• Age: 13 to 18
• Grade: 8 to 12

It’s stressful being a teen! In Transforming Stress for Teens, leaders from the world-renowned Institute of HeartMath and Clemson University’s Youth Learning Institute team up to teach overwhelmed and stressed-out teens how to use HeartMath skills—proven-effective tools and techniques to help you manage daily stress and anxiety, and develop resilience by managing emotion.

The teen years are a time of significant change and growth, and teens face numerous stressors like homework overload, conflict with friends and family, balancing school and other responsibilities, and dealing with the all-too-common feeling of being left out or of not belonging. Emotions can “drain your battery,” and many teens struggle when it comes to managing their everyday stress. Some withdraw or even turn to destructive behaviors in an effort to feel better.

Following the success of Transforming Stress, this book is the first to provide teens with the life-changing, proven-effective HeartMath skills for reducing stress. Using these practical evidence-based concepts and techniques, this book will help you manage stress by showing you how to manage your emotions. And with these emotion regulation skills, like the relaxing heart-breathing technique, you’ll feel calmer, be more confident, think more clearly, bounce back from challenging situations, and enjoy life with a new understanding of what’s really important to you.

Transforming Stress for Teens will help you recognize the mental, emotional, and physical impact of stress, and guide you toward finding balance, clarity, and self-assurance with the proven HeartMath tools. When you feel better, you do better—this book will show you how.

Rollin McCraty's profile page

Sarah Moor's profile page

Jeff Goelitz's profile page

Rollin McCraty, PhD, is director of research at HeartMath® Institute Research Center. McCraty, a professor at Florida Atlantic University, is a psychophysiologist whose interests include the physiology of emotion. One of his primary areas of focus is the mechanisms by which emotions influence cognitive processes, behavior, and health. Findings from this research have been incorporated by HeartMath® in the development of simple, user-friendly mental and emotional self-regulation tools and techniques. People of all ages and cultures can use these tools and techniques in the moment to relieve stress and break through to greater levels of personal balance, stability, creativity, intuitive insight, and fulfillment. McCraty has written extensively and been widely published in his areas of scientific interest. He has been interviewed for many feature articles in publications that include Prevention, Natural Health, Men's Fitness, and American Health magazines. He has appeared in television segments for CNN Headline News, ABC World News Tonight, ABC’s Good Morning America, NBC’s Today Show, PBS’s Body & Soul, and the Discovery Channel. In addition, he has been featured in many documentary films, including I Am, The Truth, The Joy of Sox, The Power of the Heart, Solar Revolution, and The Living Matrix, among others.
Sarah Moor is a HeartMath® master trainer and mentor. She is the instructor for HeartMath®’s coach/mentor certification training, assists in program design and development, and coordinates and mentors special HeartMath® projects. She has mentored thousands of individuals in learning how to incorporate the HeartMath® System into their daily lives.
Jeff Goelitz is currently program developer, senior trainer, and education specialist with the nonprofit HeartMath® Institute. He regularly consults with education professionals, mental health specialists, and parents around the United States and Canada to help improve the well-being of youth, parent/child communication, and classroom climate and performance. In the last fifteen years, he has created and contributed to numerous educational curricula and programs designed to improve social and emotional learning, including The College De-Stress Handbook.
Stephen W. Lance, MS, has over twenty years of experience in the field of youth development. Lance serves as executive director of Clemson University’s Youth Learning Institute, which serves over 25,000 youth annually in diverse programs ranging from innovative schools, group homes, camping programs, and academic field study experiences.
Foreword writer Steve Sawyer, LCSW, CSAC, is clinical director and cofounder of New Vision Wilderness Therapy. He is a dual-licensed clinical social worker and certified substance abuse counselor, and a nationally recognized trainer in somatic trigger release techniques, Brainspotting, traumatic memory reprocessing, and HeartMath®.

