It's been four years since Katrina battered the Gulf Coast and created the situation for New Orleans to be deluged. There has been progress but much remains to be done. In New Orleans life seems to be coming back (at least in the French Quarter, Garden District and Uptown areas). Wander off the beaten path and it is clear that there is much re-construction still needed.
Please keep the folks of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in your thoughts and prayers this week. One coping skill I teach is to develop a 'Gratitude List'. Even those of us who are dealing with a long list of problems always have blessings in our life. When we contemplate the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast and what they went through, what they lost and what they will never get back it can help put our struggles in perspective. This is not to say that our struggles are trivial or less meaningful, it is simply to gain perspective on our suffering.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Street Yoga
I heard this on the radio (NPR) today. Yoga and Mindfulness is not just for the professional class. Go listen for yourself. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112293295
August 30, 2009
Street Yoga sounds like a do-gooder's nirvana — it's an organization that teaches yoga to youths and families facing homelessness and other struggles. Based in Portland, Ore., Street Yoga runs two-day training programs across the United States, including a recent one in Washington, D.C.
The 40 or so trainees — all of them lithe, lovely yoga people — included social workers, a psychologist, medical students and some mental health care workers. They were asked to role-play rowdy homeless teenagers in a yoga class.
Everyone was assigned parts. Some were hyperactive, jumping up and down, while others pretended to sleep on their mats. They chatted loudly on their cell phones and chased each other around the room in a scene of sheer pandemonium.
Enlarge Courtesy of Campbell Salgado Studio
Kelli Kessler May is one of the Street Yoga instructors.
Courtesy of Campbell Salgado Studio
Kelli Kessler May is one of the Street Yoga instructors.
"That was the most intense yoga I've ever, ever led," confessed Dani Berav, who volunteered to teach the class. She had spent the previous evening planning a class she hoped would communicate yoga's deep life lessons. None of it worked.
But Street Yoga founder Mark Lilly has taught classes like that in real life. He thinks yoga should not be reserved for yuppies. His students include children so severely abused that they have brain damage from being hit.
"There'd be kids shaking, literally shaking, with big bruises," he says. "They would run across the room and try to punch the staff person. They would spit on another kid or provoke a fight, or they would curl up in a ball and start crying."
Lilly admits that it will take more than a few downward dogs to change these lives. But he says yoga gives some measure of order, strength and balance to people living in indescribably dysfunctional worlds. And — it doesn't require any costly equipment.
Street Yoga bases the training on just seven yogic poses, including the challenging "crow pose." Lilly says most kids can master it in a couple of weeks, which gives them a rare feeling of success.
Social worker Katie Arrants is Lilly's co-teacher. She says it's vital to set firm, compassionate ground rules when leading yoga classes for disadvantaged youth.
"Whether it's a comment about someone's ass in the air — I can't let that fly," she told the trainees. "That's not safe in my class."
Arrants has to be flexible in many ways: She must follow the rules of the programs where she teaches yoga. Some have a no-touch policy. Others disallow kids' drowsing on the yoga mat.
Erin O'Reilly works at a program for sexually abused kids that has partnered with Street Yoga for about five years.
"Many of our kids disassociate to the point of reporting not having any feeling in their bodies," she says. But yoga gives them a chance to connect with and trust with their own bodies.
"They feel powerful," she says. "They feel strong."
Now, Street Yoga is developing programs with social workers that teach mindfulness in moments of crisis. Lilly offers one example: that moment when a parent is right on the edge of abusing his or her kids. Through Street Yoga, parents can learn tools to center, calm and control themselves.
"We're really trying to break in at those critical half-seconds," Lilly says, "to see if we can stay people's hands and keep lives from completely unraveling."
Street Yoga sounds like a do-gooder's nirvana — it's an organization that teaches yoga to youths and families facing homelessness and other struggles. Based in Portland, Ore., Street Yoga runs two-day training programs across the United States, including a recent one in Washington, D.C.
The 40 or so trainees — all of them lithe, lovely yoga people — included social workers, a psychologist, medical students and some mental health care workers. They were asked to role-play rowdy homeless teenagers in a yoga class.
Everyone was assigned parts. Some were hyperactive, jumping up and down, while others pretended to sleep on their mats. They chatted loudly on their cell phones and chased each other around the room in a scene of sheer pandemonium.
Enlarge Courtesy of Campbell Salgado Studio
Kelli Kessler May is one of the Street Yoga instructors.
