Education Initiative: Stress Management for Students

Studies show that excessive stress is negatively impacting the learning capacity, behavior, and health of our youth. There is a growing acknowledgment of the role of stress in binge drinking, depression, insomnia and suicide, and other negative lifestyle and health issues. Whether it’s the pressure to succeed at the highest level or simply find a way to manage the many responsibilities of both their educational and personal lives, students are at risk.

The Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine’s Education Initiative (EI) is a research validated program which brings relaxation response based coping skills and life management tools into the school environment to help educators and students better manage daily stress and positively impact student’s academic performance and health. Students feel more in control. They improve their time management skills and achieve higher scores on tests. Since its inception almost 20 years ago, the EI has been well received by hundreds of school personnel and students of all ages and backgrounds. Training is customized to meet the needs of individual schools.

Controlled research shows that students trained in Mind Body skills have:

• Improved academic performance
• Better work habits
• Improved memory
• Increased self-esteem
• Decreased perception of stress

Over the years our EI programming has been well received by hundreds of teachers and other school personnel as well as by children of all ages and diverse socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. We have brought our mind body programs to schools in South Central Los Angeles, Newark, and neighborhoods of Boston as well as to private institutions such as Milton Academy, the Taft School, Dana Hall, Phillips Exeter, Miss Porter’s School. While it is impossible to make each day at school stress-free, equipping the school community with stress management tools can result in an educational experience in which students are calm and ready to learn and teachers are re-energized and focused.

Click here to read about our upcoming programs for middle schoolers and high schoolers: Extra Edge