Helping to build confidence in young people

Confidence in young people, especially teenagers, is one of the greatest hurdles they will face in their development. Young people have a particular desire as part of their teenage development to be accepted by their peer groups more than their family and teachers.

 

Access to social media has created a problematic situation in which young people can appear extremely confident online however struggle to be the same in face to face interactions and settings that involve bigger groups of people. The mere thought of having to talk in front of others (particularly their peers) is enough to trigger young people into a phobic like responses. Shyness too is something that can become so crippling that it stops a young person from achieving their fullest potential due to perceived outcomes and reactions of others if they were to put themselves out there and been ‘seen’.

The nature of social media has made it problematic for young people to transfer their online personas into face-to-face reality.

 

So how do we help young people to overcome these fears and shyness? As we know it is almost impossible to work in a career that is completely autonomous without any interaction with others (unless you’re a toll booth operator) but they hardly exist these days anyway.

 

Thanks to a scientifically validated healing tool called Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) or ‘tapping’ we now have a hands-on approach for helping young people overcome their extreme shyness and improve their confidence. This healing tool works on the pretense of releasing emotional charges that are held in our bodies when we experience negative feelings or emotions. Think of Chinese Acupuncture combined with psychology. But instead of putting needles in us we tap on certain parts of the body whilst talking about the issues that they are experiencing. It has now been identified in the new science of understanding the link between the mind and the body means it is no longer just enough to talk about the problem, we also gain so much more by also releasing the feelings of that problems that are felt in our body.

 

EFT allows us to give the fear we have words as well as where we feel it in the body. When we talk about the problem it is like bringing it to the surface and this then allows us to also shift the phobic feelings associated with the problem. We use phrases such as “All this fear about speaking in public makes me feel nervous, and I feel it in my stomach and my chest…’ whilst saying these phrases we tap through a series of points allocated on our upper body. This tapping sends kinetic energy through our body thereby releasing the ‘negative charge’ that a problem has in our bodies. EFT has been proven to help people overcome life-long fears and phobias sometimes in as little as minutes.

 

The great thing about EFT is that once you have learned it yourself you can use it on anything (phobias, anxieties, stress, physical pain). As a tool for parents and children tapping can be done together thereby allowing everyone to experience the shifts. The benefits of that for young people is profound and gives them back their confidence and ability to interact with adults and peers in a variety of settings. What no longer needs to be accepted is that there is no hope. Emotional Freedom Technique is giving young people exactly that, emotional freedom.

 

There are innumerable resources online that can be accessed to learn this tool. Obviously with deeper issues such as phobias’ of public speaking, traumas and other mental health issues, people would need to seek the support of a practitioner.

 

What is so affirming for parents is there is now hope and there is now a way to help their children live the fulfilling and confident lives they deserve.

 

 

Article by:

Sonja Courtis is a qualified secondary school teacher and an EFT, Matrix Reimprinting and NLP practitioner. Specialising in treating stress and anxiety disorders. Has 15 years of teaching experience working with “at Risk and Vulnerable youth”  Through her work I have helped improve the confidence of young people by removing their fears and phobias using the techniques mentioned. www.sonjacourtis.com