You’ve likely noticed that there is something of a ‘meditation’ trend happening.
Prominent figures such as Oprah have even jumped on the bandwagon, having launched a meditation app collboratively with Deepak Chopra.
But this is one ‘fad’ that we can definitely get behind, and one that shouldn’t be going away any time soon.
Why?
We’ve discussed a lot of issues surrounding the final years of high school on the blog over the years…
How to help your child survive the VCE, part 1, part 2 and part 3;
How to deal with the pressures of year 12 (by reducing them);
Motivation and success during VCE; and
How to help your child pick their final year electives.
But for many of you, you will now be in the grips of the climactic point of your child’s high school education: their final exams.
So Australia’s leading online mental health organisation for young people — ReachOut — has published some practical tips for parents, to help you help your child through this stressful period.
We’ve talked about motivation and success when it comes to study and examinations.
But an increasingly important issue surrounding these ideas is the pressure that is put on our students…
By the education system, by parents, and by the students themselves.
Studies show that in Australia, we are bordering on an adolescent mental health epidemic.
Instances of anxiety and depression in young people are becoming increasingly and alarmingly common.
And a huge source of these conditions is stress from schooling.
The pressure is even taking a toll on parents, with a mental health organisation setting up extra counselling services for parents of high school students.
So how do we help our kids, and ourselves, to deal with the pressure?
Our staff psychologist Christina Rigoli was quoted on page 3 of The Age today, discussing the tactics parents use to motivate their kids to study.
Among them — bribing with $18,000 holidays, threats of boarding school, and house-wide technology freezes!
The parents confessing to these ‘motivation tactics’ said their efforts paid off, but this is more a matter of chance than formula.
The key distinction in this equation is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to motivation…
What may work in encouraging one child could backfire and have the opposite affect on another.
So how do you know what the right method of motivation is for your child?
An interesting article in The Age recently brought up concerns regarding parents who may be unnecessarily anxious about their children’s health.
The article cited a recent survey that showed that 75 per cent of pediatric specialists said many of their referrals could have been handled exclusively by the referring GP.
The relevant issue at hand here is that parents are increasingly seeking out specialist support for normal issues in childhood development…
Common issues such as bed-wetting, constipation, and even concerns about their children’s height.
This speaks to an increasing anxiety among parents, and their quest to ensure their child is developing ‘normally’.
Understandably, this kind of pattern of anxious parenting comes up not only in the physical development of the child, but also their emotional and psychological development.
So how can we know when we’re self- or over-diagnosing our children?
If you’re like most parents of school-aged kids, you’ve probably witnessed an anxious child struggling with a challenging homework task.
The temptation to help them in some way can be very strong…
And even when the ‘help’ starts off with a gentle nudge in the right direction, it can sometimes end up with the child sleeping on the couch while you finish off the project!
It’s perfectly understandable. We want to stop children from being anxious, while helping them to succeed.
But it’s best not to help too much.
Why?
There’s no denying that with all the joys of parenthood there can also be a lot of stress and frustration.
Temper tantrums, complaints and demands… It’s understandable this would try any parent’s patience.
And sometimes the result is an angry outburst.
But unfortunately anger directed towards your child can have a very negative impact on your relationship with them and on their own temperament.
And it can also encourage more acting out or misbehaving.
So how can we better manage our own emotions when it comes to parenting challenges?
We recently discussed the benefits of mindfulness and meditation and how we use the principles with children in our counselling sessions.
And, while there’s many ways to practice meditation, the benefits of a few moments of meditation a day can go a very long way.
Meditation teacher Jon Krop has listed a few key ways that you or your kids can get some calm and quiet in your life every day, or whenever you need it.
It comes in the form of what he calls a ‘mindful pause’.
Not too long ago meditation was thought of as some sort of mysterious ritual conducted in spiritual retreats, rather than at the doctor’s office or psychology clinic.
But in fact meditation and mindfulness are psychological processes and science has discovered many practical benefits to their practice.
Just like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy — one of the most extensively researched and practised psychological treatments — mindfulness addresses the connection between your thoughts, attitudes, behaviour and feelings.
And it can be particularly beneficial in the treatment of anxiety and depression.
So how do our psychologists use mindfulness and meditation in counselling sessions with children?
If you’ve ever visited a psychologist, or even considered it, you’ve probably heard of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
And while the name might sound a little complex, it’s actually one of the most practical, simple, and commonly used approaches to dealing with many types of emotional, behavioural and psychiatric problems.
Plus there’s lots of scientific evidence to support its effectiveness.
But what is it, exactly?
Got any questions before you book? Click here to request a phone call and a psychologist will call you at a convenient time (prospective clients only). Please keep in mind we are often busy with clients but we do our best to respond to all enquiries within one business day. :-)
(*As of 24th July, 2019.)