top of page
IMG_4891.jpg

OUR HISTORY

Scroll Down

In September 2002, Dave Beal began teaching 5th grade at P.S. 375 in Brooklyn as a NYC Teaching Fellow. While he was drawn to teaching in the wake of 9/11 as a way of empowering future leaders to create a more equitable, peaceful, and sustainable world, it became clear that Dave needed help managing the stress of teaching in this high-needs environment.

 

To manage his own stress and energy levels, Dave began practicing yoga, tai chi, and mindfulness, and experienced great changes in his health and ability to connect with his students. He began incorporating regular mind-body and brain exercises into his classroom with great success, and was asked by administrators at P.S. 375 and Bayview Elementary (in Freeport, Long Island) to develop school-wide mindfulness/SEL programs.

 

After for three years of helping his principals in Brooklyn and Freeport design school-wide wellness programs, Dave made the difficult decision to leave the classroom in order to share mindfulness and wellness with more school communities. He accepted a position with a wellness company named Power Brain Education (PBE), which was owned by one of Ilchi Lee’s companies. Over the next two years with PBE, Dave shared mindfulness and wellness techniques with approximately fifty schools throughout NYC.

 

In 2009, Ilchi Lee was the subject of a lawsuit filed in Arizona by former Body & Brain employees who alleged undue influence and unfair business practices. All claims in the lawsuit were either dismissed by the Court or dropped by the plaintiffs in 2013. However, several media outlets picked up the story. The NY Post ran a misleading article (which they immediately retracted) inaccurately connecting PBE’s work in NYC to the lawsuits. Because of this negative publicity, the DOE understandably suspended PBE from working in NYC schools.

 

In 2010, Dave resigned from PBE and began running a private teaching and consulting practice for students and families. However, he never gave up on his dream of sharing wellness with schools and being part of a principled movement for systemic change within our educational system. After briefly returning to PBE in 2015, Dave realized it was time to start a new school-based wellness company. In 2016, he and his team created Brain Power Wellness, a mindfulness company that has worked with more than 600 schools, 30,000 teachers, and 750,000 students around the world.

bottom of page