Coaching Youth through Anxiety
Macy designed role play scenarios to help a student find his ‘Zen’
When Macy was in sixth grade, she saw first-hand the impact that clinical therapists can make in the lives of youth. To this day she still remembers how helpless she felt anytime she saw her brother paralyzed by his extreme anxiety. Through learning how to support him in these heart-wrenching moments, Macy discovered her calling to become a therapist. Now a junior studying psychology at Marquette, Macy joined the Peace Works team to expand her ability to coach young people into a healthier space mentally so that they can thrive in and out of school.
Over the past year, Macy drove twice a week to the MPS Success Center, a joint program of Milwaukee Public Schools and the Center for Peacemaking’s Peace Works program. At the Success Center, she worked with youth — who, much like her brother — needed support learning how to deal with anxiety, trauma, or emotional regulation.
One student that Macy worked with, Ethan, shared that he gets annoyed easily — either by siblings at home or by peers at school. Over the next few weeks, Macy and Ethan worked through a series of role play scenarios to practice dealing with difficult people. By role playing, Ethan was able to calmly work through possible responses with the support of a trusted adult. Macy noted how slowing down and processing each scenario created space for him to ask questions and think about different ways he could respond.
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One of the unique components of the Success Center is the regular check-in process with the youth, a Success Center team member, an adult from the youth’s origin school, and one of the youth’s family members. This was Macy’s favorite component of the scheduled check-in process due to the comprehensive nature of the meetings. Not only was it important of every facet of the child’s life to be on the same page, but also for the child to see people from all different areas of their life to make time for them is a truly impactful thing.
As someone who worked with Ethan, Macy was invited to participate in his week three checkpoint meeting. She couldn’t help but smile when Ethan described having unlocked a sense of “Zen” by using his new skills when interacting with siblings and peers. One of the specific strategies he successfully used was asking to take a break when he starts to feel angry or dysregulated. His mother and the school staff shared with him that they observed him doing this effectively and told Ethan how proud they were of him.
Ethan has now graduated from the Success Center and is back at his origin school full-time. “Every child is capable of far more than they know,” Macy said, “As a trusted adult, our job is to help them realize their full potential.”
Macy described her time with Peace Works as a dream because she gets to work with youth at the nexus of transformation — the exact kind of impact she wants to help cultivate. “Transformation goes beyond small improvements,” she explained, “It’s a deep and lasting change in how one thinks, feels, behaves, or lives. Transformation means you’re not just doing things differently; it means you’re becoming a different version of yourself.”
Through her time with Peace Works and students with Ethan, Macy is even more excited about the impact she will be able to make as a future pediatric mental health therapist.
