Past events
(Selection)

Mindfulness in education — Foundation for Resilience
and Social Engagement

Conference
at the University of Leipzig in Germany
September 21 — 22, 2023
an event of the project ABiK of the ZLS
of the University of Leipzig and the AVE Institute

As part of the 2-day conference, organized by the project Mindfulness in education and university/school culture (ABiK) of the Center for Teacher Training and School Research (ZLS) at the University of Leipzig together with the Institute for Mindfulness, Connectedness, Engagement (AVE Institut), two of us were invited to hold a workshop on the topic of Possibilities for encountering trauma in the classroom. This time we integrated a few skills from the Community Resiliencey Model (CRM)® into the workshop, which were very well received by the participants.

This hypothesis was, among other things, part of the intensive workshop on mindfulness and sustainability of the ABiK project the following day. The central questions were:

What connects mindfulness with prosocial and environmentally conscious behavior?
How can we use mindfulness-based formats to contribute to a responsible life
towards ourselves and towards those around us and the environment?

­

A highlight of the conference was the report by the Danish psychologist Helle Jensen and family therapist about her model project Empathy goes to school — an approach for the entire system, the effect of which is scientifically measured.

It was an honor for us to contribute to this first mindfulness conference

Fit for Life

Mental health workshop for the 5th grade
at the Junior High School Stockerau in Lower Austria
in the last week of school

„We're not doing anything special today. You already know everything we do.
But we do everything differently than we are used to and we do our best.“

These were approximately the words of welcome. The point is that over time we become aware of our usual behavior so that we can consciously try out new behavior. The children immediately agreed. One of the first exercises was to go to a nearby playground together.

„When you usually go to the playground as a class, how does it look like?“
[...]
„Usually we talk to each other.“
„Ok, then we'll be quiet today and everyone stays with oneself.“

This exercise worked right away. All the children stayed with themselves the entire way, so each child could take care of themselves. At the playground, among other things, the sports professor led a warm-up exercise that the children were familiar with. A few body-oriented awareness exercises were then added to the same exercise, and the children were encouraged to take responsibility for themselves. Afterwards, we tried out a perception and breathing exercise to calm down, followed by a round of reflection.

Thank you for your willingness to embark on this journey of discovery together!

Taking well-being in our hands

two workshops in German and Arabic
June 9, 2023 at Amerlinghaus Vienna
June 12, 2023 at the District Authority of the 15^th district of Vienna

In June 2023, the two Community Resiliency Model (CRM)® trainers Gabriele Siebert and Ingrid Otepka had the possibility to hold the first two workshops with content from the Community Resiliency Model (CRM)® in two different communities.

We were very pleased that, judging by the feedback, both workshops were well received. In both groups, there was a desire for a practice-oriented follow-up workshop.

The first workshop was open to people from the Arab-Austrian House for Art and Culture, while the second workshop took place as part of the City of Vienna's Community Communicator project. Thank you very much for your support!

The content of the workshops is based on the Trauma Resource Institute's science-based Trauma and Resiliency Informed Community Resiliency Model (CRM)®. As it stands, the content of this model should actually be suitable for all people, regardless of age, cultural background or education.

We are looking forward to the upcoming workshops :)

further information about CRM®

Educational commons and active social inclusion

International Conference
at the University Volos in Greece
May 26 — May 28, 2023
an event of the SMOOTH project

As part of the 3-day SMOOTH Conference, organized by the EU-funded research project SMOOTH (Horizon 2020), we were invited to hold a lecture on the topic of Four approaches promoting social learning, conflict resolution, resilience and engagemet.

In addition to presenting the content of the mindfulness-based approaches, we also wanted to relate them to one another. For example, a body-focused awareness exercise from the mindfulness school­book The Toolbox is You forms the basis of one of the six skills of the Community Resiliency Model (CRM)®, while CRM's trauma and resilience-informed approach is incorporated into the SEE Learning Program (Social, Emotional and Ethical Learning).

Moreover, we wanted to show that the concept of Educational commons has many things in common with the approaches we have presented. As we see, educational commons can be easily combined with mindfulness-based approaches, so that they complement each other well.

We were inspired by the content of other lectures, such as a lecture on expressive writing in free text production, on alternative approaches to addiction prevention or on the common culture of trans­national gangs.

Thank you for this inspiring exchange and the beautiful conversations 🙏

German as a Foreign/Second Language 2022:
Go on! Goals — Content — Methods

9^th Nationwide Congress for German Teachers in Switzerland
at the University Freiburg/Fribourg in Switzerland
July 1 and 2 2022
organized by AkDaF and Ledafids

As part of the 2-day Congress for German Teachers in Switzerland, we (Anja Kainberger and Ingrid Otepka) were invited to hold two workshops on the topic of Learning with trauma — possibilities, ideas, limits. The basis of the workshops is mindfulness.

For these workshops, we developed a mindfulness exercise especially for teachers with the intention of making it possible to experience the learning of empathy through mental training. Specifically, it is about training a “healthy” way of dealing with the topic of war.

The interest in the workshops was great, we were fully aware of the urgency to deal with this topic in depth, it became clear that a 1.5-hour workshop on this topic can cover a small part of the really huge area, there were inquiries about in-depth training courses online and face-to-face for teachers in Switzerland, a Swiss publisher expressed interest in publishing trauma-sensitive teaching material, and a place to go comparable to MARA in Switzerland was asked.

We will try to meet the requests and, if necessary, we will be happy to support the establishment of a comparable place to go in Switzerland.

Many, many thanks for the invitation and for the thought-provoking conversations!

migration & mindfulness in a constantly changing world

International online conference
in May 2022, with

Assaad Mounzer, Friesgassencombo, Edita Lintl, Elaine Miller-Karas,
Kateryna Zeziulina, Jakob C. Fürst, Elena Shirin,
Morteza Mohammadi, Gabriele Siebert,
Gülmihri Aytaç, Paul Freh, Sarah Tulivu

Our event in video clips:

People from the fields of migration, mindfulness, health, education, ethics, journalism and music had their say, exchanged ideas, and together concrete possibilities for the next obvious steps for easier global cooperation emerged.

Thousands of years of conflicts worldwide cause indescribable suffering. One consequence of this is the current refugee movement with millions of asylum seekers worldwide. In the host countries, these people are sometimes confronted with further difficulties, such as rejection. Both, the experienced violence and difficulties in the host country lead to high levels of stress and problems in everyday life.

Understandably, these and other developments pose great challenges for people in the conflict and host countries. In consensus, we see a necessary step in dealing constructively with trauma in two ways: directly at the time it occurs as well as after the trauma has taken place. Mindfulness plays a key role here. Countries outside of the conflict zones have a particularly large room for manoeuvre.

During the online conference, best practice models could be presented and discussed and professional experiences shared.

We would like to thank the Future Fund of the Republic of Austria
for their financial support

─ Feedback of participants

Mindfulness across the German-speaking educational landscape

Through words, pictures & exercises
April 28 2021 online

The topic mindfulness is gaining interest in Austria. We have taken a closer look at the German-speaking edu­ca­tional landscape in schools, as well as in further education, and it has caught our attention that the subject mindfulness is being offered in diverse ways. At this online event we presented a few people from the field of education who were talking about mindfulness and who were also introducing us to concrete mindfulness exercises.

Our event in video clips: