From Sierra Leone, parents are immigrants. Research is about learning and teaching Black kids' emotional and personal identity development - how they're influenced by risk and protective factors. Sexual abuse, domestic violence, anything you may encounter, as well as racial trauma. Microaggressions day-to-day, social media - risk factors impact the way we see ourselves and the world, put also protective factors - cultural background, relationships, racial socialization influences us. How things that already exist can influence Black youth. Race-based cognitive-based therapy (aside with play therapy, art therapy, other sorts of therapy). Teaching kids the connection between what's going on in their environment to how they think about themselves.
Did training with racial identity development with kids who did CBT on how these protective factors that already exist can help. Very collaborative practice - an add-on that goes with the TFC manual which right now, clinicians can work through the manual with the youth. At once point, like a cell phone app - like one where kids can walk through - I have 0 technology skills, definitely where my gap is. The science is what I can contribute to this project. I'm interested in hearing about the website you have and your other programs, what I can help make happen.
Isha and her parents survived the civil war - she has traumatic experiences that inform her work and passions.
I'm a child of immigrants, have centered work around things personal to me - research background has consistently been about health disparities among Black populations, initially men but transitioning to work with children. Having a background in public health but transitioning to psychology and working as a clinician for children with chronic illness. I have interest and experience in education from before my clinical psychology work. Hoping to figure out how I can be helpful in supporting this work.
We want to dive into the book "dealing with personal and interpersonal trauma" - Plot Twisters name comes from the idea that kids should understand the Plot Twists and Points in their life. You're immersed in this second-person narrative game. You start out in a homeroom - a space where you can do reflection activities. It also has a big map - Fields of Knowledge - you can go out and explore what it means to treat your body correctly, the world, articulating certain feelings, kindness, justice, race, privilege, all of these concepts that not a lot of people interact with when they're older.
We want to learn about as many intersections as possible so anyone can hit "Play" and create their own cookie trail. We're definitely going to use your scholarship as research for our own development. Everyting we're taking away from our scholarship will use to create something that anyone can access
How can we use our skills as a studio to curate this content for the audiences we need it most?
While the game, playbook, everything are more long-term goals, we want to create a product strategy that works well for us, but also any technical social programs we have.
As you were talking through the game, I imagine the butterfly as a pick-your-character sort of thing: pick your adventure - how you can get yourself into sticky situations and how you can see the implications of those decisions.
Talking through the components as TSCBT - stages of development so you learn more about trauma, racism, relaxation, coping with your emotions - identifying these emotions and talking to people about them. Breaking them up by content area makes sense
The trauma narrative - for the kid that's in your game, they're deciding the story as they go. In CBT, they're working through their own traumas, the thoughts they had, and changing their mind in their situation. It's different than a future situation you may have... or an educational experience, or saying how you think about that differently. We'd have think about prompts, questions, etc. It may be a cartoon who is talking to the viewer and they're thinking it through. The more you describe the game, the more I can see the differences among people going through TSCBT, but also the more they can compliment each other.
That's more the direction we're leaning toward. When someone experiences something, they can just walk through these steps and articulate what they're experiencing.
One scene we just wrote - making a pit stop with the butterfly with a tea master - this person is ordering tea for the storyteller. But, the tea master teaches the storyteller to articulate their story. It's that self-reflection. Someone who doesn't have any background (in therapies) can learn the strategies - or someone who is trying to document something in their journey.
Any existing frameworks or methods?