Children & Teens Intensive Training
An immersive program in mind-body medicine for those working with young people.
Mind-body techniques are essential life skills for people of all ages. With the growing stressors faced by today’s children and teens, these skills are more needed than ever.
The Children & Teens Intensive Training is an experiential program designed to help participants understand how stress and trauma affect young people and how to apply mind-body medicine skills in age-appropriate, developmentally informed ways. This training provides a deep foundation in both science and practice, empowering adults to support children’s emotional regulation, resilience, and well-being.
What Makes This Training Unique
Our Children & Teens Intensive builds upon years of programming to create a standalone, comprehensive training focused exclusively on working with youth across all stages of development. The curriculum emphasizes a dual focus:
- Strengthening the self-awareness and regulation of the adults who care for them. It starts with us: regulated adults create safer environments for young people. This training centers on both personal practice and professional application.
- Supporting the healing and emotional regulation of children and teens.
Who Is This Training For
Anyone who encounters children in their personal or professional life is eligible for this inclusive experience. Some examples include educators, counseling professionals, early childhood workers, medical professionals, parents, and youth peer leaders.
What You Will Learn
During this training, you will explore:
Child Development & Stress
- Key concepts in child and adolescent development
- How stress manifests in behavior and communication
- Understanding behavior as a form of communication
Adverse Childhood Experience (ACEs)
- The impact of ACEs on learning, health, and development
- How trauma can have generational effects
Self-Awareness & Self-Regulation in Adults
- Why adult regulation is essential for helping children regulate
- How relationship and connection is fundamental to impacting children’s lives and getting them ready to learn
- Practical tools for managing stress and emotional responses
Brain Basics
- How the developing brain responds to stress
- How to recognize different brain states in children and teens
- How to communicate and problem-solve based on a child’s current level of functioning
Trauma-Informed Perspectives
- Understanding complex trauma responses
- Cultural and community influences on trauma
- Reducing retraumatization and supporting safety
A Practical Toolkit
- Mindfulness and mind-body medicine skills
- Concentrative and active techniques
- Tools that can be customized for each child’s needs and interests, to be used one-on-one, in classrooms and with groups
How You Will Learn
The training uses a combination of:
Didactic learning to explore the science and neurobiology behind each skill
Experiential practice in large and small groups
Scenario-based learning, role-playing, and simulations inspired by real-world challenges
Group reflection and sharing to deepen insight and integration
Applying These Skills Beyond the Training
The Children & Teens Intensive Training is designed not only to teach mind-body medicine skills, but to support participants in applying them meaningfully within their real-world environments.
Participants receive guidance on integrating these skills into caregiving systems such as schools, clinics, and community organizations. The training explores how to collaborate with partners, access supportive resources, and adapt mind-body medicine practices to existing systems of care.
A post-training coaching component offers continued mentoring as participants begin applying what they have learned in their professional settings.
For communities seeking deeper continuity, an optional parent workshop can be added to strengthen the connection between what children learn in schools and what is reinforced at home — helping caregivers and educators speak a shared language of healing and regulation.
The Center for Mind-Body Medicine’s training has been life changing, inspiring and has been what has been missing in my practice with adults and children. Healthcare is changing, CMBM is the leader.
It’s hard to fully put into words the experience I had. I entered the training with an open mind but uncertain of what I would take away. I left feeling more empathetic, self-reflective, and deeply attuned to the needs of youth. It also prompted meaningful reflection on my own needs as a human being—someone who was once that child in need of more.
This course was very transformational and inspiring. I learned tools of self-care and mind-body connection that I can use to “put my own oxygen mask on first before being able to fully help others.” I look forward to…learn[ing] how to teach these tools to the children that I serve.
Learn More
If you’re interested in learning more about the Children & Teens Intensive Training or inquiring about bringing it to your community, please fill out the form linked below.