-creates the scenario of sexual abuse that occurred during her childhood, while maintaining an illusion of control over the situation. We maintain that an effective approach to treatment for Bonnie is integrative therapy, a type of psychological counseling designed to address the major aftereffects of sexual abuse: dissociation from the body and sexuality in general; a profound sense of powerlessness; critically low valuation of the self; and mistrust and fear of intimacy. Bonnies story shows the dynamics of both prostitute behavior and integrative therapy, providing an example we believe to be applicable far beyond this case study.

React or Respond: A Guide to Apply Mindfulness for Families and Therapists

Mindfulness has been described as the ability to pay attention to ones present experience without judgment. This article attempts to integrate the understanding of mindfulness with tools for application for families and therapists. The application of mindfulness can offer families and therapists the opportunity to move from reacting to their experiences to responding, thereby aiding in emotional regulation. Families can create change in thinking and behavior by decreasing the activation of the stress response. Family therapists who are mindful can increase objectivity and are less likely to act upon negative countertransference. This article discusses a fourstep MAC Mindfulness Guide of empathic acknowledgment, intentional attention, nonjudgmental acceptance, and action toward change.

Stress management and reduction of aggression in grade school children

School violence, peer relationships, academic stress, anger, depression and family struggles, such as divorce, are all serious issues for school age children. The increasing incidence of violent acts both at the primary and secondary school level committed by children is alarming. Children need to learn how to deal with emotions and situations beginning at an early age as a prevention to violence and aggression. Young children are given more responsibility to deal autonomously with situations both at home and at school. Interventions by parents and teachers lessen; therefore, students need the skills necessary to manage stressful life situations effectively.

Becoming Culturally Competent: Mindful Engagement with American Indian Clients

Social workers are often sensitive to American Indian cultural norms with the intention of teaching and providing services in the best interest of the client. However, developing cultural competency may best be learned by practicing mindfulness. Mindfulness can be viewed as intentionally being present on purpose without judgment. Living in the present moment is inherent in American Indian culture. When social workers are mindful they are able to empathically acknowledge, intentionally pay attention, and accept without judgment their experiences. Responding versus reacting to ones experience helps facilitate setting the stage for effective change and transformation. This article offers a framework for developing a mindfulness practice to enhance cultural competence with American Indian clients.

Intensive Home-Based and Wellness Services to Native American Families Living on Reservations: A Model

For decades, providing services to Native American families residing on reservations has presented challenges to the social work profession. Historically, and in some locations currently, the federal government has been the primary family service provider. Non-Indian workers in key programs and administrative positions often staff these federal services. Often service delivery by non-Native workers is organized, administered, and delivered in a culturally insensitive manner. There has recently been an increase in American Indians that provide services for their own and neighboring Indian communities, but the issue of effective service delivery remains. This paper suggests a model of intensive home-based treatment and wellness services to Native American families living on reservations. The model acknowledges the importance of culturally competent leadership and workers, focuses on the prevention of placing of adults, elders, and children off the reservation, and maintaining balance in the family by emphasizing tribal values and wellness.

Beyond the Ego

This paper discusses the treatment of a woman recovering from alcoholism using an integrative therapy approach. Understanding the client’s clinical profile from an insight-oriented psychoanalytic perspective and using holistic therapy techniques were the primary tools used during treatment. Breathwork, Phoenix Rising yoga therapy, journaling and letter writing proved to be most beneficial for this client, who experienced post-traumatic stress and conversion disorder.