Building Mindfulness Skills to Support System Involved Youth in Navigating Friendships and Romantic Relationships

Ursula Elsa

Training Description

Friendships and romantic relationships can bring up a variety of responses for system-involved youth, from excitement to fear and anything in between. New relationships have the potential to evoke one’s deepest insecurities, vulnerabilities, and fears. They are also powerful places to grow, transform, and inspire. Young people often receive messages about friendship and romantic relationships from the media, movies, and the other adults in their lives. Especially for system-involved youth, they may have unhealthy experiences of relationships. In this training we will explore cultivating healthy friendships and romantic relationships for youth, specifically system involved youth, using mindfulness and compassion practices. We will engage in practices to support system involved youth in developing self-acceptance and self love.

Learning Objectives

● Participants will be able to identify at least two ways to frame healthy friendships and romantic relationships for system involved youth from a place of empowerment, mindfulness, and self love.

● Participants will be able to apply at least two mindfulness based expressive arts activities to encourage youth to explore healthy relationships.

● Participants will be able to identify at least two mindfulness based activities to support system involved youth in discovering healthy boundaries and consent based conversation.

Agenda

10:00-10:30am Welcome: Intros, logistics, housekeeping and opening practice

10:30-10:45am Self Reflection - Relationships in your own life

10:45-11:00am Small Group Share

11:00-11:15am Intro to Mindfulness and Building Awareness of Relational Patterns

11:15-11:30 am Exploring the Impact of Social Media on Perception of Relationships and Fantasy

11:30am-12:30pm: Mindfulness Activities: Exploring self-regulation, healthy boundaries, consent

12:30-1:15pm Lunch Break (CE hours will not be offered for this time)

1:15-2:15pm: Expressive Arts Activities: Self-Acceptance and Self Love, Reflection on Needs in relationships

2:00:-2:30pm Cultivating bravery and vulnerability in relationships

2:30-3:00pm : Closing: Review Participant Packet, Reflections, Takeaways

Meet Our Trainer

Ursula Elsa (they/she) was born and raised in the beautiful land of the Bay Area, Ohlone Territory. She has been teaching mindfulness and nature connection to youth in the Bay Area for 8 years and is currently leading rites of passage and nature connection programming for Gaia Passages. Ursula is passionate about creating programming for LGBTQI+ and neurodiverse communities. She is also a trained doula and an advocate of parent’s rights in the birth community. 

This course meets the qualifications for (4.25) BBS CE hours for LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, and LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences & is provided by Fred Finch Youth Center, CAMFT Provider #045295.