Who is Cool kids with Cool minds and what do we offer?
As an Osteopath I understand the brain & nervous system from a developmental point of view, and how it functions in the different phases of growing up.
And as a person who suffers from anxiety, I understand how to develop coping mechanisms so that my anxiety doesn’t rule my life. I need techniques to control my own brain and anxiety. So, I put the 2 things together and successfully used my life experience and Osteopathic knowledge to write a course for teenagers to learn how to understand their own brains’, and, learn how to use the coping techniques of meditation and mindfulness I have developed and learnt over the years, to give them hope for a lifetime of improved mental health.
At Cool Kids with Cool Minds, I have developed a 12-week meditation and mindfulness programme to help your child recognise and identify with their own emotions & difficulties. It will teach them how to find themselves and who they are as a person, and, learn how to react to the stressful things in life in a healthier way, resulting in a better outcome for your child.
Cool Kids with Cool Minds help’s your child to understand their changing brain, and to identify and explore all the different kinds of emotions they begin to experience as an adult when they are still an adolescent. We help them to recognise what their feeling’s mean, and with the help of the course, which technique’s will then help them process the emotion/feeling. This teaches them that a problem can be resolved, and, that the stressful problem they feel they have can be turned around into a better one.
Why is this important?
As your child’s adolescent brain is not mature until the age of 25 they cannot think like a logical adult and, can still make a wrong decision fuelled by this lack of logic, and too many reactionary (also known as fight or flight) decisions. The Cool kids course is here to help your child try and win through their anxiety/fear/anger/depression/addiction. This means with mindfulness and meditation techniques your child will think better before reacting, giving them self-control over the emotional and stressful situations they come across, which, leads onto self-confidence, self-respect, trust and a better self-esteem, and a calmer child.
Building a child’s confidence is important in life and as a parent you can be part of that process, as making decisions is a necessary part of adulthood. Teaching children these techniques at adolescence helps to build a confident brighter future for your child.
The Brains massive change from adolescence to maturity.
Ok here is the technical jargon!
A brain does not mature and solidify until the age of 25, so a teenage brain relies on what is known as the limbic system. This is the primitive (fight or flight) part of the brain, also called the sympathetic system, and therefore making a decision as an adolescent can be a huge reaction rather than a logical thought process. This is why we try and use mindfulness and meditation techniques to switch the brain from fight and flight into the rest and digest mode, also known as the parasympathetic nervous system, to make a more logical decision.
As the brain matures and we turn into adults we rely on the prefrontal cortex which is our logical/ reasoning brain. This part of the brain is at the front and the last bit to finish maturing. It means we can weigh up outcomes and form judgements, and control impulsiveness and emotions, and helps people to understand one another. In adolescence teenagers experience a wealth of growth in synapses (nerve connections in the brain) which get trimmed down so the brain can reach this maturity. Unfortunately, this process works its way from the back of the brain to the front, and, why the logical centre is the last to mature!
Why is your child even like this?
Studies show that most of the mental energy a teenager uses comes from the back of the brain, (for decision making) whereas a mature brain uses the front of the brain, (that prefrontal cortex bit). If a teenage brain uses the frontal brain to much, they can overdo it, causing all sorts of melt downs, chronic fatigue, depression, anxiety, self-harming, addiction etc.