Creating Psychological Flexibility in Children
with Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes
Executive Director, AllCEUs
Host: Counselor Toolbox Podcast
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Objectives
~ Define Psychological Flexibility
~ List the Main Principles of Psychological Flexibility
~ Identify the Components of Psychological Flexibility
~ Describe How to Teach Psychological Flexibility
~ Explain the Short Cut Question
Preventing Vulnerabilities
~ When people are tired, malnourished, hungry, stressed, sick or in pain, they tend to have more difficulty dealing with life on life’s terms.
~ Sleep
~ Set a bedtime routine and teach about good sleep hygiene
~ Help them learn the value of sleep
~ Point out that they will have a better day if they get a good nights sleep and when they are having a bad day because they didn’t get enough rest
Preventing Vulnerabilities
~ Nutrition
~ Help children learn good eating habits
~ Participate in cooking
~ Help create menus with 3 colors at each meal
~ Keep prepared fruits and veggies available
~ Minimize refined foods for stable blood sugar
~ Make sure lunches have sufficient protein and complex carbohydrates
~ Talk to them about why nutrition is important
Activity: Food Art
~ Tell children to build a Mr. Potato Head but take out one set of pieces.
~ When children cannot complete the project, explain that just like they need all the pieces to make Mr. Potato Head, for them to be healthy and happy their body needs all the different types of food building blocks
Preventing Vulnerabilities
~ Positive Health Behaviors (Model it. Do it with them.)
~ Relaxation
~ Ergonomics (backpack, desk, bed)
~ Hand Washing (sing Baby Bumble Bee 2x)
~ I’m washing up my baby bumble bee
~ Won’t my mama be so proud of me
~ I’m washing up my baby bumble bee
~ Scrubba scrubba scrub scrub scrub scrub scrub
~ Exercise
Battery or Money Metaphor
~ If you get a good nights sleep, eat a healthy diet and learn to relax, then each day you start with (a fully charged cell phone battery/ $100)
~ If you don’t get a good nights sleep, eat a healthy diet and learn to relax then you may not fully recharge (your phone/bank account)
~ Throughout the day each time you do something you are (draining your battery / spending money). The more intense the activity or emotion or the longer it lasts, the more (battery is used/money spent)
~ Eating, walking, exercising etc.
~ Worrying
~ Getting angry
Questions…
~ Think about a day you didn’t sleep well. Did you run out of (battery/money) earlier in the day?
~ What about a day you were really stressed about a test coming up?
~ How much easier do things seem when you are rested and relaxed?
Clarifying the Destination
Values & Goals
~ A lack of clarity about values can underlie much of people’s distress or keep them “stuck.”
~ Help children identify what is really important in their life and become willing to focus their energies on those things
Clarifying Values & Goals
~ Clarifying
~ Who is most important, deep in your heart?
~ Which people?
~ What do you want those relationships to be like?
~ Note: Help small children create a collage of people who are in their life (family, higher power, pets)
~ What events, things, experiences are important to you?
~ Getting on the ___ team/club
~ Getting good grades
~ Going to college to be a _____
~ Being good at ______
~ My health (without that you can’t do the others as easily)
~ Note: Small children may not have anything here
Clarifying cont…
~ Values
~ What values do you want to embody (Choose 5)?
~ For small children,
~ Choose 5 that are important for your family values and/or characterize the child (Honesty, Resourcefulness, Compassion, Faithfulness, Determination…etc.) and help the chil