I fell in love with the work of neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor from her book "My Stroke of Insight" and her TED talk about her experience of having a stroke and being conscious of the unfolding every step of the way. I always say that I believe in energy, and it is people like her that reaffirm my belief. Check it out here if you have never seen or read about her experience:
Jill was at it again with another video, this time highlighting the inner workings of the adolescent brain. This is so relevant to me because, though I do not have children of my own yet, I work with students ages 12-18. At my school many of our students struggle with emotional and mental differences, and just this past semester we had 3 suicide watches. As heartbreaking as it is, we are only a school of 50 students. I can't imagine students in public school by the thousands suffering in silence without the support they need. And sadly some of them never get it, and we lose them figuratively and literally.
Adolescence is a time of growth, and as Dr. Bolte Taylor explains, along with their bodies, teen's brains are under going tremendous change. This accounts for the mood swings, irritability, and perceived drastic changes in interests and personalities. Here is the video:
With the perspective provided by her presentation I feel a deeper sense of empathy for my students. I no longer judge their behavior, nor try to fix their problems. Instead I allow them to be and feel as they are, in all their beautiful messiness. I have seen students transform within minutes from this approach because all they really need is to be held while they crash and burn. It was my prior practice to do everything I could to help prevent that, or put the fires out as quickly as possible. But when I stopped, something miraculous happened. When they were in their deepest despair, be it anxiety attack or schizophrenic hallucination, they melted down...and then rose again. Sometimes it was minutes, sometimes hours and days, but they came back stronger each time. And with a deeper sense of trust. Because
all they really needed was to be heard and held while they figure themselves out and put themselves back together again. I hope I can do this when I have children of my own.
I would love to hear about your thoughts on the subject!