Center for Integrative Medicine

Our School Program : De-stress our Children and Teens

Stress to succeed. Stress to be cool. Stress in families. From stress management to yoga and various techniques to control the way our bodies respond to the pressures around us, our school program is designed to support the mind, body and spirit of our youth. We offer seminars and experiential sessions for students, parents, educators and parent/teacher groups.




The mission of the Center for Integrative Medicine’s school program is two-fold: We support the mind, body and spirit of our youth –giving them life skills to promote optimal wellness. We also help educators find resources and training to integrate healthy concepts into the learning process. Seminars and hands-on training are offered, along with stress management techniques.

Option 1: Our Community Learning Series is designed for PTAs, educators, or community organizations
Our physicians and health care practitioners are available to come to your school or community location.

Topics include:

  • How Psychological Stress Impacts Your Emotions and Physical Health with Henri Roca, MD
  • Stress and the Developing Brain with Henri Roca, MD
  • The Benefits of Yoga and Meditation in School Children with demonstrations by Roberta Brown Brugo, RN
  • HeartMath: A Form of Biofeedback and its Application to School Children and Athletes with demonstrations by Christine Dunster, RN

Option 2: Movement and Yoga - School Staff Development Workshop
One-hour introductory talk with an experiential session of movement and yoga. This includes breathing techniques for increased mind-body awareness, various yoga poses and movements to balance the nervous system and energize educators for their afternoon classes, plus restoration and relaxation time for the hard-working educator.

Student “Hands-on” Experience: A holistic 45-minute yoga class for the student to experience and learn movement techniques. The experience includes:

  • Music to help children relax their bodies, calm their minds and soothe their spirits
  • Breathing exercises to help self-monitor, focus and calm the mind
  • Classic yoga poses on mats, such as Downward Dog, Fish, Cat/Cow, Mountain, Tree, Cobra, Crane and Partner poses
  • Kinesthetic games and vocalizing fun self-affirmations: “I am strong!” “I am resilient”
  • Integration and restorative time; lying flat on the ground, to relax and refocus, dim lights and play music
  • Positive feedback: encouraging each student on how well he/she did in class

Option 3:Stress Management
A) Staff Development Seminar: This two-hour introductory lecture/experiential session on stress management provides a snapshot to help present possible future programming.

This includes:

  • Introduction to stress: definition, signs, symptoms, tools for solutions
  • Relaxation Response (RR): physiology
  • RR experiences: diaphragmatic breathing, “minis”, imagery, mindfulness, yoga, mind/body awareness
  • Exercises to incorporate RR into daily life
  • Research and outcomes

B) Hands-on Experience: A four-six week program consisting of a 45-60 minute class demonstrating stress management techniques for students and/ or teachers. This is designed to fit into a class period. From week to week, the students and/or teachers will experience and learn different stress management techniques.

These may include:

  • A choice of four to six different techniques from our list
  • The “Relaxation Response” breath work and body scan
  • Progressive muscle relaxation, positive affirmations, meditation and journaling
  • Visualization/Guided imagery
  • Learn and review a new technique each week to develop and reinforce skills

C) Student Mind/Body Skills Group: These groups meet in two-hour sessions over a five-week period and cover six to eight stress management techniques. Individuals will learn to use the techniques independently.

D) Teacher “Train the Trainer”: This two-hour weekly in-depth training meets for five weeks. Teachers will learn how to train students in stress management techniques and incorporate these techniques into their daily lesson plans. No more then six techniques will be introduced.

These sessions may include the following:

  • Reinforcing tools for stress management through conscious breathing exercises, mediation, movement/yoga and deep-guided relaxation.
  • Learn unique and practical kinesthetic games to implement in the classroom at students’ desks, to reduce stress, calm or energize students.

Option 4: Research: Individualized research projects in Movement/Yoga and/or Stress Management available in collaboration with school administration

Option 5: Referrals to Center for Integrative Medicine
For more in-depth services in women’s health, family medicine, chiropractic, naturopathy, tai chi, meditation, yoga classes for adults and children, stress management techniques, biofeedback, acupuncture, massage and reflexology.