Pandemic-induced anxiety has prompted an area therapist to launch new program for girls.
The School of Emotional Intelligence Girls Confidence Club is a first in Canada, aimed at encouraging social and emotional well-being in pre-teen and teenage girls, according to Yuliya Levina, founder of the Barrie Anxiety Clinic.
“After the pandemic, I see huge increases in youth mental health issues and anxiety … that could have been prevented if this kind of education was provided earlier, like at schools, for example,” the clinical therapist said. “It’s the highest level of anxiety that I’ve ever seen for the past 12 years that I’ve been practising in Canada.”
Levina, a psychotherapist who works with families, initially focused on anxiety disorders and conditions such as depression and addictions, and in recent years has been focusing on personality disorders. She describes seeing low self-esteem and concerns in interpersonal interaction resulting in behavioural problems at school.
Levina forged an unusual path to her profession, and Barrie. She had immigrated from Belarus to Canada as a qualified teacher, but the lack of Canadian experience prevented her from landing a job here. So, she took a sales job with a phone company and went back to school at age 31.
After graduating from Seneca College, the mother of two worked overnight shifts as a counsellor at the York Region Emergency Youth Shelter and continued her studies at York University. From there, she worked at the Canadian Mental Health Association and opened a private practice.
In 2020, she moved to Barrie with her children and, two years later, opened the Barrie Anxiety Clinic, a mental health centre for children, youth and adults.
“My biggest professional challenge was my beliefs shaped by my cultural background, the environment I grew up in, and the adversity I was exposed to," Levina says. "The skill of turning adversity into an opportunity for personal and professional growth was probably the best one I've learned.
"Now I feel like I have been rewarded with my career, my loved ones, and my community."
After developing the program for girls aged 10 to 16 years, she set out in search of a place to hold it. During her search, she discovered the Sandbox Centre, a not-for-profit business centre in downtown Barrie that is providing the space.
Increased emotional intelligence, she explained, is linked to the ability to understand, use and manage emotions to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict. She said it is connected to better academic performance, mental health, relationships and career success.
Through her program, she hopes to help in develop confident girls and future leaders.
The six-week Girls Confidence Club program involves a group session wtih up to 10 girls. Each class targets different areas, including thoughts, emotion, behaviour, interpersonal skills, self-esteem and body image. The program uses visual material and includes role play and interaction in groups that will be divided by age.
“It’s very specific and it’s very goal-oriented,” said Levina. “It’s also fun.”
Levina said she decided to launch the program with a focus on girls because they are more receptive to discussing their emotions and more willing to understand what they’re going through.
The pandemic, she added, has resulted in significant increases in technology addictions that have impacted the brain's perception of stimulus, as well as impacting their social skills. For youth, that denial of interaction occurred during their development years when they would typically learn how to engage with the opposite gender, for example.
Lack of access to facial expression, particularly in the younger stages, Levina pointed out, has also resulted in a gap in how children interact socially.
“We don’t know yet in the neuro-scientific field how it impacted the brain development, but what I see is that we’re going to be dealing with it for many generations ahead,” she says. “That’s why we need more education, other than academic education.”
Levina said she would like to see more widespread knowledge and education related to what she describes as an invisible pandemic for other professionals to help them understand the issues, given that psychotherapy isn’t universally available.