Courtesy of Campbell Salgado Studio
Kelli Kessler May is one of the Street Yoga instructors.
"That was the most intense yoga I've ever, ever led," confessed Dani Berav, who volunteered to teach the class. She had spent the previous evening planning a class she hoped would communicate yoga's deep life lessons. None of it worked.
But Street Yoga founder Mark Lilly has taught classes like that in real life. He thinks yoga should not be reserved for yuppies. His students include children so severely abused that they have brain damage from being hit.
"There'd be kids shaking, literally shaking, with big bruises," he says. "They would run across the room and try to punch the staff person. They would spit on another kid or provoke a fight, or they would curl up in a ball and start crying."
Lilly admits that it will take more than a few downward dogs to change these lives. But he says yoga gives some measure of order, strength and balance to people living in indescribably dysfunctional worlds. And — it doesn't require any costly equipment.
Street Yoga bases the training on just seven yogic poses, including the challenging "crow pose." Lilly says most kids can master it in a couple of weeks, which gives them a rare feeling of success.
Social worker Katie Arrants is Lilly's co-teacher. She says it's vital to set firm, compassionate ground rules when leading yoga classes for disadvantaged youth.
"Whether it's a comment about someone's ass in the air — I can't let that fly," she told the trainees. "That's not safe in my class."
Arrants has to be flexible in many ways: She must follow the rules of the programs where she teaches yoga. Some have a no-touch policy. Others disallow kids' drowsing on the yoga mat.
Erin O'Reilly works at a program for sexually abused kids that has partnered with Street Yoga for about five years.
"Many of our kids disassociate to the point of reporting not having any feeling in their bodies," she says. But yoga gives them a chance to connect with and trust with their own bodies.
"They feel powerful," she says. "They feel strong."
Now, Street Yoga is developing programs with social workers that teach mindfulness in moments of crisis. Lilly offers one example: that moment when a parent is right on the edge of abusing his or her kids. Through Street Yoga, parents can learn tools to center, calm and control themselves.
"We're really trying to break in at those critical half-seconds," Lilly says, "to see if we can stay people's hands and keep lives from completely unraveling."
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Time to get up.
Back to school. If you are like me there is a combination of relief and apprehension. Kids go back on a schedule and their days are presumably filled with learning, development and friend making. But we've had a great summer in the Brinson household so I am a little sorry to see it all end. Back to getting up early, making breakfast and lunches, getting the little one to the bus, carpooling the big one, making sure homework gets done, staying in touch with school, going to PTO meetings, enforcing bedtime, reading along with my first grader and paying attention. That 'paying attention' is the real hard part. It's easy to go on auto pilot once we adjust to our new schedule. But paying attention is more than half the battle. Paying attention to my children's moods, worries and performance at school. Taking advantage of whatever communication the school offers. Last year, for some reason, I dreaded looking at my son's schools website communication which had his weekly assignments and grades. It's a great tool really. This year I am committed to avoiding avoidance and facing my fears....which are usually unfounded. Usually.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Signs and Symptoms of Teen Depression
Summer is coming to a close. Seems like there is less and less summer with the passing of each year. For emotionally vulnerable teens summer break can cut both ways. On the one hand there is less pressure, academic and social, and these adolescents seem to need less mental health care in the summer months (teen therapists are less busy and teen hospital units are not at capacity). On the other hand, especially for kids in unstable homes or suffering from critical socio-economic factors, the school year does provide structure, supervision and nutrition that is not necessarily available at home.
With the new school year practically here I thought it would be handy to review some of the Signs and Symptoms of Depression in Adolescents.
Here are some things to look for:
- Increased sadness and loneliness
- Easily irritated or angered
- Frequent mood swings
- Increased tearfulness and crying
- Withdrawal from friends and family
- Loss of interest in activities
- Changes in eating and sleeping habits
- Loss of weight
- Restlessness and agitation
- Feelings of worthlessness and guilt
- Lack of motivation or enthusiasm
- Lack of Energy
- Difficulty paying attention or concentrating
- Self harming behaviors (cutting, burning etc.)
- Thoughts of death and suicide
All teens (all people for that matter) experience all of these from time to time. The trick is to look for signs and symptoms that appear persistent. We all have mood changes that are fleeting but when a dark mood combined with one or more of the symptoms above persists for more than a few weeks it is time to seek help.
Pay attention. Adolescent don't always communicate directly about how they are feeling. Often it's in their actions that they are speaking to you.
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