Dianne Maroney
The Imagine Project, Inc., USA
Title: Supporting and healing kids with stress and trauma
Biography
Biography: Dianne Maroney
Abstract
Our children are stressed—more stressed than we realize. Research shows that kids are often more stressed than adults. Kids are also exposed to trauma. At least half of all children have experienced one or more traumatic experiences before the age of 17. Stress and trauma in children often cause difficulty concentrating, fears, aggression, lack of self-confidence, depression and a host of physical illnesses including lowering immune function and hormonal imbalances. Health care providers, teachers, parents, counselors, and all who care for children have a responsibility to assess, support, and help children heal from stress and trauma. Mindfulness, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT, also called Tapping), and expressive writing have been proven by research to support the processing and healing of children (and adults) who are or have experienced difficult life circumstances. Simple mindfulness techniques, 2-minutes tapping, and a standardized expressive writing technique called The Imagine Journal have measured increased GPA, decreased dropout rates, self-reported positive emotional health outcomes, physiologic changes such as positive cortisol shifts, and improved outcomes for health conditions. Such outcomes have rivaled the power of drug studies. Because these techniques are all simple and standardized, they can be incorporated into homes, schools, medical offices, and into an organization that supports the needs of children and a child can bring these techniques into their daily lives for social-emotional support.