care, for example, report lifetime prevalence rates of post-traumatic stress disorder similar to those
of US war veterans, and are four to five times more likely than peers in the general population to
be hospitalized for suicide attempts
Though the circumstances may appear grim, there is much that can be done to support youth in
foster care. Our team at Emory adapted our adult CBCT program to help youth in care connect
more deeply with others and to learn to receive the love, guidance and support they need from
caregivers.
Children in foster care tend to be guarded and cautious of forming new relationships, likely in order
to avoid the threat of future pain, rejection or trauma. This approach, however, can exacerbate
feelings of loneliness and social isolation. CBCT training helps children build the strength as well
as the willingness to face fears of rejection and trauma. It also helps participants reconnect with
their natural tendency to want to feel loved and connected. CBCT further offers adolescents
strategies for regulating emotions, reducing stress and reframing life experience in more
constructive ways. It encourages participants to face their habitual ways of being in and relating to
the world that further contribute to suffering, and helps them aspire to overcome them. The
program also aims to build self-confidence and self-worth, and promotes optimism, gratitude and
connectedness.
In 2008, we piloted a CBCT program for adolescent girls, ages 13 to 18, living in a group foster
care home. The success of this pilot program, described in Ozawa-de Silva and Dodson-Lavelle
(
, has led to ongoing studies investigating the effects of compassion training in this
population
CBCT for Elementary School Children
In 2011, our team was invited to teach CBCT in our first public elementary school in Atlanta. We
had previously developed 12-week CBCT curricula for children ages 5–7 and 8–10 in conjunction
with the Paideia School in Atlanta, GA, to determine whether we could not only teach children to
be more mindful, but also facilitate their emotional intelligence and prosocial development through
training in empathy and compassion.
As we walked through the halls of the school on our way to our first class, we couldn’t help but
notice the school’s new Kindness Campaign. Signs reading, “Be kind!” and “Be helpful!” lined the
walls. The school was certainly on to something. Once in class, however, we asked the children
about the signs, and asked them to tell us how to be kind and helpful.
“Just be nice”, “don’t be mean”, “don’t hurt someone’s feelings”, were the replies.
“But how?” we asked. “It is easy, most of the time, to be nice and helpful to your friends and
family, and those that are like you. But how do you learn to be nice to others, including those you
dislike, or even those that have bullied you?”
The children paused. Some of them shrugged.
“Do you think you feel compassion for someone who has bullied you?” we asked.
“No way!” “Probably not.” “Maybe”, they said.
We tried another approach. “What would the world look like if no one had any compassion?”
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