Today’s teens are facing serious psychological and emotional challenges that are growing every day more severe. Many young people today are going to dark places to find meaning and control in their often-tumultuous lives. But, they are not talking about it. Why would they? What teen wants to share what is happening in their world with adults who might, despite all good intentions, offer advice and tell them what to do?
Life Through Literature: A Creative Approach to Suicide Prevention is a multimedia presentation focusing on the message that there are alternatives to self-harm as a way of dealing with the painful realities of being young. Through music, art, and literature, students in grades 7-12 are encouraged to see how others have encountered and resolved problems that cause sadness, stress, fear and anxiety. Literature and the creative arts can help students relate to their world and understand that they are not alone in encountering heartache, rejection, loneliness and pain. Once a teen sees himself represented in a book, a song lyric, or a piece of art, his experience is validated. Feeling part of something bigger, something universal, can be a powerful tool in combating suicidal thoughts and negative emotional impulses.
The Goal: To counter the negative impulses of suicidal ideation and breakdown communication barriers by helping students look beyond today to a positive future.
The Benefits: this presentation will:
• provide hope for those who are hurting
• build self-esteem
• inspire creativity and encourage reading
• offer alternatives to self-harm as a way of dealing with the painful realities of being young
Description: Using the platform of young adult literature, this workshop is designed to understand and talk about the chain of events that often leads to a young person wanting to either self-harm or to dabble in the dark arts. But unlike other workshops which focus on understanding how and why a young person makes a destructive choice, “Life Through Literature” offers a way out of the darkness, a road map that can be used to escape the strongholds of relationship stress, poverty, low self-esteem, the occult and self-harm. Young adults in the audience will be encouraged to become part of an amazing group of people who lived through what they did and are now spreading the message that you are not alone, and that life will get better.
Inspirational Message: we are not going to be able to change the people who try to make us feel worthless or unloved; we are going to change ourselves.
For more information about this program, please click on the Life Through Literature Workshop Proposal.
To schedule a program for your school please contact:
Susan Nadathur
Email: susan.nadathur@gmail.com
Phone: (787) 550-7582.
