We have a wonderful bunch of experts we turn to for advice on the topics we discuss on our Wellness app and website.
Let’s meet Lynn Jenkins, who is a clinical psychologist. She specialises in working with children (aged 3-12 years). She is also a trained hypnotherapist as well as a trained kids and family yoga instructor and mindfulness teacher. Typically, Lynn treats anxiety, depression and grief.
Lynn loves working with children and parents
“I have always been interested in people and their stories, and also how we operate as humans,” she says. “Early intervention makes huge sense to me so I LOVE working with children and parents.
“Often, just a bit of information can completely change the trajectory of how a child is developing – that’s just brilliant!
“I also love hypnotherapy, as it is a therapy that works in the subconscious which is like our engine under the hood that drives us through life. I also like writing kids books about some core common concepts that I work with.
“I enjoy making them child friendly and love that through the medium of reading, they could understand something that could be helpful to their development as a little human.”
Lynn says there are so many misconceptions about behaviour
Some of the biggest challenges Lynn faces, is dealing with people who need emotion regulation due to anxiety or what appears to be anger, but often this too turns out to be anxiety or sadness.
“There are so many misconceptions about behaviour and it is often these interpretations that cause some difficulties for kids and families,” she says.
Tips to help you boost your positive thinking
“Practice ‘pausing’! I did this the other day and was reminded how nice it feels. But it also reminded me that we have to realise that pausing amidst a busy ‘something’ is possible.
“Stopping and simply noticing the breeze, or how the leaves are moving on a tree. I know it sounds a bit simple, but the power in it is that, doing this gives the nervous system a little rest – it genuinely and immediately puts us in our calm zone – and THAT is the part that feels nice.
“Realising that we can do this anytime we want is actually pretty empowering, and works like filling our bucket a bit.
“Positive thinking has to be a choice – as humans we are wired for the negatives to stick to our brain like velcro and the positives to slide off like a slippery dip.
Why it’s important to smile
Also, Lynn says a little thing we can choose to do is on purpose put a smile on our face, just a small smile will do. It is amazing how our feelings lighten and more positives seem to enter our mind (as opposed to frowning – the opposite actually happens!).
“The reason for this is when we smile, we use certain facial muscles and when these muscles go into a smile, a message gets sent to our brain and it knows to release some happy hormones,” she says.
“Low self-esteem comes from certain negative self-beliefs that were, most probably formed in childhood and so are totally inaccurate, and yet they have governed us our whole life!
“THIS is why I love hypnotherapy – it can bring these inaccurate beliefs into our awareness so we can stop their power over us. Low self-esteem is a huge and quite complicated area, but generally developing some self-compassion is a good place to start to feel a bit better.
“A question I like to ask is: What do I need to do or say to be kind to myself right now?
“Most problems come with people interacting with people. When communication isn’t flowing well, people run off assumptions and this can be very problematic!”
How to get into a calmer mode
“I always recommend choosing to relax. This is because, we are MEANT to spend most time in calm mode and only spike into a stress response here and there.
“BUT it is the opposite for us these days! We spend most time in stress mode and only dip into calm zone here and there and that’s usually when we CHOOSE to.
“So, I am very happy recommending to choose to relax often! It works toward helping our body and nervous system to feel balanced and therefore healthy!”
Lynn’s favourite quote
Step out of the story!
What are the most common mistakes people have about your area of expertise?
Ha! That we are mind readers!