Teaching kids calmness

ANXIETY: EXPERT HELPS BUILD EMOTIONAL TOOLS LONG BEFORE ADULTHOOD

- Hein Kaiser

Dinner party conversations see at least one guest never miss an opportunity to talk about boundaries and emotional regulation at the office or at home. This, as if they are new discoveries after years of stumbling through life and hitting the rat race daily.

Understanding and applying wellness, especially through self-care, is a skill. It’s a pity, says children’s wellness facilitator Alleah Church, that many of us only discover the tools to seek out calm and not calamity, when we're grown ups.

Calmness is a skill that can be taught early, before anxiety hardens us into adulthood, she says.

Church works with children between the ages of three and 13 at her practice in Benoni on the East Rand. Her sessions are not therapy, nor are they discipline by another name.

“We create structured workshops to help children slow down and recognise what they are feeling,” she says.

“The most important thing is that they are a safe space, where kids can be themselves and feel safe enough to relax.”