Mindfulness-based behavioral health education for children, teachers, families, schools, communities.
Institute for Early Learning thru Yoga: Building Foundations of Wellness
Meeting the specific developmental needs of the early childhood classroom with a focus on yoga for infants through 2nd grade and classroom management strategies for teachers and staff.
In-School Yoga Classes
Children’s Yoga Trainings
Classroom Mentorship
Yoga Education for Schools:
Social & Emotional Learning
Providing positive, empowering learning experiences for elementary & middle school students in a non-competitive space that fosters self-awareness, self-confidence, and self-esteem.
In-School Yoga Classes
Staff & Faculty Trainings
Family Yoga Events
Community Classes
CALM Youth Leadership Academy
Confident * Active * Loving * Mindful
Crossing social, fiscal, and cultural boundaries to bring teens together to learn the life-long skills of yoga and mindfulness and bring those skills as teachers and mentors into their own communities.
In-School Yoga Classes
Summer Institute
Internships & Mentoring
Our story
Create Calm is a non-profit organization dedicated to developing healthier, happier communities through mindfulness-based behavioral health education. Our mission is to provide mental and physical health education, resources, and support for optimal self-care, positive engagement, collaboration, inclusion, and success in academic environments, providing scaffolding around all members of the school community, children and adults, that empowers them to productively and effectively contribute to the community, to feel a sense of belonging, to value themselves and others, and be active, compassionate, resilient life-long learners.
For example, through it CALM Youth Leadership Academy, Create Calm sponsors programs that give teens and pre-teens tools they can use to help themselves, while at the same time training teachers and counselors in stress-relief and conflict management skills and helping families learn ways to improve relationships. These programs include classes, workshops, and trainings, featuring mindfulness curricula founded in core learning standards, SEL, CASEL, and NAEYC.
Create Calm is particularly committed to supporting interactive experiential learning opportunities designed to strengthen connections and teach sustainable life skills to children and adults.
CALM Youth Leadership Academy
Confident * Active * Loving * Mindful
The CALM Youth Leadership Academy is a program of Create Calm Inc., a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization currently serving communities throughout DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Through a variety of immersive and collaborative yoga and mindfulness classes and trainings, teens will learn self-care strategies and be groomed to teach yoga to children and become leaders in their communities.
The mission of the CALM Youth Leadership Academy is to provide mental and physical health education, resources, and support for optimal self-care, positive engagement, collaboration, inclusion, and success for teens through diverse educational programs focusing on empowering teens to feel a sense of belonging, to understand and value themselves and others, allowing them to be active, compassionate, resilient, thriving contributors to their communities.
The CALM Youth Leadership Academy is a very unique program in that its students come from a wide variety of demographics, crossing social, fiscal, and cultural boundaries, to learn together the life-long skills of yoga and mindfulness and to bring those skills as teachers to high need districts across the Metro area. Moreover, we are providing vocational training and leadership opportunities to our youth. This multi-dimensional, experiential program is focused on improving student achievement and healthy development
In collaboration with a broad variety of public and private schools and institutions, the CALM Youth Leadership Academy is developing and recruiting a diverse group of students aged 13-18, to attend its Summer Institute in June, 2018. The Summer Institute is one of three learning stages in the CALM Youth Leadership Academy.
The CALM Youth Leadership Academy is designed to provide layers of learning in an efficient, sustainable format. The primary curriculum components of the program include:
Part 1: IN THE CLASSROOM
Students practice yoga and mindfulness through classes in their schools, before, during and after school and at local yoga studios giving teens the opportunity to explore the fundamental principles and benefits of yoga and mindfulness for themselves.
Part 2: TEEN YOGA TRAINING
The Summer Institute includes 20 hours of instruction on the philosophy and foundations of children’s yoga, how to teach yoga to preschool and elementary-aged children, and mentorship in small groups with registered experienced yoga educators.
Part 3: INTERNSHIP & MENTORING
Students will be assigned an internship track that includes engagement in at least 10 residency practice teaching experiences with children between the ages of 3 and 13. Internship teaching includes adult instructors/mentors who provide guidance and feedback on lesson plans, classroom management and program implementation.
Yoga Education For Schools
Bringing the physical, social-emotional and academic learning benefits of yoga and mindfulness to whole school communities.
