Teen cutting: Aerial. Mindful. Self-Care Approach. Ask Arden Greenspan

As a Teen Expert, Family Psychotherapist and Author of What Do You Expect? She’s A Teenager!, I see so many teens cut themselves and self mutilate. One in every two hundred girls between 13 and 19 cut themselves regularly. Girls are 4 times more likely than boys to self harm. Why? Some teen girls say they feel, “unacceptable, invisible, that they don’t matter,” and suffer from severe “self hatred and self loathing.” In my practice some teens that cut struggle with depression and panic attacks.

My “Aerial Mindful Self Care” Cognitive Self Loving Approach has been very successful in providing them with self soothing tools to manage and self regulate their distress. Regularly practicing Mindful Self Care Blessings while looking into the mirror, on rising and preparing for bed like, “I am worthy, I matter, I am self kind, I am self compassionate, I am lovable, I am self and body accepting, I am grateful to be alive,” moves the negative mindset to a more neutral and ultimately a more positive mind place and space. Nature walking and yogic breathing works beautifully with these daily self blessings.There have been many studies about the plasticity of the brain and it’s capability of creating new neural pathways.