Free resource

Address at the Kyiv First Ladies and Gentlemen Summit

A 16-minute interview with Dr. Gordon Neufeld on supporting youth mental health through attachment, play, and resilience.

Dr. Neufeld had the honour and privilege (and challenge) of presenting at the Third Annual First Ladies and Gentlemen Summit in Kyiv. He had been invited to attend in person, but was unable to be there, so had to make his contribution online. The subject of the Summit was mental health, a timely subject even without the devastating impact of a prolonged war. His focus was children and youth. The concerns being expressed had to do with the current youth mental health crisis exacerbated by a war, and how to get the adolescents the expert help they needed.

"The message I tried to deliver within the timeframe allowed, is that, despite the horrors of the current situation, caring adults actually have the resources they need to deal with what are very normal emotional responses to what is being faced – distressing threat to attachments at every turn. To enable us to bear the unbearable, Nature orchestrates a flight from feeling that can only be reversed when some safety is experienced. When true safety is not an option, Nature offers children (including youth) a wonderful illusion of safety when close to the adults they are attached to and when the play mode is activated. These 'bubbles' of safety in an unsafe world are Nature's way of taking care of us even when circumstances are dire. The implications are profound. With regards to the current situation, the keys to resilience are not in diagnoses or treatment but rather in a culture that supports family and emotional playgrounds. This has been the hidden story behind Ukraine's resilience in the past, and I believe it will be so again."

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