06/23/2023
Worried about our kids' future? Me, too!
This year at the ACEP annual conference I made this speech, a call-to-action for all of us that want to be part of the solution, for our children AND our collective future.
I welcome your efforts, comments and collaborations!
Here is the speech transcript:
The Kids are NOT Okay. It’s Crucial We All Act - Now.
An Op-Ed and call-to-action by Jondi Whitis, MTOT
I wrestled with this speech, tiny as it is, for the possibility it might create real and powerful changes, for the world’s children and youth.
Much of what I am about to say you might already know, so my job is to remind and motivate you to action, rather than simply inform.
Here are a few points, towards that desired end result:
The Stats – there is an avalanche – we all see them – and yet it hasn’t yet seemed to make much difference. It feels like… just drops in buckets. It all helps, but there is so much critical need, right here, right now.
The Opportunities – abound. From simple connection and support to the development of complex programs, curriculums, political legislation, and health and well-care and educational reform –
in short, in every venue and area that impacts our children and youth.
While these opportunities have been here all along, the unrelenting waves of issues and needs demand a renewed sense of urgency…and Action.
The Outcome…Well, that depends. It’s up to you, and me, and… all of us…to take proactive action, right here, right now.
I have just 3 main points:
I. It is past time to address the many crises we are well aware of that our youth and children now face, across the globe. Today’s youth face more simultaneous threats in every area of their lives, than at any other point in OUR lifetimes. These are toxic times for them. I believe it’s approaching what could be called a VIRAL LOAD.
II. We already have the well-documented knowledge, experience, skills, means and professional visibility in each of our communities to genuinely help children and youth recover, reconnect and to thrive….We’ve known much of this information for 3 decades or more, and have been building a significant amount of impactful research for over 2 of those decades.
III. ALL of us can easily decide to take some form of action, right here, right now.
So What Holds Us Back from Taking Action?
It’s not a lack of information or data - there is ample evidence.
True, simply sorting through - much less making sense of - the avalanche of data before us – is a challenge.
We are almost drowning in relentless, repetitive proof that:
a. A great percentage of our children and youth are failing, suffering and far too many are literally dying, right here right now:
i. From daily disasters and traumas - natural, man-made, societal & economic
ii. From disconnection, separation or displacement - physical, familial, social or relational, educational, cultural, geographical, economic and even religious
iii. From abuse & neglect - physical, verbal, sexual, and emotional
iv. From a daily explosion of violence, wounding and death by firearm – 380 school shootings since Columbine; the most recent was 37 days ago; 89 gun-related school incidents in 2023…so far.
v. From spiking levels of substance use, abuse and overdose death
vi. From human trafficking, predation and unbelievably, a return to child labor enslavement in this very country
vii. From continuous exposure to bullying, harassment, hate crimes, assault, and racial targeting, and religious persecution, both in-person and online
viii. From food and economic insecurity, homelessness or housing instability
ix. From lack of access to healthcare – physical, mental and emotional.
x. From a dire shortage of qualified health professionals to serve them, especially in the mental and emotional health areas
xi. And from rocketing levels of suicidal ideation, attempts and death by su***de, and at younger and younger ages than ever before. Youth su***de rates doubled, and is now one of the leading causes of their death. (The numbers are even worse for those indigenous/Native Americans, LGBT+ and youth of color.)
So, it’s NOT about information. We’re drowning in it.
However, it is true we’ve been sidelined often over the years by mainstream denial, hostility, ridicule and suppression by many that continue to uphold traditional, allopathic standards of care in the medical model and cognitive-only focused modalities.
And it’s true that dismissing EP as anecdotal, experimental or even as outright quackery has discouraged and cowed many of us from bringing the hope and help of EP to a world in need.
However, the cascade of emerging EP studies, trials and research continues to make the phrase, ‘evidence-based’ – which has been used as a cudgel against us - steadily more difficult to employ.
EP and its most popular protocols of EFT, TTT, TFT and their somatic adaptations for Emotional First-Aid use, continue to show safe, effective, rapid and long-lasting results across the board.
Thirty years of EP use, both anecdotal and clinical, consistently show that it outperforms traditional paradigms of cognitive-only modalities alone for a wide range of issues, from stress-reduction to self-regulation and performance prep.
EP is approaching the ‘Tipping Point’ by virtue of the continuing collection, study, research, analysis and publishing efforts of many of our membership. We owe them gratitude for their steadfast efforts. (THANK YOU, Gary Craig, David Feinstein, Dawson Church, Peta Stapleton for your many efforts over these last 3 decades)
This is further enhanced by a groundswell of public conversation and social media touting the safe and effective use of Energy Psychology in the lives of athletes, celebrities, influencers and newsmakers creates curiosity, desire and demand.
All of this bring to mind the famous Schopenhauer quote:
“All Truth passes through 3 stages: First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”
So we have plenty of information, we have plenty of significant research, and we are approaching the Tipping Point of public awareness.
