Angela Bucu

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Since completing a Master of Wellness in 2012, Angie completed and finally published (with the dedication of her co-authors) a study that looks at teachers views of teaching mindfulness in schools for the first time. She is a Certified Mindfulness Instructor and Mindfulness Teacher Trainer with the Academy for Mindful Teaching. She teaches mindfulness across the community from children and adolescents to their parents, teachers, and others working with children. Throughout Asia, she conducts teacher training in the AMT programs for educators, mental health professionals and those working with children.
Phone: +85290485425
Address: Hong Kong

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Rome Wasn't Built in a Day: School Counsellors' Perspectives of Teaching Children Mindfulness

by Nicole J Albrecht and Angela Bucu

Across the globe mindfulness is taking a prominent role in a child's education. Research in this ... more Across the globe mindfulness is taking a prominent role in a child's education. Research in this field is also expanding rapidly, but failing to keep pace with the practical implementation of mindfulness programs in schools. In the current study the authors address some of the research gaps – reporting on the experiences of two school counsellors introducing mindfulness to thirty-eight New Zealand elementary school students. The methodologies of Thematic Analysis and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis were used to understand the children and counsellors' perspectives and experiences. Four super-ordinate themes captured the essence of how the school counsellors made sense of child-based mindfulness instruction: Support Factors; Facilitator Engagement; Motivation and Benefits of Sharing Mindfulness with Children; and Program Adaptions and Additions. A number of recommendations are suggested to help progress the research field and the practical implementation of mindfulness in schools.

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Mindfulness in Schools Research Project: Exploring Teachers' and Students' Perspectives - Preliminary Report

by Karen Ager and Angela Bucu

format_quotePreliminary findings indicate mindfulness enhances well-being, emotional awareness, and empathy among students and teachers, benefiting the whole person.format_quote

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Mindfulness in Schools Research Project: Exploring Students’ Perspectives of Mindfulness— What are students’ perspectives of learning mindfulness practices at school?

by Karen Ager, Nicole J Albrecht, and Angela Bucu

Over the last decade, the cultivation of mindfulness has become a common part of the curriculum i... more Over the last decade, the cultivation of mindfulness has become a common part of the curriculum in classrooms around the world. A recent survey indicates that nearly 50% of teachers are sharing mindfulness with children. To date, researchers have predominately used outcome-based trial designs to understand the practice's efficacy for improving wellness in children. Less research has been directed towards understanding how children perceive mindfulness experiences. This gap inspired the research question-What are students' perspectives of learning mindfulness practices at school? Thematic analysis was employed to understand and interpret 38 elementary school students' mindfulness journals. Findings suggest that mindfulness enhances student wellbeing and helps children develop a greater awareness of their body, mind and emotions. Implications of these findings are discussed. Future research is required to determine how mindfulness practices enhance and sustain student wellbeing and learning.

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Mindfulness in Schools Research Project: Exploring Teachers’ and Students’ Perspectives – Preliminary Report

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Massage and Meditation: A Case for Wellness in the Workplace

Concern with employee health and wellbeing and the resulting financial cost of rising healthcare,... more Concern with employee health and wellbeing and the resulting financial cost of rising healthcare, absenteeism and loss of productivity, has seen the wide-spread incorporation of workplace wellness practice. Wellness has different meanings for different groups. Workplace wellness programs tend to focus on the illness and health related aspects of the workforce and have also been criticized for not incorporating elements for healthy people within the workforce. Redefining wellness and its connection to engagement and the workplace, has been suggested as a new approach for business strategy, and involves thinking outside the realm of health promotion techniques to therapies which have evidence of supporting employee wellness. Traditionally, spas and wellness centers are ideal places for the practice of wellness. Massage and meditation, two modalities offered at spas and wellness centers have been researched in depth and through this literature and practice, significant evidence indicates that they are shown to be effective and have lasting benefits for workers.
This study uses the qualitative methodologies of grounded theory and exploratory case study to consider the plausibility of a spa industry and workplace wellness program integration, through the use of spa modalities of massage and meditation, with the purpose of providing more effective wellness outcomes for employees. The grounded theory component succeeds in its aims and determines, through a research synthesis of 25 studies conducted in a workplace environment and three meta-analyses, that both massage and meditation are efficacious therapies for reducing or at least managing stress and anxiety, improving mood, emotions, alertness, attention and self-awareness in employees in the workplace. They are therapies that are easy and cost effective to implement and have high compliance and utilization amongst the workforce. The exploratory case study design, although not yet concluded, proposes to investigate the construct that spas and wellness centers are best placed to provide these therapies, and that integration may better support employee wellness in the workplace.
The results of this study may be a catalyst for the development of an integrative model of wellness programs which can be taken into the workplace. It suggests that workplace wellness program design should account for the needs and desires of all employees to attain optimum wellness, regardless of health status. Implementing the strategy has the potential to enable research on a much wider scale with future work involving wellness assessments of employees who use the therapies provided by the proposed integration in order to build empirical evidence and develop best practice for commercial viability.

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Angela Bucu

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