“Young people today experience a high level of stress. This greatly affects their potential for optimal performance. I have found HeartMath® techniques to be both practical and simple for their day-to-day lives. I highly recommend this book to every young person in search of a technique for coping with stress.”
—Jorge Calzadilla, MEd, vice president of the Division of Public Service at Florida Atlantic University, former executive director of Clemson University’s Youth Learning Institute (YLI), and board member of The Conservation Fund’s National Forum on Children and Nature, Institute of HeartMath®, and the National Youth Advocate Program

“Transforming Stress for Teens sets itself apart from the large number of available books and workbooks for adolescents on managing stress, by moving beyond simple discussions of relaxation and awareness strategies, and additionally explaining and emphasizing the key role that emotional experience and emotional regulation play in truly mastering stress in all aspects of life. I find this book to be unique among self-help books for adolescents in its discussion of fascinating (and important) topics such as coherence, the heart-brain connection, intuition, and communication in very clear language with great real-life examples. The authors do an exemplary job making the chapter topics interesting and relevant for teens in their day-to-day experience, and then provide tools and techniques that are time-efficient and easy to use.”
—Timothy Culbert, MD, FAAP, developmental/behavioral pediatrician and medical director of the Integrative Medicine Program at PrairieCare Medical Group in Minneapolis, MN

“For the last several years at Olympia Sports Camp, we have taught the ideas and tools found in this book to thousands of youth to help them learn how to manage their emotions instead of just reacting to life situations. With Transforming Stress for Teens, teens can become the hero of their own journey by learning the qualities of their deeper hearts while on the path of discovering who they really are. I highly recommend this book.”
—Dave Grace, founder and director of Olympia Sports Camp in Ontario, Canada

“Less stress, less drama, more true friends! Transforming Stress for Teens provides the skills and knowledge teens need to take back their power, and experience both acceptance and understanding. Fit in, be loving, and be loved, yet remain uniquely and genuinely you! A must read.”
—Becky A. Bailey, PhD, internationally acclaimed author and speaker, and creator of the Conscious Discipline system of self-regulation for parents, teachers, and students

“Transforming Stress for Teens is a wonderful resource of practical strategies and tools to help teens reduce their stress and build resilience. I love how each chapter reinforces the concepts and tools presented in previous chapters. The exercises are thoughtful, practical, easy to complete, and will help teens make healthier decisions with a renewed sense of hope and self-reliance. I am confident that thousands of teens will greatly benefit from the practical advice laid out in this book.”
Jacqui Letran, NP, teen confidence expert, speaker, and author of I Would, but My Damn Mind Won’t Let Me! and Five Simple Questions to Reclaim Your Happiness

“Filled with research-proven, practical suggestions for transforming stress in teens, this insightful book can help you create clarity and calm in the face of the daily challenges of life. This is a step-by-step guide with accessible practices as well as interesting proposals about intuition and relationships, offering new ways of strengthening your mind and improving your life. Dive in and feel the power of this approach!”
—Daniel J. Siegel, MD, New York Times bestselling author of Brainstorm and Mind

“It’s a fact—teen life is stressful! It seems the pressure is always on to make (and keep) friends, make the grades, make the team, and, most importantly, make sure parents are pleased. Research indicates that adolescents who learn to identify and overcome everyday stressors now, are better able to navigate through tough situations, reduce stress, and remain resilient as adults. Transforming Stress for Teens is the perfect guide to help teens learn easy-to-use tools and techniques to beat stress and thrive for the rest of their lives.”
—Susan Alford, state director of South Carolina’s Department of Social Services

“Accessible and engaging, this book provides what today’s teens need—practical tools to help them manage emotions, navigate their world with greater ease, and be more of who they truly are. It is a gem, and I will wholeheartedly recommend it to the teens and parents I work with.”
—Judy Grupenhoff, MS, MEd, youth specialist at Providence Behavioral Health Hospital

"From academics to athletics to music lessons and more, today’s adolescents carry a heap of responsibility, often not in line with their own objectives. Here, McCraty (director of research, HeartMath Inst.) with a team of other educators aims to help teens manage stress, anxiety, daily emotions, and more. Based primarily on techniques involving emotional regulation skills, the work assists young people in understanding their emotions, listening to their inner voices, communicating with integrity, and developing healthy relationships. Differentiating between statements such as 'chill out' and actually relaxing, the authors seek to put life into perspective and to show teens how to do right by themselves by taking a step back and listening to their inner selves. VERDICT Recommended for YA collections in high school and public libraries."
—Library Journal