2a: March 21, 2025: Integrating Mindfulness into Clinical Practice with Youth

Friday, March 21, 2025
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Pre-register by March 14, 2025

This course will be in-person on SLU Campus

3 CEHs

$45.00 SLU Alumni and pre-registered SLU practicum instructors

$65.00 All others

Course Description
Presenter: Laurie Brockhaus, MSW, LCSW, C-IAYT 

Title: Integrating Mindfulness into Clinical Practice with Youth 

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss how trauma and chronic stress affect youth development and the specific benefits of mindfulness and somatic techniques toward encouraging mental and behavioral health.  
• Practice specific mindfulness techniques—such as breath work, meditation, and movement—that can be integrated into social work practice, in a trauma-sensitive manner. 
• Learn to integrate yoga and mindfulness techniques practically and effectively into direct work with children and adolescents and for self and community care. 

Course Description: Given currently high rates of mental health issues, youth need accessible tools that offer skills in managing the impact of chronic stress, trauma, anxiety, depression, and behavioral health issues. This CE course —intended for a broad range of clinical professionals who work with school-age youth in clinical, school, and community settings—introduces mindfulness practices as resources for children and adolescents in developing skills in emotional regulation, coping with stress, focus and concentration, and self-care. We will discuss how mindfulness and somatic practices address the impact of stress and trauma on physical, mental, and emotional development. You will have the opportunity to practice mindfulness techniques—such as breath work, meditation, and movement—and learn how to integrate these practices into social work practice with individuals and groups. This course will also introduce mindfulness practices that offer opportunities for practitioner self-care, self-observation and reflection, toward understanding biases and assumptions that may influence our behaviors and create the space to move toward intentional action.  

Bio: Laurie Brockhaus, MSW, LCSW, C-IAYT joined the faculty of the School of Social Work as an assistant professor in 2024, after 15-plus years of social work practice. Laurie’s experiences include adjunct teaching, school and after-school social work practice, as well as clinical practice with children, teenagers, and adults in which she integrated mindfulness and somatic practices toward therapeutic outcomes. Laurie co-founded The Oxygen Project, a St. Louis-based nonprofit that brings yoga and mindfulness programming to schools and youth agencies, toward promotion of mental health and wellness. Her interests include utilizing mindfulness practices to improve health and mental health among youth and providers, trauma-informed care, and integration of somatic practices in clinical social work.