The Sanctuary gives teens the tools required to deal with problems, in and out of the classroom, writes Sylvia Thompson
EARLIER THIS year, Dermot O'Brien was searching for new ways to help a group of first year students who were struggling with school.
It was part of his job as completion co-ordinator at St Killian's Community School in Bray, Co Wicklow.
"These were students who were finding first year in secondary school difficult. They had problems with authority and had poor attention spans and were potential early school-leavers," explains O'Brien.
In his search for a new intervention that would help this group of boys, O'Brien came across the Sanctuary for Schools programme run by the Sanctuary, a meditation and holistic health centre set up by Sr Stanislaus Kennedy in Dublin city centre 10 years ago.
The boys completed a 10-week programme which involved learning about and practising a range of relaxation and meditation techniques including candle gazing, Chi Gung (or Qi Gong), sitting meditation and yoga.
"If you were to see them lying on their mats meditating for 20 minutes in the Sanctuary and then out and about in their own worlds, you just wouldn't believe it was possible," says O'Brien.
The boys took to the classes at the Sanctuary like the proverbial ducks to water.
"When they first arrived through the gates of the Sanctuary, they thought it looked like a prison - but then once inside, their senses were bombarded in every way," O'Brien says.
"These are boys who struggle in an environment they can't control, yet once they got into the swing of it, they connected with it and went with it wholeheartedly. They drove the process and decided it was good for them."
The Sanctuary for Schools programme is run by manager Niamh Bruce, and Brother Richard, a Franciscan Capuchin monk from Church St, Dublin.
The schools programme involves weekly visits to the Sanctuary over six weeks, followed by four visits to the school in the second and third term of the school year.
"The key to the programme is that it allows them to be present and engaged with a process so that they can see their own abilities and come up with different answers to problems that arise," explains Bruce.
Before the students begin the programme, their teacher must complete one week's training ("The Art of Stillness in the Classroom") at the Sanctuary.
"The teachers who do the programme tend to be religious education teachers or transition year heads," she says.
"And, then during the school's programme, the teachers participate in the meditation practices alongside students.
"This helps the teachers relate to and connect with the students in different ways to when they are in the classroom," explains Bruce.
"What we want is that the teachers learn to be the meditative presence in the classroom," she adds. The Sanctuary has recently produced an interactive CD for teachers to use in the classroom.
The boys from St Killian's School in Bray are now in second year.
"What I notice now is that they have techniques they can use at home if they have had a bad day at school. Or, they can access their inner sanctuary to help them manage themselves in certain volatile situations with teachers," says O'Brien.
O'Brien's comments concur with a recent US study which found reduced stress levels among teenagers who practised transcendental meditation (TM).
The students who meditated showed significant reductions in anxiety, emotional problems, hyperactivity and improved their overall mental health after about four months.
Dr Sanford Nidich, lead author of the study and professor of physiology and education and health at the Mararishi University (where students are encouraged to practise TM) in Fairfield, Iowa, says: "Something must be done to help today's youth deal with the enormous amount of stress in their lives.
"A large number of them have pressures of schoolwork, relationships with parents and friends, use of drugs and other non-prescription substances. This research shows that the most at-risk adolescents can substantially reduce stress within a few months of practising the TM technique."
American film director David Lynch is so convinced of the value of TM for students that his charitable foundation raises funds for schools in both North and South America who wish to run these programmes.
"He chooses schools which have already introduced the idea of 15-20 minutes quiet time at the beginning and the end of the day," explains John Burns, a TM teacher based in Dublin.
While Irish schools haven't - as yet - expressed an interest in TM, Burns says there are schools in England and Northern Ireland that have.
Meanwhile, back in the Sanctuary, Niamh Bruce is keen to emphasise that the schools programme looks at meditation through all traditions, cultures and faiths.
"We look at the wisdom gained from Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam and the Native American traditions," she explains.
"We also place value on nature by planting flower bulbs and many students from the schools programme also participated in our Mandala project last May."
The Mandala project involved the making up and taking apart of a large Mandala by various school groups which had participated in the Sanctuary for Schools programme over the past three years.
"The Mandala is a very useful tool because it crosses different traditions and cultures and works as a form of expression and a way of processing problems," she says.
"We found that it provided the students with a unique reflective and creative experience."
