Services Available to Families in the CLTS program: Heartmath® Trainer – Licensed Heartmath® Training Provider/Parent Coach

Billable Services Include: 1 -2 hour sessions with the Family/Unpaid Caregiver following the Heartmath® training program which entails 24 training sessions. Typically these sessions are provided each week in the home setting. The first 12 sessions teach the parent to use the Heartmath® approach themself, bringing self awareness and the ability to manage their own activated states. The second set of lessons focus on how to teach their child the same techniques. 

Training Participants: The Training/Coaching does not include the child in any of the sessions. Parents practice the techniques during the week and report challenges and progress at each session.

Purpose of Heartmath® Training/Coaching: Many children with disabilities that manifest in states of heightened activation and dysregulation or include disruptive behavioral disorders require the support of their primary parents and caregivers to co-regulate with them in order to bring them back to a state of regulation. The training I provide is trauma informed and  teaches the adults serving as primary caregivers how to co-regulate with their child effectively. This approach can be used both proactively to strengthen the child’s ability to regulate independently and as a tool to support activated behavior response. 

Per the Heartmath® Institute: HeartMath® research has demonstrated that different patterns of heart activity (which accompany different emotional states) have distinct effects on cognitive and emotional function.  During stress and negative emotions, when the heart rhythm pattern is erratic and disordered, the corresponding pattern of neural signals traveling from the heart to the brain inhibits higher cognitive functions.  This limits our ability to think clearly, remember, learn, reason, and make effective decisions.  (This helps explain why we may often act impulsively and unwisely when we’re under stress.) The heart’s input to the brain during stressful or negative emotions also has a profound effect on the brain’s emotional processes-actually serving to reinforce the emotional experience of stress. 

The service includes: 

• trauma informed training and instruction
• resource materials
• behavior and communication support
• emotional support and stress management
• family dynamics and parenting

Specific Program Goals Include, but are not limited to:

• Manage their own feelings of anxiety, frustration and overwhelm
• Teach emotional awareness and self-regulation to their children
• Navigate conflict with more composure and effective communication
• Sharpen intuition and harness the power of their heart’s intelligence