Jennifer Caputo

Jennifer Behre Caputo is a highly respected professional in Breathwork, Clinical EFT, and Yoga. With a passion for education and wellness, she serves as an Educational Wellness Coach, graduate course designer, instructor, and professional developer. After 25 years as a public school teacher, earning honors like Sussex County Teacher of the Year and New Jersey State Teacher of the Year finalist, Jennifer retired to pursue her passion for guiding others to face challenges & trauma with courage & resilience in a way that is simple & sustainable. She specializes in working with students 10 years + and their parents, helping them manage the stress and overwhelm from the school day. She’s also the creator of Calm & Cool School and the host of The Shift for Wellness Podcast

A Conversation with Jennifer:

Q: Please share with us what you do and a bit about all of the purposeful work you are excited to offer.

I enjoy working one-on-one with kids, teens, parents, and teachers, and facilitating groups to help reduce anxiety, stress, and overwhelm from the day from morning to night with breathwork and EFT, The Emotional Freedom Technique.

My approach blends energy practices into daily routines, empowering students to take control of their learning and teaching families to ground, reset, wind down, and regain control of their days with simple shifts.

Students, parents, and teachers experience improved focus, reduced stress and anxiety, better impulse control, enhanced self-awareness, empathy, and conflict-resolution skills. I teach tools that promote healthier, more balanced lives—at school, at home, and beyond.

Q:What inspired your passion for this work, and how did it evolve over time?

After overcoming a cancer diagnosis, I was inspired to explore wellness more deeply and share what came naturally to me paired with what I was learning to all who’d listen! I was very much motivated by a desire to help others who were also bed-bound and needed the skills to lift their spirits.

People continually met me asking how I could maintain such a positive attitude during such a challenging time. Many had recently received a diagnosis of cancer or another life-threatening disease. Some were people who had been left by their spouses and found themselves devastated and discouraged.

I found myself telling the same story over and over and knew my message needed to reach more people, so I decided to write a blog with the hopes of helping others help themselves. I wanted for them what I was somehow able to give myself at my lowest of low points, to get through each moment with acceptance, honesty & humor, intention, faith, and thankfulness. These principles got me through my diagnosis and became the acronym for my wellness coaching business: Shift for Wellness.

From these principles, I created a 5-Part Wellness Workshop Series that I offered for free in yoga studios, Prana so graciously being one of them. I’ve since turned the series into a free downloadable workbook which is accessible to all from my website. This book offers practical steps to build resilience and navigate life's challenges with strength and courage. The success of the Wellness Series evolved into the creation of The Shift for Wellness blog and podcast, which grew into workshops and further education in the wellness field.

It only made sense to me that sharing these strategies with the students in school would help them tremendously as they navigated stressful days, learning struggles, and the social mess that middle and high school can bring. I loved watching them take control and shift their way to a more calm and clear space and better manage their instructional time.

My favorite part was listening to their stories from the weekend and how they maintained composure in the ER, during a no-hitter when it was bottom of the 9th with a 3-2 count, or teaching their mom how to tap when she was having her meltdown writing her dissertation!

Q: What core values would you say guide your work and decisions?

Accepting where you are and how you got there is the first step to wellness.
Becoming honest with your situation and staying connected to your sense of humor is what puts one foot in front of the other moment after moment and keeps you moving in the right direction.
Choosing a life of wellness intentionally by understanding every choice you make has a consequence. Is that consequence working for or against your well-being?
Believing in yourself and having faith that the path you’re walking to wellness will get you where you want to go.
Being grateful for every little thing from the air you breathe to the hairs in your nose that filter out all the debris in the air, allowing your lungs to breathe it all in and keep you alive for even just one more day!

The 5 core values that guide my work are the 5 principles of Shift for Wellness which are: Self-acceptance, Honesty & Humor, Intention, Faith, & Thankfulness