A segment on PBS NewsHour yesterday explored how Stanford researchers have brought yoga and mindfulness practices to students who experience post-traumatic stress disorder owing to difficult life circumstances. At Cesar Chavez Academy in East Palo Alto, Calif. – a low-income, high-crime area – a group of seventh-graders worked with Stanford’s Victor Carrion, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and his team during a 10-week program introducing breathing and movement practices to help students manage their emotions and improve their concentration in school.
The researchers used imaging techniques to understand how children respond to daily stress. “With functional imaging, we actually can see what the brain is doing,” Carrion told PBS. “There is a deficit in the area of the middle frontal cortex in kids that have PTSD,” which, he noted, may discourage learning.
In the piece, seventh-grader Brayan Solorio describes how rolling out his yoga mat at home helps him keep his cool.
Previously: Med students awarded Schweitzer Fellowships lead health-care programs for underserved youth, The remarkable impact of yoga breathing for trauma, The promise of yoga-based treatments to help veterans with PTSD and Stanford and other medical schools to increase training and research for PTSD, combat injuries