It’s our hope that everyone has a happy childhood. Unfortunately, bad things sometimes happen to teenagers. Eating disorders, self-harm, drug and alcohol addiction, bullying and other traumatic experiences are more common that you might think. In fact, trauma is experienced by approximately 20% of people each year.
So what can you do to fix things if you or someone you care about experiences trauma in the teen years? That’s what this episode of The Unstoppable Teen Podcast is all about.
Thankfully, there are solutions to teenage trauma. To help us with this tricky subject, we’ve got trauma expert, Lisa Cherry, on the show. In case you haven’t already heard of Lisa Cherry, let me introduce her briefly: she’s a talented and insightful speaker, trainer, and author specializing in helping young people, parents, and teachers deal with trauma.
Her own life story is incredibly touching, so much so that you can hear the emotion in my voice as she relates it in our conversation. Instead of trying to summarize it for you, I’ll let you listen to Lisa’s own powerful and moving words. Suffice it to say that she experienced unbelievable issues of her own when she was a teenager, which is why she’s dedicated her career to helping young people.
Click on the player above to listen now!
You will learn:
- Some of the basics about trauma, resilience, and recovery. (2:34)
- How trauma can overload our fight, flight, or freeze mechanism and lead to problems. (4:31)
- The meaning of the word “trauma,” and some examples of what could be examples of traumatic experiences for teenagers. (5:38)
- Signs you should look out for in others to figure out whether they are going through a traumatic situation. (8:13)
- Two factors that are making life hard for young people these days. (10:08)
- How these factors can lead to difficulties with emotions and relationships. (12:31)
- How and why Lisa got into this area of work in the first place. She shares her personal story, exposing the traumas of her youth. (13:15)
- What realizations Lisa had that helped her turn her life around. (18:31)
- The duties that adults have toward young people, and some of the challenges that teenagers face in school. (20:50)
- What Lisa means by self-regulating, and how you can do it. (26:20)
- Why resilience is important and how you can become more resilient. (28:40)
- What Lisa believes it takes to be unstoppable. (35:29)
Get in touch with Lisa
https://twitter.com/_LisaCherry
Check out Lisa’s books!
Extra help for teachers
As Lisa mentioned in our conversation, she’s created a video series just for teachers. This online training is designed to help teachers deal with trauma in the classroom. If you’re interested, you can check it out here: Dealing with Trauma in the Classroom.
Please help us help more teenagers
Please share this with anyone you know who might be struggling at the moment or recovering from a traumatic experience.
Do let us know what problems you’re currently facing and what questions you’d like answering in future episodes. We are here to help you, so contact us anytime via our social media channels or email podcast@unstoppableen.com.
As always, please share your advice and thoughts on this episode in the comments section below.
Thanks for listening!
