Transcendental Meditation for Families: A Private Four-Day Course in Dubai
By Ms. Sarah El Nabulsi, M.Sc., M.A., M.A. | DHA Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Dubai — UAE Director of the Transcendental Meditation Organisation
What the family course is, in short
One family in the room. Nobody else. Parents and children learn together over four days, and go home with a practice they do together, every day.
The family Transcendental Meditation course is a private course taught over four consecutive days by Ms. Sarah El Nabulsi, a DHA-licensed clinical psychologist and the UAE Director of the Transcendental Meditation Organisation. One family learns at a time and nobody outside the family attends. Adults attend all four days. Children attend the first two and are welcome to stay for all four if they want to. Day one runs at least two hours in person, and is where everyone is taught the technique individually. Days two, three and four run about an hour each in the afternoon, in person or online. Children can begin at four or five, on the teacher's assessment rather than by age, and young children learn a separate method designed for them. Parents learn at the adult rate and children at a reduced children's rate. Follow-up, a community group and monthly group meditations are included.
They usually arrive like a tornado
I have taught enough families now that I know exactly how day one begins.
They come in and it is like a tornado. The children talking at each other, at the parents. The parents shyly trying to calm the children, trying to engage the adolescents. And I smile, because I see this all the time. The parents are doing their best. The children, in their own way, are doing their best. But the tension in the room is usually high, and so is the level of chaos.
Most of the families who come to me are living with a version of this. Home life is stressed. The children are hyperstimulated, and many of them are dealing with ADHD or ADHD-like symptoms. That puts even more pressure on the parents, who are usually both working, or one of them is.
Nobody in that room is doing anything wrong. That is the whole reason I teach this course in this form. A household under load is not a household with one broken person in it. It is four or five people, each carrying something different, arriving in the same kitchen at the same time every morning.
So I do not begin by teaching. I begin by asking. I take the family's own questions, their own worries, the specific thing each person is struggling with, and I answer them in front of each other. By the time I have given them all the information they need, they are usually excited to learn and they are hopeful. Then we start.
Three things parents quietly worry about
"I'm a sceptic, and I'd feel silly."
You do not have to believe in it for it to be practised correctly. Transcendental Meditation is a mechanical process of consciously slowing down the activity of the mind. It is not a belief system and it does not ask you to adopt one. Scepticism is welcome in my room, and it is common.
"I can't clear my mind. I've tried."
Stopping your thoughts was never the task. This technique does not require concentration and it does not require forcing yourself, which is why the reason most people give me for not being able to meditate does not apply to it. Researchers have placed it in a separate category from practices built on focused attention or on monitoring the mind, on the basis of its different pattern of brain activity (Travis & Shear, 2010, Consciousness and Cognition).
"I don't have twenty minutes."
It needs no quiet room and no special setting. It can be done sitting in the car before the school pickup while you wait, or on a plane. Twenty minutes, twice a day, wherever you happen to be.
Four loads, one roof
There are two reasons I teach the household rather than the person who is struggling most, and they belong together.
The first is that many families here are raising children a long way from where they grew up. In most of the world a grandmother, an aunt or a cousin quietly absorbs part of the load. When a family moves, that layer stays behind in the country they left, and there is nobody to hand the overflow to.
The second is that nobody in the house is the exception. The children are facing peer pressure, social media influence and demanding schoolwork. The parents are facing shifting work environments and big pressures at speed. Four people, four different loads, one roof, and usually only one of them ever ends up in my consulting room.
Instead of fixing one unit in the family, we address the group. In my experience it is far more powerful.
Families in the UAE are building something, and that pace asks a lot of the people who choose it. That is exactly why we have to invest in ourselves more, so we reach the heights we have ambitions for in a sustainable way.
What happens across the four days
The four days run consecutively. Sessions run longer if there are questions.
Everyone is signed up to the TM app, which carries the coursework as short structured videos, and the practice
starts immediately. Families are meditating twice a day from day one and arrive at each session having done
that day’s coursework. This is not four appointments with gaps in between. The practice begins on the first
afternoon, and three of the four sessions exist to check it is being done correctly.
