Officials say Eastside Academy is “less disruptive.”
INDIANAPOLIS — Thrival Indy Academy is turning to hypnotherapy to turn around students’ behavior and mental health.
“The kids seem happier, they seem more focused. There’s less confusion,” said Brandon Arnold, Thrival’s director of operations.
Jordan Ebersole is a student at East Side School who credits hypnotherapy with literally saving his life.
“I’m not that depressed. I’ve never had any suicidal thoughts and I’ve stopped self-harming,” Eversole said.
Jessica Gordon helped launch the program in September and works with both faculty and students to provide hypnotherapy once every five to six weeks in between standard therapy sessions.
“They are still conscious,” Gordon said. “They know what’s going on. They really sit back and say what’s going on in their subconscious, why they’re depressed, why they’re really angry, why they’re anxious. You can take it out.”
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Gordon said such therapy sessions are rare in low-income areas, but extremely important.
“Oftentimes, people want to paint kids as bad people or suspend them from school, when in reality there’s a lot going on. Our kids have certainly experienced a lot of trauma. , physical abuse, sexual abuse,” she said.
Over the past 60 to 90 days, students who participated in the program experienced a 69% decrease in suicidal thoughts, a 30% decrease in anger, and a 40% increase in self-esteem.
“We all have something buried inside of us, and we deserve it to come out so we can heal and become our best selves,” Gordon said.
The world wants to see that version.
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