When Bobby first started working with us, he was incredibly distracted in school. He would start fights in class and couldn’t stay in a classroom for too long without getting asked to leave. His timetable had been reduced to one period a week and he was getting into trouble in the community. Bobby said to us “I don’t know what it is but I can’t control it at all”, he really felt like he couldn’t control himself and things were just too much in his life.
Bobby was determined to make things better for himself and we worked to help him understand his feelings were normal. We taught him that there was nothing wrong with him. We taught him about frustration, anger and concentration using models from psychology and neuroscience. Once he started understanding what was going on in his brain, Bobby stopped judging himself so harshly and began looking at the problem objectively.
We helped Bobby become aware of his body and how his mind and body are connected – we looked at what his body did when he was angry or hyper and what it did when he was calm. A while after, Bobby was able to apply his calm body state to himself when he was feeling hyper, so he could calm down quickly.
Bobby realised that his anger was connected to things that happened when he was only 3 years old. We helped Bobby to understand that these things weren’t his fault and together we helped him let go of stuck emotions in his body through movement.
Bobby said “things are still hard sometimes, but they’re a lot better now”. He has developed resilience and coping strategies to get through the hard times, so they no longer spiral out of control. Bobby focuses on things he can control and is now a young person in the driving seat of his life. He said “I’m glad I have you to talk to”.
