Mindfulness Based Art Therapy Doodling Intervention for Teacher Stress

The Mindfulness Doodling Intervention is a 2-hour online workshop delivered via Zoom, designed to support self-awareness, self-compassion, and burnout prevention through mindful creative expression. The session is facilitated by a highly experienced and credentialed art therapist with over 20 years of practice. The facilitator is also trained in yoga and mindfulness, which she integrates into her therapeutic approach. Each workshop accommodates approximately 20 participants and can be accessed remotely, typically from participants’ homes or private workspaces, ensuring accessibility and convenience. The session begins with a brief guided mindfulness practice to help participants ground themselves in present-moment awareness, focusing on internal sensations and thoughts. Participants are then invited to engage in spontaneous doodling using lines and shapes without judgment, serving as a visual method for externalizing their inner experiences. From these doodles, they identify elements that feel personally supportive or meaningful and enhance them using color, guided by sensory awareness and intuitive choice. These enriched elements are then cut out and arranged within a pre-drawn circle, symbolizing containment, wholeness, and focused intention. The creative process concludes with a reflective integration practice, during which participants identify one small, supportive action they can carry forward into everyday life. The session ends with structured sharing in triads and a full-group discussion, fostering compassionate listening, peer support, and deepened self-reflection. To support fidelity and adherence to the intervention, Dr. Isis follows a standardized facilitation guide developed for the program. Adherence is further monitored through brief facilitator check-ins during the workshop, observation of process engagement during breakout activities, and optional post-workshop participant feedback surveys that assess perceived usefulness, emotional engagement, and clarity of instruction.