Thermal School of Stress A unique concept combining psychoeducation and a spa treatment in Saujon

The Thermal School of Stress: a physical AND psychological approach

The Thermal Stress School is a unique concept combining a psychoeducational approach with a spa treatment. This integrative program offers, alongside balneotherapy treatments, 5-day or 3-week psychoeducational workshops.

The main objectives are to lower tension levels, better understand the underlying mechanisms, identify them, and learn how to defuse them. A follow-up study conducted on over 500 patients over the past five years has shown significant improvement at the end of treatment (compared to the beginning) in stress reduction, a decrease or even cessation of tranquilizer use, and an improvement in the patients' quality of life. These results were consolidated and/or improved three months after treatment.

Although the ETS was created in 2012 to organize workshops around stopping or reducing tranquilizers, the care has expanded in recent years to include new pathologies.

ENDOMETRIOSIS PROGRAM: 3 weeks of thermal treatments + 3 weeks of workshops at the Thermal Stress School)

Endometriosis is a complex disease that causes chronic pain. This pain, sometimes very difficult to live with and even debilitating, impacts quality of life, significantly affecting personal, professional, marital, and social life. This workshop, led by healthcare professionals and a patient expert, offers participants the opportunity to create a personal toolkit to learn how to better live with endometriosis and/or adenomyosis.

TEENAGER-YOUNG ADULT PROGRAM: 3 weeks + 1 week workshop at the Thermal Stress School

A specific package is available for 16-25 year olds who are covered by specific health insurance. The indications for this program are: anxiety or reactive depression, sleep disorders, eating disorders, addiction disorders, and withdrawal from psychotropic medications. Psychotherapeutic support may be provided in addition to the spa program.

POST-BREAST CANCER TREATMENT: 3 weeks + 1 week workshop at the Thermal Stress School

The psychological challenges of dealing with cancer are a veritable hurricane, often disrupting everything in its path. This treatment offers a holistic approach, combining physical and psychological support, aimed at reducing inner tension and helping women to reconsider their situation and move more serenely towards new perspectives. Various workshops are offered.

BURN-OUT: 3 days, 5 days or 3 weeks, or on-site intervention in your company + 3 days, 5 days or 3 weeks of workshops at the Thermal Stress School

Saujon is a national center of excellence for burnout management (prevention and support). It offers treatment through a thermal spa program combined with CBT workshops via the Thermal Stress School. The center's experts can also provide services outside the spa resort, directly within companies. Its main objectives are to identify distress, prevent burnout, manage exhaustion, support conflict resolution and the handling of traumatic events in the workplace, train managers and business leaders as well as occupational health professionals, and offer rapid intervention tailored to individual situations.

WOMEN'S BURN-OUT PROGRAM: 3 days, 5 days, or 3 weeks, or on-site intervention in your company + 3 days, 5 days, or 3 weeks of workshops at the Thermal Stress School

Women are more affected than men because they often accumulate various mental burdens that can lead to physical and psychological exhaustion. Their involvement in work, raising children, caring for a loved one with a disability or chronic illness, and managing the household make them more vulnerable.

NEW FOR 2024: BETTER SELF-ASSERTMENT : 3 weeks
The objectives of this internship are:

• Understanding the benefits of good self-assertion
• Practical application based on your expectations
• Regaining confidence in one's communication
• Enrich your toolbox with techniques for managing delicate situations.

SPECT'H Study - WEANING
For a new study launched in 2023 at the Saujon thermal baths, relating to withdrawal from psychotropic substances, 150 patients are being sought.

In 2015, a study entitled SPECTh (Psychotropic Drug Withdrawal through Psychotherapeutic Education in Spa Treatment) demonstrated the benefits of spa treatment combined with a psychoeducational protocol for reducing benzodiazepine consumption. The overuse of psychotropic drugs is indeed a major public health problem in France. In France, consumption of these substances is twice as high as in all other European countries. The figures speak for themselves:

12% of French people are regular consumers and 24.5% have consumed at least one psychotropic drug in the last 12 months.

In 2023, a new study, SPECTh II, will be launched. Under the impetus of the CNAM, its objective is to evaluate the specific contribution of the SPECTh program, developed from behavioral and cognitive therapy, and motivational therapy, in the outcome of withdrawal.
Two groups of patients will be monitored at the Saujon thermal baths. One will benefit from a simple thermal cure with balneotherapy treatments, the other group will follow, in addition to the treatments, the psychoeducational protocol called SPECTh, created in Saujon by Dr. Olivier Dubois and validated by the CNETh.

150 patients wanted
One hundred and fifty patients, chronic benzodiazepine users for more than six months, motivated to stop their treatment, and who have experienced several previous failures, need to be recruited. Patient recruitment is currently open. This integrative approach offers three-week psychoeducational workshops in addition to balneotherapy treatments. It should be noted that in Saujon, a leading resort in the field of mental health, other programs address stress management, sleep disorders, burnout, and other related issues.

And still sleep disorders, benzodiazepine withdrawal, fibromyalgia, respite for caregivers …