So what can we DO, next? Where do we start?
This talk suggests schools and organizations that already serve children would be a likely place to start.
Why? Because, as the pandemic recedes, the majority of our nation’s kids again spend much of their lives in some kind of school, performance, care, athletic or educational setting.
But I’m sure you’ve also noticed that our schools and institutional systems have their own issues, pressures and limitations, including that its system design, function and curricula were largely created for a changing society in the midst of an industrial revolution. Things haven’t changed much to meet the times we actually live in. (This is somewhat analogous to science mindsets from the Newtonian era still robustly operating 300 years later, despite the 20th century dawning of the infinitely more comprehensive Quantum era.)
Let’s get back to the specific focus of Schools and Educational systems for supplying game- changing support and information to our future generations.
Although it’s true that we’ve traditionally thought of schools as crucial for keeping kids safe and connecting them with support services, the pandemic completely disrupted many kinds of supports, along with a steadily rising level of violence, bullying - both online and in-person – have contributed to an astonishing rise in anxiety, mental and emotional health issues. Less than half of US schools have services to deal with this, even as we soberly discover that there is a concurrent shortage of mental health professionals, country-wide. And I will remind us that these issues and disruptions do not affect children and youth equally – it continues to be much harder upon indigenous children LGBTQ+ youth, and children of color. Our most vulnerable have typically carried the burden of last-served.
And as if we needed even more challenges, I will also remind us that much learning-loss has taken place (at least ½ to a full year). I will not being going out on a limb to point out that those losses are greater than academic learning - it’s also the fall-out from losses in connections, social growth and development, social, athletic and arts activities and opportunities, too. And another crucial piece of loss is that over 200,000 kids also lost a parent or significant other in the pandemic.
Schools are expected now to handle and educate children with unprecedented levels of all kinds of loss. How?!?!, you may ask, and rightly so: In addition to the subjects we’ve already put on the table, including a severe lack of mental and emotional professionals to serve these children, the current politicization and legislation are making urgent supports, services and care… and even teachers… in a new kind of supply-chain shortage whose importance cannot be over-estimated.
So we could say that schools seem a far from the perfect place, and yet they ARE a place of great need. Let us agree upon this: crisis creates opportunity. Schools and educational systems NEED us – all of us – along with what we each have to offer both these institutions, their staff, and the children and youth they are supposed to serve.
So….It’s a start.
In the listing for this talk, I spoke of 3 ways to introduce EP into schools; instead, let’s talk about 12…opportunities! (And of course there are many more, but for brevity, let’s start here: )
1. Common Stress Relief, and beyond…which can include prolonged stressors, as in environmental issues, such as …
over-crowding, under-funding, large numbers of staff vacancies and absences, steady fluctuations of transitory student attendance, etc.
2. Preparatory use
before class, activities, transitions, tests, sports or performance…to de-stress, re-balance & re-focus
3. Intervention
for Overwhelm, Dysregulation, Over-activation & behavioral issues, defusing rising conflict
4. After incident, conflict, upset or crisis to mediate, re-regulate, restore and recover
5. Program augmentation or initiation; such as SEL, social-emotional learning. EP is a prime addition for areas like SEL - imagine if we could encourage teaching even pre-school children how to cope with strong feelings, such as overwhelm, learn to simply respond to emotional-regulation and emotional first-aid, adapted for age-appropriate training! Doubtless this would also help identify many of these young children’s needs, long before reaching a crises and assessment stage.
6. Integrated Use by Mental/Emotional Health professionals, onsite or within the school’s designated services system, such as counselling, crisis intervention, remediation, groups supports, and tutoring services.
7. In Staff professional development, training that would augment current offerings, for dealing with any number of areas of concern, such as better management of impactful incidents, conflicts, testing prep & reporting stressors, lack or loss of funding, parent or local political pressures and immigrant/refugee or population transience supports
8. Peer-to-Peer supports, such as advocates & services for school staff themselves, that have long been expected to teach and manage much more than educational or curriculum tasks.
9. Collaborative enterprises, such as task/assignment teams on projects or vision/mission/growth initiatives, fund-raising or athletic team performance, interactive performance groups such as bands, orchestra, or competitions, and perhaps activism in keeping with the institution’s stance/values and children’s interests in connecting with the world and their personal power to effect positive change.
10. Student peer support team or leadership training & development for institution-wide peer advocacy and social/relational growth
11. Parent-teacher relationship dynamics, possibly as a part of PTA/PTO informational introductions or workshop offerings for site-specific goals
12. Volunteerism, focused upon learning-loss, social skills, or work/mentorship programs, depending upon unique school needs.
Besides schools, we should always keep in mind other institutions that deal with educational, recreational or caregiving for children and youth. For instance, pediatricians & children’s hospitals, community institutions such as libraries, YMCAs or AJCs, youth groups, such as athletic or special interest camps, tutors and coaches. Further afield and even more urgently, to foster family groups, family shelters and immigration programs, parenting or caregiver support groups, family counseling services and special needs service providers that interface with school-aged children, whether religious or secular.