Adults attend all four days. Children attend the first two, and any child who wants to stay for all four is welcome.
By the end of day four, everyone in the family is a Transcendental Meditation practitioner.
Children can begin at four or five
Children can begin at four or five. Whether a particular child is ready is my assessment as their teacher, not a matter of their birthday. I have taught children as young as four.
Young children do not learn the adult technique. There is a separate method designed for them.
I say the honest part before a family books rather than after: with a young child, building the practice into the day is the parent's job. It is down to the parents to structure the routine so that the children actually do it. I have had mothers who designed playtime around it twice a day, so the child does it as part of play while she watches.
Teenagers tend to be the ones who surprise their parents. They come back to it because they feel the tension come down.
It does not end on day four
Every family has the same private worry about any course, which is that they will do it for a week and then stop. The structure after day four exists for exactly that.
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A follow-up session after two weeks, in person or online
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Another after about a month
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The community WhatsApp group, from the day they finish
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Group meditation sessions about once a month, mostly in person
All of it is included in the course fee, and all of it is optional. Nobody is chased.
It also travels. There are Transcendental Meditation centres in most major cities, so a family that leaves the UAE can pick their follow-up up wherever they land.
The follow-up matters because it provides a community of similar families and individuals. That enriches the experience and it helps people persevere. For a family running a household without extended family nearby, a room of other families doing the same thing once a month is not a bonus feature. It is close to the point.
What I see when they come back
This is what I observe across the families I have taught. It is not a prediction about any particular family.
What surprises people first is the speed. They are quite surprised at how quickly they can experience relaxation, and what they describe underneath it is relief: something of their own, available whenever they need it, that takes twenty minutes and asks nothing they have to be good at.
At the follow-ups, the reports change shape. Parents are surprised at how much the children are changing. The house is becoming calmer. There is better cooperation between the siblings. They are able to get through to their children. They are very relieved.
What the research says
Most parents have not heard of a course a whole family can take, and what changes the conversation is the literature. This is the same material I walk families through on day one.
Transcendental Meditation has been studied for more than fifty years, and some of the strongest work sits in cardiovascular medicine. In its 2013 scientific statement on lowering blood pressure beyond medication and diet, the American Heart Association gave Transcendental Meditation a Class IIb, Level of Evidence B rating, meaning it may be considered as an adjunct treatment (Brook et al., 2013, Hypertension). An independent meta-analysis of nine randomised controlled trials found it lowered systolic blood pressure by about 4.7 mmHg and diastolic by about 3.2 mmHg, reductions the authors described as clinically meaningful (Anderson, Liu & Kryscio, 2008, American Journal of Hypertension).
For the parents in the room, the more immediately useful work is on stress and burnout. A four-month randomised controlled trial of 40 school staff found significantly greater reductions in perceived stress, depression and burnout than in a waitlist control group (Elder et al., 2014, The Permanente Journal). On anxiety, a meta-analysis of 16 randomised controlled trials covering 1,295 participants found reduced trait anxiety compared with active alternative treatments, and the largest reductions were in the people who began most anxious (Orme-Johnson & Barnes, 2014, The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine). The US National Institutes of Health's own centre for complementary and integrative health states that there is "some evidence that Transcendental Meditation may have a beneficial effect on anxiety."
For the teenagers, a randomised controlled study followed 98 ninth-graders across a full academic year and found significantly greater improvement in emotional stress symptoms, in anger and in sleep quality than in the control group (Valosek et al., 2021, Education). Where young people practise together, a four-month randomised trial of 45 adolescents found fewer absences, fewer rule infractions and fewer suspension days in the meditating group (Barnes, Bauza & Treiber, 2003, Health and Quality of Life Outcomes).
I draw the parallel between that research and what I see at home myself. When we look at research on schools in at-risk populations, we see students starting to respect their teachers more, collaborate with each other, and appreciate the support they are getting. I see the same thing very clearly with the families I work with.
Who the course is for
A family, in whatever shape it comes in. A family can be made up of different formats. It mostly involves mother, father and children, but everyone of course is welcomed.
