WHAT IF
THE WAY A STUDENT
SEES THEMSELVES
ISN'T THE TRUTH?
Rewind the Tape is a free program designed to partner with and serve local schools to see positive changes in students’ mental health and behaviors. Through his own life experiences, illustrations, and research, Dr. Brian Connolly helps students understand the relationship between rejection, negative self-perception, and the state of their mental health and behavioral choices. This program empowers students to rewind the tape of their faulty self-talk and replace it with truthful, encouraging language, leading to reassuring changes in their ability to love and accept themselves, their emotional well-being, and their actions.
THE NUMBERS TELL A STORY
THE NUMBERS TELL A STORY
These findings come from surveys and interviews with 25 students (12 boys and 13 girls).
100%
reported struggling
with self-hatred
100%
86%
reported having
low self-esteem
86%
76%
believed something
was wrong with them
76%
60%
commonly experienced
rejection
60%
50%
reported being bullied
by their peers
50%
These findings come from surveys and interviews
with 25 students (12 boys and 13 girls).
THESE ARE THEIR WORDS
THESE ARE THEIR WORDS
WHY DO WE NEED TO REWIND THE TAPE?
WHY DO WE NEED TO REWIND THE TAPE?
43%
experienced some form of abuse
These findings come from surveys and interviews
with 25 students (12 boys and 13 girls).
64%
have difficulty loving themselves
50%
reported that one parent was physically or emotionally absent
60%
reject themselves when they sense others have rejected them
29%
reported rejection from family members
10%
of females had an eating disorder
29%
reported thoughts of suicide
battle
anxiety & depression
21%
40%
of females struggle with body image
THESE ARE THEIR WORDS
THESE ARE THEIR WORDS
“I feel like, for me…. my mental health in a way was really failing, and I feel like I was constantly in a state of stress and overthinking.”
“I thought the only reason I was born was so that I could be abused.”
“I hated myself; that’s plain and simple. I hated how I looked, how I dressed. I hated everything about me.”
“They [experiences with rejection] really made me feel like I serve no purpose in life.”
“I kept telling myself I wasn’t worthy of people’s love… and I was doing it all wrong.”
“It just made me hate myself a lot, and I hated everything about me.”
“From a young age, I like, found like, cutting as a relief.”
“I had really bad depression and anxiety.”
“After all that, I became extremely suicidal, and I had really bad depression and anxiety, and I just didn’t really want to be near people, but I just put a smile on my face just to pretend like things were ok.”
“I caused myself to have an eating disorder. I would force myself to throw up after every meal.”
“I would always just kind of like believe myself as unworthy of other people’s attention.”
“I always told myself that, like, I was always going to be a victim.”
“So I found myself as like, not really good enough for people, and just like not worthy of love in general.”
“Because of my fear of rejection… I was just terrified and almost, like, paralyzed at, at points… to the point where I couldn’t do my work or other stuff, because I was so scared.”
“I was just so afraid of what others thought of me that I began to put up this front… and I became someone everybody liked, but inside, I did not like myself, and just hated who I was.”
These findings come from surveys and interviews
with 25 students (12 boys and 13 girls).
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Rewind the Tape seeks to positively influence the mental health crisis due to the effects of rejection on teenagers today and the lies they believe about themselves as a result of those experiences. These effects include, but are not limited to, such things as low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicidal ideation, and addictions.
A DIFFERENT STORY IS POSSIBLE
A DIFFERENT STORY IS POSSIBLE
01. RECOGNIZE
02. REWIND
03. REWRITE
Rewind the Tape helps students feel seen and understood by exposing the common experiences of rejection and its effects that plague many young people today.
This program also reveals common lies young people believe about themselves stemming from their experiences with rejection and shows how those lies contribute to negative self-perceptions that then wound their mental health.
Finally, students will be equipped to challenge negative thoughts that arise and replace them with truthful, positive ones.
Dr. Brian Connolly holds an MA in counseling and a doctorate in ministry degree. He has served and worked with teenagers since 2005. Both his life experiences and educational pedigree have contributed to countless success stories of positively impacting and changing young people’s lives, as well as to the writing of four books. He is the founder and president of a nonprofit ministry called Faith Like Birds, whose sole goal is to help restore the broken places inside teenagers. He is married and the father of four girls.
MEET DR. BRIAN CONNOLLY
MEET DR. BRIAN CONNOLLY
MA in Counseling
Doctorate in Ministry
