A mind–body intervention for stress reduction as an adjunct to an information session on stress management in university students

Introduction: This study describes the implementation of a mind–body intervention to reduce the perceived level of stress in a nonclinical group of university students. We used a novel approach including a single session of a mind–body technique known as the brain wave modulation (BWM) as an adjunct to a single information session on stress management. Methods: Three hundred and six students participated in the study. A quasi-experi- mental design was adopted: Students in the experimental group were exposed to an information session on stress management followed by a single session of the BWM, while the other students were exposed to the information session alone. Results: A 2 × 2 mixed factor analysis of variance demonstrated that the single ses- sion of the BWM was effective in reducing the perceived level of stress in the experi- mental group as compared to the control group. Conclusion: The BWM is a very easy-to-learn technique that presents certain advan- tages over traditional mind–body methods.