A character created by 强 holds a heart rate monitor. 插图:强.
艾米丽·斯通在波士顿的一所公立学校工作, providing therapy to more than two dozen students in preschool to eighth grade.
斯通喜欢这份工作, 她在2016年至2019年期间持有哪些股票, 但她想找到一种方法来帮助更多的孩子.
“I loved them dearly, but I was just one person,斯通说。, who graduated from the 太阳城网赌平台社会工作学院 in 2016. “我怎样才能影响更多的人?她回忆道。. “我怎样才能扩大我的范围，影响更多的家庭?”
斯通找到了完美的伴侣 强, a company in Boston that uses video games to teach kids how to handle stressful situations.
强 says that thousands of children around the world play the games, 包括美国的孩子, 加拿大, 和澳大利亚. But as the senior clinical strategist, 石头 is working to expand access to even more kids.
在过去的几个月, she has been managing partnerships with healthcare and telehealth companies that are looking to make gaming part of therapy for children.
斯通说:“我非常相信让治疗变得有趣. “I want to help destigmatize mental health and free kids from feeling ashamed by how they feel.”
Here’s how 强 works: Kids strap a heart rate monitor to their arm and then 选择一款手机游戏 玩. As they progress through the game, the difficulty will increase and their heart rate will go up. 蒸汽可能会盖住他们的屏幕, 他们的角色可能会移动得更快, 或者障碍可能更难避免. 一旦他们到达“红色区域”,” the game will pause and show them a calming exercise to bring their heart rate down. If they stay calm, they’ll collect rewards and advance to different worlds.
“We encourage kids to do whatever they need to do to bring their heart rate down,斯通说。. “After a certain amount of time, they’re able to access those skills independently.”
“我非常相信让治疗变得有趣. I want to help destigmatize mental health and free kids from feeling ashamed by how they feel.”
艾米丽石提供的照片
强 was created and tested at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. 太阳城官网显示 that 12 weeks in the program reduced outbursts in kids by 62 percent and lowered stress in parents by 19 percent.
石头 has interviewed hundreds of kids and parents who have used 强. She says that the program has worked for countless families that have struggled to make progress in traditional therapy.
“Kids have told me that they didn’t know that their heart rate had anything to do with their feelings,斯通说。. “But 强 has unlocked their ability to slow down and get control of their emotions.”
石头 has known that she’s wanted to work with kids since she was in her teens. Her mother is a teacher, she says, and she started going to therapy when she was a child. 随着年龄的增长, 她意识到她想帮助别人, 太, and majored in social work at the University of New Hampshire.
“I’ve always enjoyed the holistic view of social work,” she says. “It’s not just the person, and it’s not just what they’re struggling with. 是系统的问题. It’s figuring out how to get more access for people, not shaming people for what they’re feeling.”
石头 关注儿童、青少年和家庭 他曾在不列颠哥伦比亚省的一所小学实习, where she provided therapy to eight students in grades one to five.
石头 and her supervisor got creative, using collages and sand art to help students open up. They wanted to make therapy fun, use play to make progress.
这正是石头在mighty tier所做的. 远程医疗公司, 例如, wants her to help create a library of activities that therapists can use to connect with kids. The client and therapist will play a virtual card game, say, or an online version of Candy Land. The kid will wear a heart rate monitor, which the therapist will be able to track. 当孩子心跳加速时, 屏幕变红了, the therapist might see an opening to check in to see what’s going on.
“I definitely credit my supervisor at my internship with helping me think creatively in my job now,斯通说。.
One question drives her, keeps her motivated at 强. “How can we get mental health access to a lot more people? 我们当中的人太少了，需要帮助的人太多了.”