The Story Behind Mindful-Matters
As a school nurse working in Northern California public schools for 10+ years, I’ve observed an increase in student mental health needs and seen the rising toll that unmet mental health needs take on students’ physical and mental wellbeing, attendance, and achievement. I’ve seen educators, administrators, mental health providers, and other support staff grapple with how to provide adequate support to help these students succeed. Having developed my own mindfulness practice through meditation and yoga over the last several years, I became interested in the application of these practices as part of a widespread school-based intervention. As I delved into the research, I was excited to find a strong evidence base for these strategies and a wide array of curriculum, training, and practice resources. Unfortunately, many districts have been slow to adopt mindfulness and/or social-emotional learning (SEL) curricula. My goal in creating Mindful-Matters was to aggregate information, materials, and resources for teachers, parents, and other educational staff interested in helping children thrive through the adoption of school-based mindfulness strategies.
Please feel free to email me with questions, comments, or suggestions for the site: [email protected]
Kirsten Munk is an RN and a credentialed school nurse and an assistant professor in the School of Nursing at California State University, Sacramento. She lives and works in the Sacramento area and recently completed a doctorate of nursing practice (DNP) through the California State University Northern California Consortium DNP program at California State University Fresno and San Jose State University . This website was created as part of her DNP project, with the purpose of providing an educational intervention and web-accessible tools for classroom-based mindfulness to pre-service teachers.
