In this short video, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, CEO and founder for the Center for Youth Wellness in San Francisco, says that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress are the next massive public threat. This is because traumatic childhood events like abuse and neglect can create dangerous levels of stress and derail healthy brain development, resulting in long-term effects on learning, behavior, and health. What can clinicians do and what can we do to address this problem?
There are many ways we can help, but the simplest is for us to work on reducing our own stress and the stress of the children in your life. Unfortunately, the situations that bring forth the most stress are sometimes the situations where reducing our stress are the most difficult. So what can we do in these situations?
The ICWIB! Program was created for these kinds of situations. Using the simple tools of crayons and a piece of 8½” x 11” paper, children as young as 18 months old have learned how to shift from their reactive mind to their conscious, problem-solving mind autonomously. Once they have learned the process with crayons and paper they can easily duplicate the experience with their finger on their arm or leg.