Talking to teenagers

When A.S.M.R first became popular on the internet, the press choice to sexualise it with descriptions such as brain-gasm within sexual language. This resulted in parents thinking it was maybe risky and weird. Lots of teenage clients I have seen over time report using it as a relaxation resource during times of increased stress and anxiety such as exams or returning to school after prolonged periods away such as holidays or illness. It doesn’t work for everyone, but if it does work for you it seems to be a game-changer in regards to sleep. I don’t fully understand when watching it how it can induce sensory relaxation and if I’m honest I find the whispering very irritating, but it works for my daughter and below are a few paragraphs written by her explaining what it is and the benefits she has felt when using this valuable resource. “ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) videos are something I watch every night before I go to sleep or when I’m anxious and dysr...

I wanted to write this short piece for people to gain a greater understanding of what the challenges may be for some people who have experienced developmental trauma or a traumatic episode. Why would this be so? One of the aims of therapy for the traumatised client is to try and live within a window of tolerance re emotions and sensations. This is a difficult thing for the client to master as they are frequently triggered by implicit and explicit memories that hijack the central nervous system. Early on in therapy clients either live in a state of hyperarousal or hypo-arousal. Early and middle stage work is helping the client to dampen down this highly dysregulated state. Clients often feel a huge level of responsibility for things that are usually far out of their control, as well as the people-pleasing they output for personal aspects that are within their control. They live with a high level of hypervigilance and a continuous dread of terrible...