Assisting Social Work Students Who Have Anxiety: Yoga and Self-Care Programs

Overview: Students, including social work students, often have high levels of anxiety. This presentation will describe a yoga for anxiety program created for students to assist them in learning new coping strategies for anxiety and to improve their self-care. The results of the study will be discussed.Proposal text: Anxiety remains one of the most common mental health disorders in the United States. Many college students report having a high level of anxiety, with additional life stressors that might include being away from home for the first time, being around unfamiliar people, having new expectations placed on them, and often have financial struggles. Universities have the ability and opportunity to form programs that can involve students with activities that reduce stress and teach coping skills. This research includes one example of using a somatic based group format of yoga to teach these skills and assist students in applying these strategies to their daily lives. This study compared a group of 17 students participating in weekly yoga classes to 34 students who did not attend the program. The students who attended the program reported a larger reduction of anxiety on both the BAI and GAD-7 than the control group, and verbally reported additional benefits in relaxation and coping skills. This presentation will discuss the creation and results of this yoga class for students with anxiety and how programs such as this might benefit future social work students.