YES for Parents
Transform Relationships…Facilitate Cooperation… Learn effective tools to improve focus, balance energy, and reduce stress in yourself and children. Create calm through purposeful play and encourage self-awareness, relieve tension, and foster social-emotional competencies in your children.
Choose from our most popular workshops for Parents & Families or create your own:
Your Kids Brain on Yoga
Yoga: Its History & Benefits
Creating Calm Community
Yoga Tools for Healthy Families
Family Yoga
Adult Yoga Classes
Yoga for Calming, Coping, and Collaborating
All trainings and workshops include handouts, opportunities for oral and written reflection,
teacher preparation, set up and clean up, and travel time.
Prices based on program length and content.
Discounts for multiple classes, 2-hour, half-day, and full-day programs.
Standard hourly fee: $295
No prior yoga experience needed! All ability levels welcome!
YES for Students
In the Classroom…After School…On the Field…At Home…Infants to Young Adults
- YES incorporates research-based, secular curricula, including Kripalu Yoga in the Schools and Radiant Child Yoga.
- YES yoga and mindfulness instruction supports core learning standards,such as those established by CASEL & NAEYC.
- YES offers differentiated learning experiences to meet the unique developmental needs of all students, including those with ADD/ADHD and autism.
- YES programs emphasize social-emotional learning and mindful decision-making, the platform on which children develop executive functioning skills, cognitive growth, and the skills necessary to thrive as resilient, life-long learners.
- YES programs are led by Yoga Educators, instructors with prior experience working with children in school settings, including teachers, counselors, and school administrators, who also possess specialized training in children’s yoga.
- YES instructors undergo fingerprinting and criminal background checks as well as CPR & First Aid training. Many are also VIRTIS certified and all carry appropriate levels of liability insurance coverage.
The Yoga Education for Schools curriculum is a structured, developmentally-based series of breathing exerecises, yoga poses, experiential activities, relaxation, and mindfulness techniques tailored to the unique needs of our students. A few of our most popular programs include:
Yoga for Greater Self-Care & Resilience
Quiet the Mind, Spark Creativity with Art & Yoga
Yoga for Young Athletes
Early Learning Through Yoga
Yoga Club, Before or After School
Yoga for Focus, Fitness & Fun
YES for Teachers
Professional Development…Personal Growth… Powerful Learning…Workshops, classes, and trainings designed specifically for school faculty and staff and professionals who work with children provide accessible and effective techniques for creating calm, finding focus, and enhancing resilience.
Our workshops for professionals who work with children, including school faculty and staff, occupational and physical therapists, health care professionals, and counselors offer highly effective tools for managing stress, building relationships, and fostering greater collaboration and cooperation in school communities.
Our most popular workshops for educators and educational professionals include:
Creating Calm Classrooms
Yoga and Mindfulness Tools for Teachers & Their Students
Creating Quiet Spaces in a Loud World
Stress Relieve & Self Care for Teachers
Mindfulness/ A Safe Haven for Learning
Introduction to Mindfulness for the Classroom
Yoga for Classrooms: Its History, Benefits, and Power to Improve Academic Outcomes
Art & Yoga for Fostering Creativity
Yoga & The Special Needs Child
All trainings and workshops include handouts, opportunities for oral and written reflection, teacher preparation, set up, clean up, and travel time.
Prices based on program length and content. Standard hourly rate: $295 (discounts for half-day and whole-day trainings)
No prior yoga experience necessary! All ability levels welcome!
Testimonials & Research
Research Shows Yoga Benefits Kids with ADHD
As soothing as yoga is for adults, the practice might hold evenmore benefits for children with ADHD. Find out more about this alternative ADHD treatment from a longtime kids’ yoga instructor, Shakta Khalsa.
Yoga In Schools Improves Health According To New Research
A recent survey suggests that roughly 80% of children and adolescents will have some form of psychological problem by age 21. Many of these conditions, like depression and anxiety are rooted in chronic stress. This is one reason why more schools are turning to yoga to improve the health of American youth according to a new review of the research published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
The Benefits of Yoga for Kids
By practicing yoga poses, children can learn how to exercise, develop confidence, and concentrate better.
Why Yoga in Schools?
Working with researchers at Harvard University, Kripalu Yoga in the Schools has demonstrated that yoga and mindfulness activities conducted with adolescents, even for as little as 30-minutes a week, result in reduced stress and anxiety, enhanced academic performance, better sleep and self-care routines, and improved self-esteem and self-confidence.
