Make Health Happen: A model university class where students learn lifelong skills to improve their health status such fitness, increase energy, stop smoking, and overcome Trichotillomania

Each semester, 100-200 undergraduates enroll in a 3-unit Holistic Health stress management and self-healing class at San Francisco State University. Students are taught a sequence of self -healing practices including techniques for: raising awareness of stress; dynamic regeneration; breathing; hand-warming; cognitive stress reduction; imagery for healing; and, other types of positive behavior change (Peper, Gibney & Holt, 2003). They are required to practice the techniques daily, keep a log and, share their experience in groups. The course culminates with a self-healing project in which each student works on a personal health concern and develops and implements a self-healing plan. Plan have included goals such as stopping smoking, reducing eczema, eliminating warts, reducing back pain, lowering depression, controlling anger or anxiety, as well as increasing exercise frequency, improving diet, etc. In previous studies, it has been observed that more than two thirds of the students reported that their self healing projects were very successful, and that these benefits continued at a five month follow-up (Peper, Sato-Perry & Gibney, 2003; Peper, E., Bier, M., & Burke, A., 2005). Consistent with prior observations, in the most recent anonymous assessment (N=136), students reported on a 1 to 1-o scale () (1 not beneficial to 10 very beneficial) that the practices were highly beneficial, mean= 8.2 (SD-=1.7),and most reported that they will continue using the practices which improved their health.

This poster outlines the practices students perform and the factors that contributed to success or failure of the students' self-healing projects. The methodology consisted of analyzing the students' outcome papers in which they summarized their self-healing goal, behavioral self-awareness techniques, outcome data and reasons for failure or success and, their anonymous assessment questionnaires. 136 assessment questionnaires and 120 eight-page students' papers were analyzed for common factors that contributed to success or failure. The results suggest that the major factors contributing to success were: 1) desire to make a change; 2) performing the practice daily; 3) experiencing felt change and benefits; 4) social support of roommates, friends, and family; 5) reframing the desired behavior in positive language (e.g., I am trying to stop smoking to I am a non-smoker); 6) detailed record keeping; 7) self-healing imagery and stress management practices; and, 8) being required to do the project as part of the class requirements. The themes are illustrated by two representative examples: becoming a non-smoker after smoking since age 11 and, overcoming Trichotillomania, the compulsion to tear or pluck out the hair on one's head. We recommend that universities offer semester long stress-management self-healing classes to promote student health and learn enduring ways to affect their health and well-being.