TEACHING LEADING BECOMING

Giving trauma-affected youth the skills, knowledge, understanding and hope necessary for them to be successful at home, school and in the community.

After using my program, Life Lessons, with thousands of trauma-affected youth, I found that addressing the underlying issues transforms lives in a way that punishment and isolation are unable to do.

PROGRAM PLATFORM

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has reported that Mental Illness is on the rise among teens. Illnesses, such as, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder can seriously impact a student’s potential physical or emotional status
and may drastically impact school climate, school safety and academics.  It is now well documented that chronic fear experienced in early childhood, also referred to as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), is at the root of the early onset of emotional and behavioral pathologies in youth.

We now know that life events, such as divorce, death, changing schools or abuse may cause early childhood trauma. We also know that these traumas may lead to bullying, crime, mental illness, anxiety, and depression, causing long-term, negative effects on adult health.

For example, Oprah was very open about why she struggled with weight gain. 
“My greatest failure was in believing that the weight issue was just about weight.  It’s not. It’s about sexual abuse. It’s about all the things that cause people to become alcoholics and drug addicts”.
OPRAH WINFREY

This is an exciting time for learning and healing. Our knowledge about how the brain works is exploding. The study of Neuroplasticity tells us that the brain has the ability to form and reorganize synaptic connections, especially in response to re-learning, to new experiences or following traumatic injury/events. Neuroplasticity is the mind’s ability to change the brain. Research in the Neuroplasticity of the brain has shown that the brain can develop new neural pathways.
Scared Sick: The Role Of Childhood Trauma in Adult Disease
Robin Karr-Morse
Meredith S. Wiley
 
This means that many of our trauma-affected youth have the capacity to recover, if given the right neural psychological/therapeutic approach and the right teaching/learning environment.

Using this information and the knowledge that the brain is ‘plastic’, I developed Life Lessons, a series of sessions that include activities designed to counter the effect of ACEs.  Through systematic, CORE activities in a trauma-informed care atmosphere, mental and emotional health can emerge.  Life Lessons is a 12-week, life changing series of sessions for trauma-affected youth. You can use the content in a classroom setting, individual or group counseling sessions. It includes a Facilitator’s Manual and a Journal (LifeBook) for each participant.

PROGRAM Description

This is a 12-week, life transforming program developed for trauma- affected youth. Life Lessons are delivered in a small group environment that is safe, kind, and structured where participants can be honest, vul- nerable and courageous. Using strategies designed to Create Oppor- tuni- ties for Rich Experiences, referred to as CORE activities, youth begin to discover the connection between their past traumas and their current self-destructive behaviors, depression and anxiety. It uses innovative CORE activities, such as, LifeLines, guided visualizations, journaling and self-reflection to enhance self-discovery. Through learning how to focus the capacities of their mind (will, imagination, perception, memory, reason and intuition) toward mental and

emotional health and well-being, students increase their self- awareness and begin to integrate the past trauma with the promise of an encouraging future. Students access their personal power, passion and purpose and begin changing their lives from the inside out.

“Your past becomes the platform you stand on, Not the hole you crawl out of ”.
LINDA SAINZ

It is important to substantiate the results youth experience as they go through the Life Lessons. Instruments, such as pre- and post- academic testing, grades, surveys measuring depression and anxiety, anecdotal observations of improved interactions with peers and adults, visualization records and social-emotional assessments.

The time is right to provide an innovative counseling approach for teachers and counselors that accesses an alternative to disciplinary actions and consequences. This program is particularly designed for students displaying misbehaviors, depression and anxiety related to trauma. It is built upon the premise that each trauma-affected youth, given the opportunity, atmosphere and tools for change has the ability within him or her to integrate past events into a positive future.