I teach it mostly at a meditation centre in the Jumeirah area of Dubai. The course includes personal instruction for every member of the family, the four days, the TM app coursework, both follow-up sessions, the community WhatsApp group and the monthly group meditations. Parents learn at the adult rate and children at a reduced children's rate.
Booking starts with a short WhatsApp call. No forms and no commitment, just a few minutes to work out whether it fits your family, what dates work, and what it costs for your household.
How to Learn Transcendental Meditation in U.A.E. & the G.C.C.
TM is taught by Ms Sarah El Nabulsi who is a Certified TM and TM Advanced Technique instructor, Licensed Clinical Psychologist in U.A.E. & the official national office director for the Transcendental Meditation Organization in the U.A.E.
The course is offered in a Hybrid format of in-person & online sessions. The first step is attending an Introductory Lesson about the benefits, you can do that now by clicking the video here which is the Intro Talk that will give you a concise understanding of the main points to know before starting the course.
Step 2 is attending your in-person one on one instruction session with Ms. El Nabulsi at the center.
Steps 3,4 & 5 are done in a group or individual, online or in person. In these lessons your practice is fine tuned and perfected. You will simultaneously have access to your course content on the TM App. The access to the App with it's resources is for life; so is the access to follow up by in TM centers world wide. You become a member of the TM community.
What Our Clients Are Saying
FAQ: Transcendental Meditation For Families in Dubai
Q1 Can a whole family learn meditation together?
Yes, and that is what this course is. One family learns at a time, over four days, and nobody outside the family attends. Adults come to all four days and children come to the first two, though a child who wants to stay for all four is welcome. Everyone is taught the technique individually on day one, while the rest of the family waits, so the instruction is private even though the course is shared. What the family ends up with is a practice they do at home together every day, rather than one person who has been sent off to be fixed. My reason for teaching it this way is straightforward: instead of fixing one unit in the family, we address the group.
Q2 What age can a child start meditating?
Children can begin at four or five. Whether a particular child is ready is my assessment as their teacher rather than a matter of their birthday, and I have taught children as young as four. Young children do not learn the adult technique; there is a separate method designed for them, and what it involves is covered when a family books. The honest thing to know beforehand is that with a young child the practice becomes part of the parent's routine-building rather than something the child will remember to do alone. I have had mothers who designed playtime around it twice a day, so the child does it as part of play while she watches. Teenagers tend to keep it up themselves.
Q3 Does it work if you do not believe in it?
You do not have to believe in it for it to be practised correctly. Transcendental Meditation is a mechanical process of consciously slowing down the activity of the mind, not a philosophy or a belief system, and scepticism in the room is ordinary rather than a problem. Nothing about the technique requires you to accept a worldview, adopt a practice from a tradition, or change what you believe. Parents who arrive unconvinced usually stay unconvinced until day one, which is why day one is built around their questions rather than around a lecture.
Q4 What if I have tried meditation and cannot stop my thoughts?
Stopping your thoughts was never the task. This is the single most common reason people conclude they cannot meditate, and it comes from techniques that ask for concentration or for monitoring the mind. Transcendental Meditation requires neither. Researchers have placed it in a separate category from focused-attention and open-monitoring practices on the basis of its different pattern of brain activity (Travis & Shear, 2010, Consciousness and Cognition). Days two, three and four exist largely to check and correct the practice, so if it feels wrong in the first week there is a structured place to say so.
Q5 What does the family course cost?
Parents learn at the adult rate and children at a reduced children's rate, and the figures depend on the size and shape of your household, so they are covered on a short WhatsApp call rather than published here. The call takes a few minutes, involves no forms and no commitment, and is where dates, the venue and any questions about the children get settled. I take it myself. The fee covers personal instruction for every member of the family, all four days, the TM app coursework, both follow-up sessions, the community WhatsApp group and the monthly group meditations. There is nothing further to pay afterwards.
Read more
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Transcendental Meditation with Ms Nabulsi → sarahelnabulsi.com/transcendental-meditation
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Four Loads, One Roof: Why I Work With the Whole Family, Not the Stressed One → sarahelnabulsi.com/post/post-family-stress-dubai-household-friction-meditation
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Therapy services → sarahelnabulsi.com/therapy-services
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