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It began with one therapist, searching for an answer to her daughter’s question.
Her daughter had been told to concentrate, but no one had ever shown her how. That simple question set Eline Snel on a path to develop practical ways for children to understand their attention and what happens inside them.
A simple question became a method
The Eline Snel Method did not begin as a theory. It grew from practice, from Eline’s work as a therapist, her own experience with mindfulness and one very practical question from her daughter: “My teacher tells me to concentrate. But how do I do that?” That question became the starting point for a way of teaching children something adults often expect, but rarely explain: how to pay attention to what is happening, inside and around them.
1980
The work begins
In 1980, Eline Snel begins working as an independent family therapist. Over the years, mindfulness and meditation become an increasingly important part of both her personal practice and her professional work. From 1988 onwards, she develops and teaches mindfulness based programmes and meditation retreats for adults. Through that work, one idea keeps returning: if adults can learn to notice their thoughts, feelings and reactions with more awareness, why should children have to wait until they grow up?
2004
Two questions come together
At home, Eline had already encountered a wonderfully practical question from her daughter. She was being told at school to concentrate, but wanted to know: “How do I actually do that?” Then, during a mindfulness training in 2004, school directors made a striking observation: if only we had learned this as children, we might have made different choices. They asked Eline whether she could develop a mindfulness method specifically for children. At the time, there was no model to follow. The two questions pointed in the same direction. Children were constantly being asked to concentrate, calm down and make good choices. But who was teaching them how? Eline began developing what would become the Eline Snel Method, created specifically for children and young people and grounded in experience, mindfulness and compassion.
2008
From a method to an Academy
As the method develops, another question follows: who will teach it? Professionals working with children want to learn not only the exercises, but how to embody and teach the approach themselves. In 2008, Eline establishes the Academy for Mindful Teaching and begins with a group of just four teachers in Amersfoort. That small first group lays the foundation for what AMT still does today: train professionals so they can pass it on.
2010
Sitting Still Like a Frog
Eline publishes Sitting Still Like a Frog, bringing mindfulness for children into homes and classrooms far beyond the Academy. The book becomes an international bestseller and is followed by other books, workbooks, audio, apps and programmes for children, young people, parents and educators. Eline’s books are now published in 30 languages and more than 40 countries. What began in a therapy room is becoming an international method.
2012 to today
A worldwide community grows
The method continues to travel. Training communities develop in countries across Europe, Asia and beyond, while thousands of teachers, therapists, psychologists, coaches and other professionals learn to bring mindfulness into their own work. More than 2,000 professionals have now been trained in the Eline Snel Method. And because each professional works with new children, families and groups, the impact keeps moving outward.
2024
A new chapter for AMT
In September 2024, Christel van Hoof-Elderhorst takes over the Academy from Eline Snel. Having been trained by Eline herself, she brings both a deep understanding of the method and a fresh perspective to its next chapter. The foundation remains the same, while AMT continues to evolve. Trainings and materials are further developed, new programmes are created and the international community keeps growing, all with the same purpose at its heart: giving professionals the knowledge and tools to help children, young people and parents build attention and resilience. Eline remains connected to the method she created, while a new generation carries it forward.
Thirty languages, one frog.
In 2010, Sitting Still Like a Frog brought the Eline Snel Method from training rooms and classrooms into homes around the world. What began as a practical way to teach children attention became an international publishing success, with Eline’s books now published in 30 languages and more than 40 countries.
Sitting Still Like a Frog (2010) · Breathe Through This (2014)· The Little Frog Awakes (2021)
We train the people who shape a child’s everyday world
Children flourish where they feel seen, safe and deeply accepted. That is why AMT works with the adults who are already part of their daily lives: teachers, therapists, coaches and other professionals who support them at school, in practice and beyond. We train them to bring mindfulness into those relationships in a practical and grounded way. Not as something separate, but as a way of paying attention, responding with awareness and creating the conditions in which resilience can grow. One trained professional can reach new children, groups and families year after year. This is how the method travels: from trainer to professional, from professional to child, and from one moment of attention to the next.
Today, AMT is a CRKBO-registered professional training institute with an international network of trainers and certified professionals in more than 40 countries.
40+ countries, and counting.
“You can’t give a child resilience. But you can create the conditions in which it can grow.”
Christel van Hoof-Elderhorst · Managing Director AMT
Carry it further.
Every certified trainer is the next chapter of this story.