Child Mental Health Establishing a New Baseline for Behavioral Change

Additional Behavioral Health and Other Applications

• Autism Stress is a natural part of life, but well-adjusted individuals are able to break stress patterns, which can lead to anxiety, worry, anger or depression. Many children on the spectrum do not have the skills to break these patterns. In dozens of interventions in schools, youth agencies, clinics and homes, HeartMath applications have helped autistic children reduce anxiety and emotional outbursts and agitation related to physical and social discomfort. The emWave technology in particular has been especially helpful because of the routines it establishes and its ease of use.
• Anxiety In our fast-moving, complex world, as many as 8% of children ages 13-18 experience anxiety disorders in response to a range of pressures such as academic performance, social belonging, troubled family relations and economic uncertainty. HeartMath practices combined with other therapeutic strategies have been effective in helping children reduce anxiety levels.
• Addictions An increasing number of professionals are using HeartMath self-regulation techniques and technologies in conjunction with addiction treatments for adolescents with substance-abuse issues. Because physiological stress plays an enormous role in addictive behavior and drug relapses, heart rate variability technology has shown promise as a viable method of helping to reduce stress levels among youth ages 13-18.
• Bullying At a number of schools around the United States, students identified with bullying type behavior have received interventions that utilize HeartMath tools. These students met several times a week in small groups or one-on-one sessions and learned how to recognize their emotional states and choose less violent responses to situations that normally provoked anger and bullying behavior.
• Depression Children often can feel overwhelming pressure to succeed in school, social groups or at home, and this can lead to noticeable changes in their feelings. They may show signs of being worried, hopeless, lonely, rejected, guilty or angry. Poor self-esteem, withdrawal and body aches are common signs. HeartMath collaborates with many youth agencies, clinics and educational organizations to help children improve their mental health through self-regulation techniques and technologies.
• Severely Emotionally Disturbed (SED) Anger can be a normal reaction in a young person who seems to have lost control of his or her life. When anger management is ineffective a child experiencing chronic stress can be driven into a downward spiral. Counselors, educators, clinicians and other professionals are utilizing HeartMath strategies and technologies to teach children the early warning signs of anger and how to better self-regulate their behavior.
• Autism This designation requires the presence of a diagnosable mental, behavioral or emotional disorder to meet diagnostic criteria specified in the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed.). A child diagnosed as SED means there is some form of a block that substantially interferes with or limits his or her role or functioning in family, school or community activities. These children can have a complex range of disabilities, from conduct disorder to schizophrenia. HeartMath self-regulation tool and technologies have been utilized in hundreds of classrooms, specialized schools or psychiatric units.
• PTSD/Trauma Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can develop following a traumatic event that threatens a child’s safety or makes him feel helpless. Disasters, abuse or family neglect can lead to forms of shock, fear and emotional paralysis. HeartMath works actively with many psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health experts to help troubled children cope with the PTSD symptoms.