Anger Management, NLP and ADHD

---

FACT:

• More than 4 million American children ages 4 to 17 have been diagnosed
  with ADHD; more than half diagnosed are being treated with drugs.
  (Source. NCQA - National Committee for Quality Assurance)

Additionally almost 50% of children with AHDH have been suspended
from school at some point due to their impulsive, disruptive and often dangerous behaviour.

---

---

Josh's ADHD Anger management

I sat with Josh, built rapport with him and engaged him in conversation. All the time he was playing, fiddling with a ‘Rubiks cube.' He gave me virtually no eye contact and clearly had something going on in his mind.

During the conversation he told me he had 'kicked off' in class. We didn't go into detail. Suffice to say it was severe enough to cause him to be excluded - once again,

I went through the process I’d only read about at that time. Taking care to sensitively feed back his own phrased, I asked him if he had pictures in his head when he was 'kicking off' Yes, he said. He had 4 pictures, all Dexter cartoons, in colour and moving.

One by one I guided Josh to go into his head and turn off one of the screens (pictures). We continued until he had only one picture. It was Dexter, now it was still, and in colour.

By this time I noticed a considerable change in his irritable and fidgeting behaviour, but he was not totally there yet. That was all it had said in the article I had read. I relied on my intuition and asked him about the sound he was experiencing too. He said it was kind of s-l-u-r-r-y. His internal audio i.e. the s-l-u-r-r-y sound, he sped up until it was a normal speed.

At one point he tested things out for himself. He tried to get back his old multiple images, but could not. (Those were particular characteristics and distortions of his stressed anger state.)

NOW he was totally CALM.

He placed the Rubik's cube on the table, gave me full eye contact and we continued a normal conversation.

What was the follow-up?

I told the Headteacher about our experience and she totally took it on board. When a ‘kicking off’ was anticipated she asked him, 'Do you remember the work you did with Mrs. O.? How many pictures do you have now?

Using NLP, in that short time, not only did he learn a strategy to deal with the stress, distress and anger he felt, but discovered something he thought was impossible. He controlled his brain, not the other way around.

I only worked with Josh that once, but I was extremely proud to hear that the following year Josh went on the 5-day residential school trip with his class, without his mum! That's real progress.

Got a question to ask me about SEN, learning or development? Ask the SEN Coach

---