Six Reasons Why an HSC Wellbeing Coaching Session Today Will Help Your Child To Thrive During Exams Focussed, Productive AND Stress Free.

October 1, 2018

By Catherine Nyika, M.Ed, Accredited Social Worker, Counsellor, Coach and Certified EFT Practitioner

I’m cringing as I think back to the days when my friends and I used to take caffeine pills we’d got hold of from the petrol station in order to stay awake all night and ‘cram’ in any last minute study before exams. Goodness only knows what those pills use to do to my strung out adolescent body and mind. I wonder now if all the stress and pressure was even worth it? I know I could have done better if I’d pushed myself harder and yet I remember vividly, my mental wellbeing took a battering over that time.

Now, more than ever before, our young people struggle with increased levels of stress and pressure. With HSC looming around the corner, this stress and pressure can easily build up and become too overwhelming for many adolescents. This is the time of year we need to keep a close eye on our children sitting senior exams. Whilst we want them to do well and achieve to their highest potential –we also know that mental health statistics for our youth in this country are not looking positive and the reality is that extra pressure can lead to young people feeling on edge. According to the 2017 Mission Australia Mental Health Youth Survey, the top issues of concern facing our teens are 1) coping with stress, 2) school or study problems and 3) body image.

The constant pressure on our teenagers to deliver top HSC exam results in this country is neglecting their harder-to-measure qualities and character such as self-reliance, emotional balance and determination. We often read in parenting education forums about how we need to teach our kids to have ‘grit’ and become more resilient. But does ‘grit’ go hand-in-hand with unhealthy behaviours such as staying up all night or staying hidden in the bedroom eating poor quality food for weeks on end in the quest for achievement?

This leads me to the following questions; how is HSC preparation readiness impacting on you and your child in the lead up to exams and what are YOU doing to ensure your child’s emotional and mental wellbeing stays intact over the next month? Do you find yourself feeling on edge and constantly nagging at you’re child to stay focussed only to find them retreating further and further from you? Do you wonder how much work they are actually getting done but mindfully set out to not stress them out more than they already are? Do your own personal needs for success and achievement get in the road of hearing your child’s academic goals? How confident are you that your child is coping OK emotionally and mentally right now?

Recent Australian research conducted by Bond University Clinical Psychologist Dr. Peta Stapleton has shown that EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) significantly reduces fear of failure in adolescent students and also improves their self-perceived difficulties. Many other studies in the USA have examined the effects of EFT on test-taking anxiety and depression in students (Church, De Asis, Brooks, 2012).

EFT is an easy to master and use stress management tool, that achieves immediate results and young people really enjoy it, as it’s a self-empowering tool that ultimately allows them to feel better about themselves. The Inner Shine Clinic works with teenagers as well as adults to realise their goals, and to highlight and eliminate the barriers that get in the way of their desired performance results. We use EFT (emotional freedom techniques) which a combination of ancient acupressure and modern psychology, also known as ‘Tapping’.

Game Changing Outcomes for HSC Students:

When your child comes for an individual coaching session for HSC wellbeing and success session at The Inner Shine Clinic, it will:

• Help your child to have better focus and concentration and therefore less stress and anxiety
• Eliminate anxiety/nerves heading into exams therefore increasing performance
• Help your child to feel calm and respond to difficult emotions in a self-empowered way
• Help your child to reach their highest potential academically and personally
• Reduce the fear of not feeling confident or not having the skills to complete a task
• Increase optimism

Outcomes for you as a parent:

• Encourages self-management therefore less nagging from you
• Allows parents to empower their children so no need to motivate them to study
• Creates better mood and temperament in your child
• Creates a ‘team’ approach i.e. “we’re all in this together”
• Helps parents to manage their own expectations

When combined with talk therapy, tapping with HSC students does three important things:

1. It calms the nervous system: EFT Tapping on specific acupressure points give the nervous system the signal to RELAX. When your body is in a state of fight-flight-or freeze it cannot do any therapeutic or calming work because it’s in survival mode. Your child’s body can’t tell the difference between feeling nervous about an English exam and running from a volcanic eruption. When your child experience distress, trauma or fear, their brain’s own personal alarm system (the amygdala) gets triggered and releases the stress hormone, cortisol. When cortisol is too high for too long it can do serious damage to our bodies including adrenal fatigue, high blood pressure and heart disease. When your child’s nervous system is calm, it is in optimal condition for focussing and productive study.

2. It rewires the brain enabling a change in mindset: EFT Tapping assists in rewiring the cognition of the brain to enable a change in mindset. Tapping goes deeper into making changes in your child’s life than traditional talking therapy. It is simple, gentle and incredibly effective. When your child taps with their coach they will tame some of the constant negative chatter that’s been stressing them out. Once your child’s mind is relaxed they will be supported to identify some of the destructive scripts and limiting believes that have been playing out in their life. Once they have tapped out the negative feelings in the body, they can then tap in the feelings they want to move towards, therefore changing their mindset for growth and optimal health and wellbeing.

3. It restores the body’s energy: Tapping can restore the body’s energy. Your child’s body like everything in the universe is made up of energy. When your child restores energy back into their body they will relieve the negative feelings, emotions and physical ailments that originate from the energy disruption. Even problems such as phobias, post-traumatic stress alongside other imbalances in their energy system will be gently relieved during their session.

During the 60-minute session we will:

• Tap on setting positive intentions for achieving specific academic goals
• We will look at the specific barriers to achieving the goals
• We will teach your child the technique to reduce stress instantly and with long lasting results – this technique can be easily applied before and during the exam so enable them to stay focussed and relaxed.

Studies at Harvard Medical School have revealed that by using EFT Tapping, the distress that gives rise to the problems your child faces heading into HSC can be drastically reduced. If you would like your child to learn this powerful technique before exams start you will be investing in both their academic and mental health wellbeing. The tools learned in their individual coaching session will ultimately place the power back into their own hands. They will identify their limiting beliefs around achievement and success and these simple yet profound tools will assist them to become balanced, healthy, emotionally intelligent and confident adults. 

It makes sense that you would like your child to do well at HSC and get the ATAR they deserve. It is also important that we keep our own stress and anxiety in check as ultimately it won’t support our kids to shine. If you would like your child to thrive rather than merely survive during their up and coming HSC exams, please click on the link to book in for this amazing investment in your child’s mental and academic wellbeing. For this month only to celebrate Mental Health Awareness Month (which we are super passionate about), we are reducing the cost of our 1:1 consultations by 40% when you book and pay online for our Facebook Mental Health Awareness Month Promo. Limited sessions available so please book now: https://www.theinnershineclinic.com.au/bookings/

« Back to articles