Center of Excellence for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation, part of Georgetown University’s Thrive Center

Taking Care of Ourselves: Stress and Relaxation

Stress is natural and can be inevitable. But stress can take a toll on your health and effectiveness as an early childhood educator or parent. It impacts the quality of care that you can give. When you are too stressed it is difficult to offer the praise, nurturance, and structure your children need. Please use the resources below to help reduce your stress:

Taking Care of Ourselves

Download these booklets to learn about how to identify your sources of stress and learn strategies to reduce stress.

Stress Reduction Workshop

This powerpoint presentation can be used with Head Start staff and/or families to teach techniques to reduce stress.

A Dozen Posters to Combat Stress

This series of 12 colorful posters teaches effective strategies to reduce stress in Head Start families and staff. Print these out and post them in different areas of your home or program. For programs, try placing them in break rooms, kitchens or even on the back of the bathroom stall doors–the only place busy teachers get a moment to breathe! These posters are designed to be printed out in color on 8 x 14 inch paper. In English | En Español

Relaxation Exercises

The ECMHC team has recorded a series of relaxation exercises in English and Spanish. These exercises have been designed for use by families and Early Head Start and Head Start staff to help you reduce your stress.

Our hope is that after listening to one or more of these recordings, families and staff will return to their daily activities feeling refreshed and re-energized. Enjoy!

English

Spanish