78: Stress Management, Visualization, and Students: A Quest for Meaning and Knowledge

Stress management with children is the basis of this study, resulting from work undertaken in 1988, more specifically from research conducted within the framework of an M.A. in education. The activity targeted the point of view of students involved in lived experiences with visualization. Four participants were selected: Zoé, Daphné, Olivier, and Didier. Their personal lived experiences recorded in their own words offer new insights, thus providing pedagogical practices and public school systems with yet more innovative ways to improve the quality of their services.

Every time she had an English test at school, the same thing happened to 12-year-old Emma. The night before, she would toss in bed, have a hard time falling asleep, and have nightmares. She would wake up the next morning feeling tired, with a headache and a beating heart, overcome by a sense of imminent doom. She could not eat breakfast because of the knots in her stomach. She would complain of dizziness, and by the time she got on the bus, she was nauseous. In class, she was jumpy, grumpy, with sweaty palms. When the test began, her head started to pound, leaving her totally unable to focus on the questions asked or to come up with any of the answers.