Getting our ACT together: Psychological Flexibility with our Youth
We work with kids -- pretty complicated ones -- and it isn’t easy.
Our careers aren’t about getting a paycheck, buying a LazBoy and watching television in between.
We’re doing what I call necessary work.
Because if we don’t succeed with our kids, what’s their next step? Where do they end up in ten years?
Our job is dealing with these very real questions, coming up with answers and changing lives.
The work we’re doing as behavior analysts, special ed teachers, ed techs, and social workers puts us in close touch with students and families who are in pain and dealing with trauma.
The kids we care for face the real risks of aging into poverty, substance abuse, and health issues.
Try to put yourself in the head of a student who can’t regulate her emotions. It’s scary.
Or maybe you’re familiar with your own experiences of overwhelming sorrow, rage or stress. In that state of mind, you’re not really steering the ship. You’re getting tossed along by the rolling seas, and battered by the unpredictable weather.
It’s always the same reaction (reaction vs. response). You can’t control your behavior when you can’t regulate your own emotions, when you can’t anchor amid the storm.
So, what does this mean?
It means lots of kids are going to mess up over and over, they’ll get in trouble, and have no way, no method, no skill, to make it not happen over and over.
I really don’t think that’s fair, to never give these kids a safe harbor.
Especially with so many emerging evidence-based practices -- practices that have the potential to change lives.
If we can figure out a way to teach them.
At our schools, Atlantic Academy tries lots of different methods to find the ones that work best for our students. And we are discovering some ways to teach our students more effective skills to feel better, and be more successful.
One of the fundamental models we use is called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).
Maybe you’ve heard of it? It’s getting more popular, particularly for treating anxiety and mood disorders. Why is it getting more popular? Because it works.
ACT teaches “psychological flexibility.” The formal description refers to
“an individual’s ability to connect with the present moment fully, as a conscious human being, and to change or persist in behavior that is in line with identified values “(Hayes et al., 1999).
In plain language, it’s about learning how to steer yourself towards what's most important to you amidst the onslaught of stress, intense feelings, and hot emotions.
Psychological flexibility is an important practice for all of us, whether things are going roughly or smoothly in our lives. For students living in or near trauma, the practice of psychological flexibility is essential to move students from reacting to responding.
Psychological flexibility is like an engine maneuvering to safe harbor in the midst of an emotional hurricane. It can’t remove the storm, but it does hold a steady course towards a (mental) port and that can make the difference for mental health outcomes.
ACT uses mindfulness as a tool to identify these mental ports.
The idea of getting to know your mind is new to our students and new to our staff, new to people in general within this social-cultural context.
Knowing your mind means you can distance yourself from thoughts, inner dialogue, doubting or disturbing voices. You can begin to see the blue sky within the storm.
You learn to see the difference between you as the thinker and the thoughts streaming by in your head. Experiencing that separation gives students a choice --so they can ask themselves, “How should I respond to this thought, voice, or feeling?”
This simple question is the critical step towards emotional and behavioral regulation.
Our staff teaches and engages students about mindfulness by:
Teaching them to notice what's around them
Teaching them to notice what's inside of them
We reinforce these lessons throughout the day, using formal and informal methods.
Nothing is required, but I suggest techniques such as noticing their breath, or attending to their 5-senses.
For me, it is calming. Students have a hard time, especially at first, but if they stick with it, they start to feel calm too.
This gives us a starting point that we expand on during individual instruction.
ACT and mindfulness are just a couple models that underlie our work at Atlantic Academy.
We are committed to exploring new methods and learning new techniques. When they work for us, we keep them, otherwise we move on.
New staff often bring new ideas and ways of doing things that improve our schools and we continually invite our staff to move us forward, to help innovate, to generate solutions.
If you, or someone you know, wants to work at a school that is mission-driven to change lives through teaching life-changing skills, we want to speak to you.
You deserve a job where you can truly make a difference.
Find out more about us HERE.