CAHS School-Based therapists Teresa Maxwell, LMSW, and Mary Hanken, LCSW, are working to become certified instructors of Mind-Body Medicine, and their students at Central Primary and Capital Elementary schools are the beneficiaries of their training.
Maxwell and Hanken, pictured left to right, recently helped first-grade students learn the relaxing benefits of abdominal breathing, which encourages full oxygen exchange in the lungs, lowers blood pressure and heart rate, and activates the body’s relaxation response. The therapists are working with the students for eight weeks, introducing various mind and body healing techniques that are part of the certification process.
The yearlong instructor certification from the Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) requires 108 hours of training, weekly supervision, reviews of case studies, and journaling of the experience. CMBM is the world’s largest, most effective evidence-based program for healing population-wide psychological trauma and stress. The center combines a variety of techniques from the world’s healing traditions and from more formal modern medicine.