This article looks at children’s behaviour from the perspective of Psychology and offers a way to help them with Emotion Code and Energy Healing. I’m a Certified Emotion Code Practitioner and have a Degree in Counselling and Psychology. I offer Emotion Code and Energy Healing sessions for adults and children.
- Does your child get angry or aggressive for seemingly no reason?
- Have you, or other adults, classified your child with “anger issues”?
- Does your child shut down when faced with a difficult situation?
- Or lash out when they feel uncomfortable?
Research has proven that children act up and become ‘difficult’ for different reasons. I’ve identified some of those that are related to what I’ve seen in my Emotion Code sessions with both adults and children.
Here are some of my findings:
Anxiety They Can’t Articulate
Research has shown that, “A child who appears oppositional or aggressive may be reacting to anxiety he/she can’t articulate.”
Children with anxiety on the inside can’t tolerate criticism and will often shut down completely because they are terrified of being embarrassed. When someone says something to them that cricitises them, makes them feel “less than” – and keep in mind that can even be the smallest of things when you’re suffering from anxiety – they can freak out in a state of flight or fright.
It’s a process of trying to protect themselves, simply because they are carrying around extreme levels of anxiety and don’t know how to express this or even understand the way they feel.
Children with anxiety have shown to have the following reactions/symptoms:
- Freezing and clinging in situations
- Tantrums and complete meltdowns
- Getting caught up in shoving-matches with other children
- Defensive and mean, often when other children or adults say things that make them feel “less than”, even including constructive criticism.
Dr. Rachel Busman says, “Especially in younger children with anxiety you might see freezing and clinging kind of behaviour but you can also see tantrums and complete meltdowns.”
Worry About Something They Can’t Control
In an article by McCann and Zeen (2001) children experience a range of negative emotions before surgery including tension, apprehension, nervousness and worry. This can accumulate into other maladaptive behaviours such as apathy, withdrawal, sleep disturbances, anxiety, incontinence and negative behavioural changes.
When children are about to enter into a situation in which they cannot control, don’t have any understanding about, and are worried (often in the inside) this can build up anxiety within them that they can’t articulate properly.
As seen from the above research that unspoken anxiety can turn into all sorts of maladaptive behaviours as a way of protection and self-preservation.
Intergenerational trauma is a known term used in psychology to describe when trauma is passed down through the generations. Trauma is described as a person’s response to a major event that is overwhelming and difficult to handle. The person often experiences emotions such as shock, trauma, horror, helplessness, despair, amongst others. Research shows that people who experience trauma are more likely to engage in self-destructive behaviours and negative patterns of thought and emotions towards self and others.
When previous generations have experienced trauma that they are unable to cope with, come to terms with or process, it stays with them throughout their life and then passes to the next generation. The negative emotions and feelings of intergenerational trauma appear in different ways throughout our life, and in our children.
It seems that the trauma is passed down through the generations to particular people, as not all siblings will have the same trauma (stuck emotions). Furthermore, not everyone has the same degree of trauma or the experiences, however, some examples of behaviours that have been identified with intergenerational trauma are:
- Difficulty processing negative emotions
- Feeling defensive and protective of self
- Not trusting one’s own intuition or decision making
- Anxiety, and symptoms of anxiety
- Feeling of dread inside for no reason
- Not able to feel or recognise love
- Critical of self and others
- Feeling suspicious or paranoid
- Self-destructive behaviours such as substance abuse
Children who are carrying intergenerational trauma are carrying a heavy burden from a relative from the past, and they don’t understand why they are feeling that way or why they react differently than others.
Summing up, some children are carrying heavy unseen burdens they find difficult to understand and talk about. They might be feeling anxious inside, but feel pressured to act normal like the other children. This can turn into protective measures such as getting angry or mean, because they feel anxious and unsafe. Children often worry about things they can’t control – like the adult world. Many adult decisions happen around them and they don’t understand. I can imagine how confusing that would be, can’t you. Finally, as seen in psychology that many of us, including our children, are carrying around a certain degree of intergenerational trauma. This is difficult for them because it is not acknowledged or seen in today’s society – but they hurt inside, and are very confused with this.
How Does Emotion Code Help Children?
Emotion Code sessions recognise that trapped emotions can cause behavioural problems, simply because the resonate energy of the traumatic experience reverberates through the person causing them to react similarly. When we remove the trapped emotions, whether it is shared, absorbed, or emotionally inherited the negativity is instantly released. Many times this gives an immediate feeling of relief to the client, as if a weight has been lifted off their children. Clients often feel a sense of relief knowing that that the “anxiety” was not theirs and in the days following feel a new outlook on life, without the negativity clouding them.
Emotion Code Sessions with me talk directly with your child’s subconscious mind and spirit guides to determine the burden of trapped emotions they are carrying. We look into whether those trapped emotions are from this lifetime and confusing situations they don’t understand very well, or whether they absorbed negative emotions from one of their parents during a difficult time, or if they have emotions that have been inherited throughout the generations.
We then release this burden from them so they don’t have to carry it around anymore. They can live their entire life free from these burdens! What a special gift you are giving them!
Note: A “Terms of Enrollment Agreement” needs to be signed by a parent.
#emotioncode #energyhealing #intergenerationaltrauma #anxiety
Research used in this article:
Child Mind Institute, https://childmind.org/article/how-anxiety-leads-to-disruptive-behavior/
McCann, E, FAAP, M and Zeevn, K 2001, The Management of Preoperative Anxiety in Children: An Update, Pediatric Anesthesia, Volume 93, Issue 1, P. 98-105. https://journals.lww.com/anesthesia-analgesia/fulltext/2001/07000/The_Management_of_Preoperative_Anxiety_in.22.aspx
Atkinson, J. Nelson, J and Atkinson, C. 2010, “Trauma, Transgenerational Transfer and Effects on Community Wellbeing”, in Working Together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health and Wellbeing Principles and Practice, Purdie, N. Dudgeon, P. and Walker, R. (eds.), accessed 12th April