MYmind: Mindfulness training for Youngsters with autism spectrum disorders and their parents.

Researchers ran a 9-week group program called MYmind. Teens with autism learned mindfulness skills while their parents met in a separate room for mindful-parenting training.

Everyone met once a week for about two hours. The team checked teen quality of life, parent stress, and social skills before and after the course. No control group was used.

Parents said their teens worried less and got along with others a bit better. The teens themselves rated their own quality of life slightly higher.

Parents also felt calmer and more mindful at home. All changes were small but positive.

Edwards et al. (2007) tried parent-only mindfulness years earlier and saw child aggression drop. MYmind keeps the parent piece and adds direct teen training, building on that idea.

McGarty et al. (2018) gave one-on-one mindfulness to autistic adults and also found small emotion-regulation gains. MYmind shows the same concept can work in groups for teens.

van der Miesen et al. (2024) pooled eight studies of ACT for parents of autistic kids. Their review includes mindfulness-style work and backs the idea that helping parents helps kids.

Koegel et al. (2024) ran a 6-7 week social program with teens, parents, and schools. Both studies report social gains, but Koegel used clinic-home-school teamwork while MYmind used mindfulness. The similar timeline and positive results suggest short teen-parent programs can fit real-world schedules.

You now have a low-cost, nine-week manual you can run in a clinic or community room. Pairing teen and parent groups keeps families engaged and may give you two sets of data to track. Effects are modest, so use MYmind as a first-layer add-on while you keep core ABA targets in place. Track parent stress and teen social responding each week; small upticks can keep insurance authorizers happy as you gather pilot data for stricter studies.