A SOMATIC-based approach to mental health is set to be offered to secondary school students.<\/p>\n
Teacher and mindfulness specialist Bronte Spicer runs workshops to educate teens on how to process emotions and improve self-esteem.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Ms Spicer held a workshop for parents to learn practical techniques to help their teens.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives a different approach to supporting people with mental illness,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a somatic approach, that means that it\u2019s not offering talk therapy but it\u2019s offering practical, simple tools for our families to practice so they can process negative stories that they hear about themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of research coming out about trauma that shows us that the part of the brain doesn\u2019t quite do its job properly in a traumatic or distressing experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis leaves the body\u2019s nervous system in a state of fight-flight-freeze response even well after a traumatic experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Spicer said somatic-based therapy and mindfulness practices, known as the Kiloby Inquiries, helped end her 22-year struggle with depression and should be taught to young people.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not taught, we talk a lot about emotion, we teach our kids how to put words to what emotions we have but we\u2019re not teaching them how to feel their feelings,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Research into somatic-based therapy comes as a recent royal commission highlighted several shortcomings in Victoria\u2019s mental health system.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than having so many people feel like there\u2019s something wrong with them because they\u2019re going to talk therapy sessions and not getting anywhere, this new research on trauma is really the answer,\u201d Ms Spicer said.<\/p>\n
Ms Spicer runs the Thrive workshop, an eight-week applied mindfulness program for mental health in secondary students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A SOMATIC-based approach to mental health is set to be offered to secondary school students. Teacher and mindfulness specialist Bronte Spicer runs workshops to educate teens on how to process emotions and improve self-esteem. On Monday, Ms Spicer held a workshop for parents to learn practical techniques to help their teens. \u201cIt gives a different […]<\/p>\n