Reading the newspaper this week I discovered a truly amazing thing – a mobile ice rink was coming to town over Christmas! This wasn’t super cool because I’m an awesome skater and look great in a leotard (I am, and I do), but because Weasel has been dreaming of snow for so long. “When I’m a lady, I’m going to move to the snow and be a skater”. While I *could* have taken her to an ice rink about 30 minutes away, I’m a lazy crap mum, so I haven’t. I also have to consider the fact that Weasel is a wuss. You see, even if I put on my miracle hat and make it snow, turning QLD into an icy wonderland, she’s not going to skate. She’ll go through the rigmarole of choosing a boot and then shut down. No bloody way is she going on that ice. Attempts to coerce her will result in distress. Attempts to gently lead her to it will result in screams. Attempts to force her will result in blind panic.

Weasl is a wuss.

Which is why I was interested in a new program called MyFear Zapper. Basically, it allows kids to do just that, zap their fears. The program takes kids through visualisation techniques they can practice in a safe environment, ready to apply when things get scary. It’s being used by children’s therapists and counsellors with great results for fears of dark, thunder, big dogs, nightmares, monsters, fairy floss, butterflies…whatever kids are scared of, they’re given the tools and confidence to zap it.

I'm big and scary, until you give me a clown nose

As well as visualising their mastery, kids can create an avatar of their fear and play games to make it more friendly. Or squashed. It’s all good.

I ran through it myself first time of course, then we ran through it together. Weasel declared herself afraid of bugs. Which of course she is. She did as the game characters asked, closed her eyes and visualised her fear, gave it a name, and made herself  ‘the boss’ of it. After a few run throughs she has improved with bugs, hard to believe, but true. She’s not going to pick one up and pet it, but neither will she run screaming from the room.

The game works well for fear of ‘things’, but to cover fear of ‘doing’ is a little trickier, as we have to identify part of the underlying fear, such as fear of imbalance, and then explain that to the child. The principles are still the same though, Weasel needs to visualise the problem, and then visualise herself triumphant with success.

Yay, cat approval!

We will continue to use the game this summer, for her small fears and large, and hopefully by the time school starts next year Weasel will be able to run off with the other kids and calmly assess the big scary monkey bars, use her new techniques, and climb confidently up.

MyFear Zapper is an online game, available through a monthly subscription.

Thanks to MyFear Zapper, I have 5 one-month subscriptions to give away. You can squish quite a few fears in that time!

Enter via the rafflecopter form below, additional entries are available for facebook and twitter activity.

Open worldwide, closes Monday 21st November at 12pm AEST.

I received a complimentary subscription for MyFear Zapper for review purposes.  All views are my own.
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