Zeina Presents: Kidpower Emotional Safety Techniques

Kidpower teaches people of all ages and abilities around the world to protect themselves from abuse, exploitation bullying, and kidnapping.

The coronavirus epidemic has the characteristics of a threatening stress event; it is a traumatic event. People surviving violence in their relationships and families may be experiencing increased isolation and danger caused by social distancing. During the COVID-19 pandemic added stress can create circumstances where their safety is further compromised.

Kidpower Emotional Safety techniques help to reduce stress and to empower people at risk of, interpersonal violence to prevent or stop future assault.

    • Getting Centered or ‘Calm Down Power’. This is a breathing exercise to lower stress in the body. When you breathe deeply, it sends a message to your brain to calm down and relax. The brain then sends this message to your body. Those things that happen when you are stressed, such as increased heart rate, fast breathing, and high blood pressure, all decrease as you breathe deeply to relax.
    • The Screen. Imagine a screen protecting you from the other person, keeping out insults and letting in useful information – like the screen on a window keeps out the bugs and lets in fresh air.
    • Adjust Your Emotional Distance. For dealing with important people who go back and forth between being great to being rude, you can Adjust Your Emotional Distance. This is a useful tool for enjoying the good in the relationship while protecting yourself from what is upsetting. You can be close when someone’s behavior is safe and respectful and imagine yourself moving away when the behavior becomes upsetting. Practice this by doing it physically. Start close to a partner who is at first friendly and then becomes rude. Move back as the behavior gets ruder and then walk away once it becomes unacceptable.

Emotional Safety techniques will not solve the social causes of interpersonal violence; but these skills can help people avoid getting into a destructive relationship, make the best of a bad situation, preserve their sense of self-worth, and keep looking for a way to get help.

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Kidpower Teenpower Fullpower International is a global nonprofit leader dedicated to protecting people of all ages and abilities from bullying, violence, and abuse by empowering them with awareness, knowledge, and skills. Since, 1989, Kidpower has served millions of children, teenagers, and adults, including those with special needs, through its positive and practical workshops, extensive free online Library, consultation, and publications. Instead of using fear to teach about danger, Kidpower makes it fun to learn to be safe! Our K-12 curriculum is used by families, schools, and youth organizations for their own child safety programs. Publications include: Bullying: What Adults Need to Know and Do to Keep Kids Safe, the Relationship Safety Skills Handbook for Teens and Adults, The Kidpower Book for Caring Adults: Personal Safety, Self-Protection, Confidence, and Advocacy for Young People, and our cartoon-illustrated Safety Comics series and Introductory Curriculum for Educators.