Hopefully you are noticing that I am making a case for introducing and surrounding the child with as many opportunities as possible to present, promote and normalize the use of EP in daily life. I’m not alone in saying that better tools create better choices, and better choices create better life experiences and outcomes. We can offer this vital information to all professionals, para-professionals, staff, parents and caregivers who work with young people and children.
DID YOU HEAR AT LEAST 1 or 2 areas of interest and natural places to share your knowledge and gifts?
GOOD!
We CAN a make a literal sea-change for our children and youth in development and crisis, individually and collectively. Before our youth and children experience or harbor even more trauma or residual effects from disasters, natural or man-made, and from the myriad situational threats before them.
We CAN make a huge difference in our children’s future -
which is the world’s future - by collectively and individually offering EP, the efficient, flexible, cost-effective and integrative toolbox for these troubling times.
We CAN serve the institutions and facilities… that serve our children and youth with our seasoned expertise and wealth of knowledge; here it is again, in a nutshell:
• Rapid, effective tools and techniques at low or no cost, that are easy to learn, use, teach and offer sustained results.
• A set of principles and paradigms that are adaptable self-care, peer care, therapeutic client and group use, appropriate across a spectrum of ages and abilities.
• And let’s not forget that it plays well with others! It’s Integrable with almost any other existing program or platform.
• It offers immediacy for rapid-regulation, crisis intervention, harm mitigation and trauma encoding prevention, all of which are urgently needed in these upsetting and dangerous times.
So here we are, standing at the crossroads of opportunity and crises.
IT IS PAST TIME to address the needs, and in a much larger, louder, more active and visible way.
Each of us here today has the ability to speak out:
a. We are well-placed within our various communities, networks and platforms, world-wide, to address any part of these crises and needs within our area of influence and reputation
b. With well-studied, documented research, resources, help and support
c. To swiftly and easily address pain, stress, emotional dysregulation and overwhelm & boost performance
d. That everyone can easily learn, use and teach.
You don’t have to do it alone. For you are not alone. The ACEP Humanitarian Committee has professionals, resources and mentoring available to you.
It’s been an honor and a privilege to serve alongside the caring professionals them – and you can, too! Professionals with vast experience and hearts for service, like Rachel Michaelson, Amy Frost, Kristin Miller, Gunilla Hamne, Ulf Sandstrom.…and those with steadfast hearts for vision, support and service like Ryah Ki, along with a host of other heart-centered humanitarian-minded volunteers and mentors.
You are needed. You are welcome.
Bring your unique gifts, talents and enthusiasm for creating a better world for the future - through the children and youth that surround you, all over the planet.
And it’s easier than you might think:
WILL YOU SPEND A MOMENT, RIGHT NOW TO….
• Think of at least one person in education or schools or youth services that you can speak to about EP
• ASK them about their biggest work challenge or struggle
• Then LISTEN to what they really said about their concerns or needs, vs our own assumptions or fears
• TARGET your offer to their particular need or struggle
• Use your relationships, credentials, area of influence and stature in the community along with the impressive body of first-class research, with confidence and pride
• OFFER & INVITE, them to a direct experience of EP, vs trying to convert or sell
• DEMONSTRATE, rather than try to convince or counter any beliefs or pre-conceived notions
• BE A WALKING EXAMPLE of a regulated person in a dysregulated world
It’s Going to Take a Village. And we are collectively that Village.
• Everyone can provide a permanent, evergreen reference and link to the HC resource pages, on their website, platform, office or community
• MOST OF US can speak up, whether in our own local community or networks, newsletters, podcasts, local media, or protocol association, like this one.
• ALL OF US can support the work with our enthusiasm, voices, and yes, dollars, to continue evolving on-demand supports and resources to both the membership and global public, such as the on-demand somatic EF-A videos, brochures and mentors they offer
• SOME OF US, like me, are trainers and trainers of trainers, who can frequently and perennially offer teaching, training, mentorship to a wide range of groups, institutions and targeted focal areas.
• EVERYONE of us can reach out the Humanitarian Committee for connection, information, resources, ideas, mentoring and resources to support you and your vision for making the future better for our children and planet.
• ALL OF US can use, promote and distribute the resources the ACEP Humanitarian Committee has created for you. If you don’t already know of our resources, please write this down right now, R4R.energypsych.org Reach out, right here at the conference and meet someone from our Humanitarian Committee team. CONNECT. LEARN. THEN ACT.
Take advantage of this moment in history….an emerging Tipping Point…to become part of the solution. Right here, right now.
Our Children’s Future is in OUR Hands.
Will you say YES? Will you join us? Will you reach out? Right Here, Right Now.
WILL YOU SAY YES?
