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About Gentle Enhancement®

Gentle Enhancement® is a fundamental concept of The HANDLE Approach.

Gentle Enhancement® is an approach based on the concept that weak, disorganized, immature, or damaged neurological systems should be gently strengthened.

Stressed systems do not get stronger, they become more disordered or shut down. The flight or fight response of the sympathetic nervous system does an outstanding job of preparing one to deal with a perceived threat to safety. When the sympathetic nervous system is activated, the body’s natural resources become dedicated to survival, leaving few, if any, resources left for other processes, such as learning, maintenance, and repair.

When weak neurological systems cause a sustained stress response, problems with health and/or learning can arise. Most people are aware of stress-related risks to physical health, which include digestion/absorption problems, immune system problems, sleep disorders often accompany a diagnosis of Autism, ADD and other neurodevelopmental disorders, as well as cardiac conditions. From the HANDLE perspective, these outcomes are not surprising.

The HANDLE approach teaches individuals to recognize symptoms of stress-level state changes that indicate that the sympathetic nervous system has been activated, including:

• Change in muscle tone
• Loss of visual focus
• Reddening of the ears
• Change of facial color
• Change in breathing patterns
• Complaints of nausea, dizziness, disorientation, or other somatic concerns

HANDLE providers advise clients to stop doing a HANDLE activity at the first sign of stress. The HANDLE approach encourages Gentle Enhancement as a way of life: whenever a task or situation produces symptoms of increased stress, the individual is encouraged to

• Take a break from the task or situation causing stress
• Change the structure of the task, or the environment in which it occurs
• Diminish irritants
• Adopt stress-relieving techniques

Neuroscientific research is now validating HANDLE founder Judith Bluestone’s long-held assertions that stress interferes with cognitive function, influences mental health, and alters the structure of the brain. For more information about the effects of stress on the brain from The Franklin Institute click here. Link to http://www.fi.edu/learn/brain/stress.html

 

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