During play therapy treatment at The Genesis Project, we use creativity to come up with techniques that youth can find fun but can learn from as well. The technique here is called “Cool Down Shades.”
From a trauma perspective, trauma affects multiple parts of the brain in youth: the amygdala (which processes the stimuli we are fearful of), hippocampus (which affects learning and memory), and prefrontal cortex (which affects impulse control). When trauma occurs, the brain becomes on high alert, causing mental and emotional struggles in our youth. Trauma can affect the ability of a child to verbalize emotions. When a youth is struggling to say how he feels, aggression, defiance, and heightened fear can show up in his behavior.
Now it can be difficult to teach our youth to verbalize their emotions overnight. So, a good first step is to teach them safe ways to non-verbalize their emotions. That is where “Cool Down Shades” come into treatment.
“Cool Down Shades” are just what they sound like, sunglasses that you put on when feeling a heightened sense of emotion. If a youth is feeling angry, or a youth is feeling depressed and is struggling to communicate that feeling with a safe adult in their surroundings, he is asked to practice putting on his “Cool Down Shades” to signal an adult he's struggling without using his words. This can give an adult understanding as to what is going on so they can either give that youth some time to calm down or use his safety plan, a plan to help him regulate emotions.
Safe techniques like this help our youth build on effective and appropriate ways to gain an understanding of their own emotions, and in turn, help them identify others’ feelings. Then they can help others have their own “Cool Down Shades” moments, too.
