Anything happening with Mindfulness/Yoga in Philadelphia Area Schools?

I believe the organization Peace Day Philly is trying to bring mindfulness trainings to some schools in Philadelphia for Fall 2014. I am not sure if they have done so in the past or if this will be the first time. 

A good resource on how to implement mindfulness activities into schools would be the Friends Council on Education. They are headquartered in Philadelphia, but have brought mindfulness trainings to independent schools across the globe. If anyone would like to learn about how Friends Council on Education implemented their programs, I can put them in contact with the Executive Director there. 

Do you think this should be implemented and integrated into the activities of all schools and youth centers? 

There are things happening...I was trained as a Yoga Gangster and there are about 15 other in the area that are available to voluntarily go into schools or after school...I have other resources just need to sort through them. 

 

http://www.phillymag.com/be-well-philly/2014/02/25/meet-guy-teaching-yoga-philly-public-school-kids/?fb_action_ids=10203326218338814&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_ref=.UxZnuZUtF6Q.like&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B286143368206799%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.recommends%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%22.UxZnuZUtF6Q.like%22%5D

Great to hear about these efforts!  Monica Sullivan is a certified Yoga and Mindfulness Instructor as well as a trainer of the Becoming Trauma Informed training.  This year she has been offering a new course called the Mindful Classroom for Early Childhood Educators.  Monica just returned from a conference on Mindfulness and Education so expect to see more from her about how mindfulness tools and practices can be used effectively with children who have experienced trauma and adversity.  We also think the Mindup Curriculum is a great resource.

I do! I am working to bring it to primary care.  Even if students get 15-20 mins a few days to teach how to practice anywhere/anytime has a huge impact. 

Erin, thanks for the link to www.yogagangsters.org - So glad to see this is in Philadelphia and I see there are scholarships to train young people as teachers. I'm going to pass this on to a local neighborhood organization that may want to use this program.

I'm a little late to this discussion, but I was trained to teach trauma sensitive yoga through the Street Yoga Teacher Training: www.streetyoga.org. This summer I am running a trauma sensitive parent-child yoga group, Yo-Fam, for families in behavioral health treatment at my agency. So far, the interest has been astounding and I'm scrambling for more mats. This will be my first attempt at such a group, but if it goes well, would love to bring more to the area. I am very interested in the use of trauma-informed or trauma sensitive yoga as a complementary therapy for both children and adults dealing with the impact of chronic traumatic stress. If anyone out there would like to talk further about developing programs or sharing resources to work together to implement such initiatives in and around Philly, please let me know!

What exactly is trauma-sensitive yoga, Jennifer? How is it different than regular yoga?

Trauma-sensitive yoga is different in that it takes the traumatized person into careful consideration in every aspect of the work, from the set up of a classroom/studio to the poses that are performed to the language the teacher uses. The focus is on integrating and empowering, allowing those impacted by trauma to 'reclaim the body' and feel as if they can make choices about what happens to them---beginning on the mat. The sort of guru of trauma-sensitive or trauma-informed yoga is David Emerson, who works with Bessel Van Der Kolk to run the most comprehensive trauma-informed yoga program (and trauma-informed yoga teacher training program) in the country out of Boston. Here's a brief article he wrote explaining it in more detail: http://www.traumacenter.org/products/pdf_files/IJYT_article_2009.pdf

Students find calm through mindfulness and guided meditation