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Everything is Going to be Alright at Canterbury Shorts

24/3/2016

We're so excited to share with you that our 5 minute film 'Everything is Going to be Alright' is going to be shown on the big screen at the outdoor theatre as part of Canterbury Shorts Short Film Festival. Its thrilling to imagine seeing it, and sharing it but for us one of the most exciting parts is being able to watch the beautiful children that shared their wisdom on the film see themselves in such an awesomely positive way.

This autumn bring a blanket, chair or cushion and a friend for the first ever Canterbury Shorts — bringing the best and most upbeat of Canterbury filmmaking to an outdoor cinema in Christchurch. This showcase by emerging and established filmmakers is spirited, uplifting, unexpected and engaging. While the films do turn serious, each will leave you smiling. So prepare to get happy.

Pre-show entertainment begins at 7pm with live music, before the kick-off of short films at 7.30pm.

We’ll provide the food trucks (including the Diversity Food Market) and the free popcorn. So come hungry!

Entry is free but koha will be gratefully accepted and passed on to CHCH SOUP to support individuals with grassroots projects that will benefit our beautiful Christchurch. Donate on the nite or through Eventbrite (link above).

See you there!

RAIN DATE: Sunday, 3 April 2016

Selected films include:

THE ROAD HOME
15 minutes – Indie – 2016
An eighteen-year-old American travels to New Zealand to reconnect with his Kiwi roots and discovers the father he does not remember.
Director: Mikaela Rüegg

LETTER FOR HOPE
18 minutes – Drama – 2013
A pragmatic and awkward old man discovers wisdom and compassion he didn’t know he had and his extraordinary actions bring peace and new purpose to a devastated young woman and himself.
Director: Raquel Roderick

TITINIUM MAN
9 minutes – Documentary – 2015
After an unexpected brain tumour threatened to cut artist Tony Cribb’s (Tim Man) life short, his positive attitude defined his recovery and inspired those around him.
Director: Hamish Manning

TRADING STORIES WITH THE PRINTERS
4 minutes – Vignette – 2015
In the age of digital, a handmade impression is a rarity. Lou and Bud devote their lives to the art and science of traditional printing techniques and technologies.
Director: Simon Waterhouse

THESE WATERS (Special edit)
3 minutes – Vignette – 2015
Exploring one man’s journey to bring wellbeing to young people in Sumner through his passion for surfing and his love of the community.
Director: Jono Smit

Everything Is Going to Be Alright
5 minutes - Vignette - 2016
Children, parents and teachers share how they support good mental health in their families and classes, and the lessons they've taken about managing anxiety through the the last 5 years in Canterbury.
Director: Simon Waterhouse with Kōtuku Creative

With support from Gap Filler.

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Aren't We Supposed To Be Over this By Now?

19/3/2016

5 Comments

"...begin to have some empathy for yourself. It has been a hard few years. There is much to come to terms with, and perhaps in your role as nurturer, provider, protector, you did not look after yourself much..."

With the latest series of aftershocks have come more anxiety for families and as parents, for our children. I have had many conversations in the last couple of weeks about children back in their parents beds, not wanting to separate at school, about parents not able to leave their children for fear of another shake, sometimes even not wanting to shower or be in the toilet in case it happened. I have talked to strong women about their feelings of broken-ness, of how they have held up their families through all those big quakes, only to feel that they have collapsed with these relatively smaller ones, five years later. I’ve talked to strong men about their feelings of not being able to protect their families. After the 14 Feb shake, only half my child’s class were present at school. Many people feel we are ‘back to square one’.

After any big shock we can expect to feel an acute reaction. You will recognise those feelings of numbness, dislocation, even the feeling of looking in on yourself as life happens around you. I remember the day my father was killed in an accident, driving down the street wondering at how life was continuing - people were going about their everyday affairs, and yet the world had changed so dramatically for me. I felt I would never look at life the same way again. Those are normal feelings after any disaster. They last generally at the most, a few days.

With these latest quakes though have come experiences most of us did not expect. The aftershocks are acting as a trigger back to the trauma experienced with the first shakes. Not just the shakes though. In fact for many people the trauma was not the actual shaking, it was the chaotic and scary aftermath. The sudden lack of normal services such as power and phone meant that people felt alone and unsupported in a world that was unpredictable. Normally we can pick up the phone and access emergency services for physical help, friends or family for emotional support and we can turn on the tap for water. Suddenly, without any warning or preparation, these basic life support needs were not available. And, we were threatened on each of these levels at the same time. People were hurt and dying, we didn’t know where partners or children were and we were unsure whether our homes were safe. Food and water were limited and in some places unavailable. And over the top of all this was the question of how long the quakes would continue and whether help would come. It was like an end of the world movie, but it was happening in our backyard.

The trauma, as you know, continued. People dealt with moving homes, schools, jobs, lives, whilst managing aftershocks, injuries and mental health concerns, as well as the myriad of issues that were present prior to the quakes. Families had to develop a relationship with EQC, with their insurers and to manage property matters which many had never had any knowledge of. In the midst of this came school mergers and closures. The city was dead, people’s neighbourhoods had changed and life was completely on its head.

My apologies for taking you back there. I have gone through this scenario in detail to cement the point that the trauma that you feel when there is an aftershock, is more than a fear of shaking. When you feel those aftershocks, you are being triggered back to all those horribly memorable experiences and fears that you bore during that drawn-out time.

