Therapy Alternatives - Meditation

It was a worrying time in our household recently. After attending therapy for nearly 4 years it had come to an end. We felt like our safety blanket had been taken away. Our young person was excited to have her Friday evenings back but had plenty of questions and new worries. We decided to look into alternative therapies. Together, with lots of advice and suggestions we tried meditation.

Let me tell you from the start I did not believe this would help and thought it was going to be a complete waste of time! I was surprisingly wrong!

The therapist spoke privately with me in advance and explained what to expect. She asked appropriate questions about the young person but never intrusive and respected her past was personal.

The day of meditation arrived and we went to the ladies home. It was warm and cosy, softly lit, smelt of lavender but normal looking. The session lasted approximately 30 minutes. Once finished there was no rush to finish and leave. She encouraged the young person to come around in her own time, have a drink and to let her know when she felt ready to move. We were advised to listen to the recording most days. She explained this would encourage the young person to relax, focus and push bad thoughts into another part of her brain. Going forward encouraging her to have the strength and ability, when faced with trauma, stress or worry to meditate anywhere and deal with these thoughts.

The following day the therapist rang me to see if we were happy. She commentated on the young persons breathing pattern and the way she had clenched her fist but relaxed throughout the session. We have continued the sessions, not as regularly as hoped due to holidays but I have learnt a lot. I imagined we would be sitting silently in a circle chanting to some absurd music – I couldn’t have been further wrong. We were told to concentrate on background noise, to listen to the clock tick but learn to put it ‘away’.

I am not going to say this is for everyone but it has helped my young person and that is a positive. Flashbacks can happen at any time, but I’m hoping that this will embolden her to put those memories aside.