Wellbeing and Inclusion

News and information from our Wellbeing team, Jamie Roberts & Josh Beaton.
Artwork by Alkina Edwards' Creations.

The BRAVE Program - helping children and adolescent anxiety

The BRAVE program is an online self-help program that contains both resources and information for children, teenagers and their parents. It is designed specifically to help young people with anxiety overcome their worries and improve the quality of their lives.

BRAVE is a cognitive behaviour therapy tool based on established clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of child and adolescent anxiety, as described by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.

No matter how old or young you are, everyone experiences anxiety at times. We here at the BRAVE program know that worrying about things all the time is tough. The BRAVE program was developed to help young people and their parents develop skills and coping strategies so that your worries and anxiety don’t stop young people from doing the things you want or need to do.

The BRAVE Team also know how hard it can be to make the time to fit everything in! The BRAVE program is an online program that you can work through at your own speed in the privacy of your own home.

https://brave4you.psy.uq.edu.au/

GEM Reflection

Tips and Tricks with Occupational Therapy students Skye and Lily.

Co-Regulation.

In short, co-regulation is the ability to be able to use your own body and emotions as the parent to assist with your child’s regulation of emotions.

Effective regulation begins with yourself. As a parent you can’t assist your child in co-regulation unless you’ve centered yourself. This may look like taking 2 minutes to take a deep breath if the situation allows. Many parents may become overwhelmed during co-regulation when their child is in a heightened state and that is okay.

Co-regulation can be implemented with children who may need support with any transitional period e.g. from play, to school or morning/bedtime routines. Some children also require co-regulation support with problem solving and conflict resolution (siblings, school friends or others in public areas).

When assisting your child to regulate here are some helpful tips:

Breathing: As a parent you may feel dysregulated, one way to assist is practicing breathing. When breathing, exaggerate and explain it to the child e.g. “I am feeling anxious and I am going to take 5 deep breaths to make myself feel better”. As the parent, you can have the greatest impact on the way that your child self-regulates, therefore being able to model and demonstrate effective strategies for yourself can help your child to understand how to implement breathing, as well as, assisting with your self-regulation.
Minimal words: As mentioned in last week’s newsletter, when a person is in the red zone, they are unable to process words, therefore ensure the words used are short, clear and simplistic.
Giving space: Both you and your child may need space when feeling dysregulated and that is okay. Being able to identify that either of you need space and being able to implement it, can benefit your relationship. When safe to do so, space can be a great way to calm down to create a logical solution.
Validating your child’s feelings is important so they feel heard (discussed in last week's communication newsletter). Allow for valuable conversations about emotions and co-regulation to occur e.g. “I can see you are upset. I’m going to take a deep breath to calm myself. Let's do it together”.

Co-regulation is difficult and takes time, however once implemented it can assist the child to be able to self-regulate themselves, as well as creating a greater connection as a family.

Next week we will be talking about brain breaks and how they can be implemented in the home!

Skye and Lily