News Room » Mindfulness Provides an Answer for Youth Stuggling with Trauma

“Did you notice that your hands are tight, your breathing is short, and your eyes are narrow?” asked Chris McKenna, the executive director of the Mind Body Awareness Project, as he walked through a typical mindfulness exercise to help youth manage stress in school and work environments. “When we live in a culture where many people walk around numb or angry, how do you cope with that?”

For Chris and many others, the answer is mindfulness exercises. Mindfulness training teaches people how to use awareness to control their reactions, which are triggered in a state of agitation or crisis.

After a traumatic experience in May 2010, when a Solar Richmond student was shot and killed, Michele McGeoy, Executive Director of Solar Richmond, turned to mindfulness as an answer to student struggles caused by exposure to trauma and violence.

“Many of the community members we serve have lived through or witnessed traumatic events, including shootings, incarceration, and violent death,” Michele said.“Given the level of violence and trauma in the community, even minor things can trigger impulsive actions in the youth and most aren’t even aware that it is happening.”

As a result of this continuous traumatic stress, many youth may have difficulty concentrating, are quick to suspicion and over-reaction, and are vulnerable to post-traumatic reactions to job and interpersonal demands.

“Trauma produces behavior we initially don’t have control over,” explained Chris. “The very act of noticing your actions, changes them. It calms them down and transforms them.”

This fall, Chris and Michele have begun integrating mindfulness exercises in the East Bay Green Jobs Corps (EBGJC), a youth solar and energy efficiency program led by Solar Richmond and Rising Sun Energy Center. Solar Richmond has been able to introduce these trainings with the help of the Common Sense Foundation.

“By using somatic mindfulness techniques, we believe our graduates will be more likely to lead healthier lives and develop meaningful, well-paying careers,” Michele said.