Mighty Minds

Mighty Minds offers fun, hands-on activities and games that focus on emotions, thoughts, and behavior. Children take part in age-appropriate interactive games and learning activities that follow a session-based curriculum, including topics such as Mindfulness & Emotions; Thoughts, Feelings, & The Brain; Perspective-Taking & Neuroplasticity; Thought Detectives & Kind Coaches; and Review, Next Steps, Celebrate.

• Ages: 5–11 years old

Mighty Minds is a research-based emotion regulation skills group program for K–5th graders and is described as a flagship program that has helped hundreds of kids in San Francisco and Mill Valley for over a decade. The program includes a focus on identifying and naming emotions, recognizing physical changes that come with different emotions and using those clues to respond, understanding how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are connected and how shifting one can change the others, making mindful choices when feeling upset, and using specific skills and strategies to support self-regulation of emotions and behavior. The curriculum also includes concrete take-home strategies for parents to help kids apply what they learned at home and school, and dedicated group sessions provide personalized attention and support.

Mighty Minds is part of a family-focused mental health and wellness practice that provides evidence-based clinical services and research-based educational programs for children, teens, and parents, in person across the Bay Area and virtually nationwide. The broader practice offers psychoeducational and neuropsychological testing, evidence-based individual and group therapy, parenting coaching, and educational programs that can be delivered virtually nationwide or directly in primary, middle, or high schools as ongoing, limited, or one-time on-demand groups. The organization states that its mission is to assist children, teens, and families in accessing skills, strategies, and a sense of community that research indicates are instrumental in unlocking inner resilience.

The Mighty Minds program is led within a team that includes Nina Kaiser, Ph.D., licensed psychologist and founder; Dina Greenwald, LMFT, LPCC, licensed marriage and family therapist and clinic director; Molly McCobb, LCSW, licensed clinical social worker, senior supervising clinician, and director of group programs; Joe Tarantino, Ph.D., licensed psychologist, senior supervising clinician, and director of operations; Ginna Oates, LMFT, licensed marriage and family therapist, senior supervising clinician, and director of school-based services; and Michaela Friedrich, LMFT, licensed marriage and family therapist and senior supervising clinician. The staff includes licensed, highly experienced therapists such as licensed psychologists, licensed marriage and family therapists, LPCCs (Licensed Professional Clinical Counselors), LCSWs (Licensed Clinical Social Workers), and associate-level marriage and family therapists and professional clinical counselors. The organization notes that it is “Proudly Listed and Professionally Affiliated.”

Parents have described Mighty Minds as intentional and useful for starting dialogue about challenging behavioral topics, and one parent reported seeing a difference in their family’s approach to big emotions after the class. Another parent shared that their child used breathing techniques and a “glitter water bottle” idea from the program at bedtime, and others noted that their children enjoyed having a space where they felt heard and practicing tools to manage big feelings. A licensed marriage and family therapist, Ashley Goldsmith Buttner, stated that talking about feelings in a group setting can normalize struggling with big feelings and that participants practice many tools to manage feelings.

Mighty Minds is identified as a flagship program offered in San Francisco and Mill Valley and is described as being like summer camp and setting kids up for life-long wellness. Starting in the fall 2025–2026 school year, the Mighty Minds Program for students in grades K through 5 will be offered exclusively in schools during the academic year, and Mighty Minds Summer Camps are available to enroll. The program is listed as a qualified medical expense that is reimbursable through PPO healthcare insurance, FSA, or HSA.

Last updated March 7, 2026.