Main description:

Part of the How to Help series of books exploring issues commonly faced by children
and young people at home and in school, Managing Stress and Distress offers an
accessible introduction to how heightened stress levels in young people can lead to
distressed behaviour - and how to manage both. We have left behind a time when
schools found it easier to exclude 'difficult' children than understand them, but the
evolutionary and psychological factors that often underpin stress responses and their
resulting problematic behaviours remain poorly understood. Offering a complete,
compassionate guide to what stress is, how it arises, the purpose it serves and the
issues it can cause, Stan Godek argues for a trauma-informed approach of managing
short-term distress while also reducing long-term stress levels via a regular practice
of mindfulness - and shows how parents, carers, teachers and schools can help.

Contents:

Series Preface; About the Author;
Author's Preface; How to Use This Book
Part 1: Introduction
1. What is stress? 2. A brief history of stress and distress; 3. A psychological perspective; 4. Neuroscience; Ten key things to know about stress and distress
Part 2: Stress and the brain
5. Key components of the brain; 6. The HPA and stress chemicals; 7. The negative impact of stress 8. Elizabeth Blackburn and the Telomere Effect
Part 3: Distress
9. The attachment process; 10. The arousal response cycle; 11. Emotional regulation or containment; 12. Empathetic attunement, the secure base and exploratory behaviour; 13. Internal working model; 14. Distress and insecure attachment styles
Part 4: Managing distress
15. The arousal cycle; 16. How to help at each stage; 17. Nonverbal communication; 18. Recovery and post-crisis; 19. Analysis of incidents and looking after ourselves
Part 5: Stress and stages of development
20. Erikson's stages of development; 21. Pre-school to primary transition; 22. Adolescence; 23. Neuroplasticity
Part 6: Stress reduction
24. Chemicals again!; 25. Mindfulness; 26. Meditation; 27. Breathing and breathing exercises; 28. Imaging and visualisation; 29. Shinrin-Yoku and Two Schools
Part 7: Conclusion
30. Summary; 31. A last word to parents and carers; 32. A last word to teachers and schools