The good news is, that those things are not happening again - your body is reacting as though they are. And, those things that you bore during that time do not happen in a moment, as your reactions do. Our bodies just send us back to those memories and respond as though they are all occurring again right now in this very moment when the shake is occurring. Our frontal lobes shut down reasoning and our brain stem activates to respond to the threat it perceives. Our heart rates rise, our muscles tense, adrenalin courses through our bodies and we feel ready to leap into action. We can rely on our bodies to help, but we can’t rely on our brains to reason well at this time. Overload of adrenalin and cortisol (the stress hormone) is also exhausting.

Once you realise that your brain is reacting to this trigger in this way, you can reflect on whether this is helpful or not. Clearly it is helpful for our brains to activate emergency responses, but it is not helpful to continue to respond in this way when the emergency is over.

One of the main ways to deal with ongoing traumatic responses is to avoid the triggers. Although we can have no impact on aftershocks, we can limit our exposure to disaster media.
Avoid watching or reading articles, videos, press etc about the earthquakes. Limit your discussions about aftershocks, eqc, repairs, begin to discuss hopeful and everyday topics on purpose.

Learn to breathe through the aftershocks, use thought management techniques - recognise the thoughts that you have at the time that are not helpful and begin to counter them as they happen. Acknowledge your feelings and then move on from them. These are all tried and tested techniques that will teach your brain to come out of emergency mode.

Get some help. Just because you have always been a DIYer in these things, doesn’t mean you can’t ask for help. Use good friends or family, therapists, helplines, writing or other forms of artistic expression. Keep these times limited and keep your children out of the conversation or activity. Plan something nice to do straight afterwards so that your mind and feelings can recover.

And finally, begin to have some empathy for yourself. It has been a hard few years. There is much to come to terms with, and perhaps in your role as nurturer, provider, protector, you did not look after yourself much. It was more important to you that you kept your children and loved ones safe and well. You listened and you empathised, but you didn’t do that for yourself. As Kiwis with roots in European and Maori cultures, we often don’t know how to look after ourselves, we are encouraged to look after others first.

Now, your brain is reminding you that you need to “put on your own oxygen mask before helping others.” It is our responsibility to make sure we are fit, well and competent. And what a great role-model for our children.

For more ideas about coping after trauma or disaster from Christchurch families see this 5 minute film; Everything is Going to be Alright or check out the resources at www.theworrybug.co.nz

Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed. . . .
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
(William Henley)

Julie Burgess-Manning PGDip PP, MSc (FamTher), PG CertED, BA Hons (Psych

Julie Burgess-Manning is a Family Therapist and NZ Registered Psychologist currently employed by the University of Otago as a Clinical Lecturer and also working in private practice. She has worked in a variety of child, adolescent and family mental health settings for the past 18 years, with roles such as Senior Clinician, Therapist, Clinical Supervisor and Primary Mental Healthcare Liaison. She is the Chair of the Training Subcommittee of the Family and Systemic Therapies Association of Aotearoa New Zealand, (FSTAANZ) and serves on the Executive Committee of the same and Co-creator at Kōtuku Creative .

Kōtuku Creative thrives on working with other organisations to create and produce story based resources for the mental health and education sector. The resources utilise the Home and School Scaffolding approach, developed by Kōtuku Creative, to build on the established trust-based relationships already existing in children's lives.

5 Comments

Are bedtime Stories Alive and Well?

8/3/2016

3 Comments

I was lucky enough to attend a Lis’n Tell workshop last night. Lis’n Tell is a story telling approach designed by British Speech Pathologist, Louise Coigley. Louise developed this interactive storytelling technique to support children and adults with communication and learning difficulties. She spun wonderful yarns and after the initial nervousness of having to join in we were all in fits of laughter, at her, ourselves and each other.

Louise shared some research findings with us to emphasise the importance of storytelling to children. Stories, she reminded us, serve to give children a sense of time, a sense of the rhythm of life, and a view into other people’s worlds and perspectives.

And it got me thinking, I keep reading new research findings and anecdotal observations of teachers and parents that children entering school in the last 5 years in Christchurch have seemingly new struggles with behavioural expectations for school. I wondered, have they simply not heard enough stories? Did we stop reading bedtime stories after the earthquakes? Did bedtime become a time so fraught with anxiety and exhaustion (from both the children and the parents) that we started to do it less often, or maybe we stopped doing it altogether?

Where ever we live in the world, storytelling remains the most heartfelt and important form of communication. All of us tell stories. The story of your day, the story of your life, workplace gossip, the horrors on the news. Our brains are hard-wired to think and express in terms of a beginning, middle and end. It's how we understand the world.

Sharing stories is the oldest form of teaching. It held early human communities together, giving children the answers to the biggest questions of the way the world works. Stories define us, shape us, control us, and make us. Not every human culture in the world is literate, but every single culture uses stories to connect and share.

What are the stories that our children are hearing? Since the earthquake on Valentine’s Day in Christchurch they’ve been hearing some familiar ones, as I’m sure you have too. They’re also bombarded with stories in the media. These stories are most often unpleasant and they rarely have happy endings. Perhaps the anecdote to this is a bedtime story, the few minutes of connection that calms the worried mind in preparation for rest.

Louise will be offering more trainings and story telling in Wellington during March.

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Everything is Going to be Alright at Canterbury Shorts

Aren't We Supposed To Be Over this By Now?

Are bedtime Stories Alive and Well?

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Everything is Going to be Alright at Canterbury Shorts

Aren't We Supposed To Be Over this By Now?

Are bedtime Stories Alive and Well?﻿

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Archives

Categories

Are bedtime Stories Alive and Well?