How I Went from Survival Mode to Advocacy: A Journey into EMF Awareness
A few years ago, my life as I knew it disappeared.
I was diagnosed with electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) and suddenly, my world became toxic to me. I couldn’t leave my house. I was trapped, not just inside four walls, but inside a body that reacted to the world around me. The world was no longer a safe place. I lost all sense of hope. And then, I lost something even more painful—my extended family. Some of them didn’t believe EHS was real. Their disbelief shocked me and still does to this day.
To make matters worse, a doctor at a well-known hospital in Arizona told me that I would never heal. And he said it with full confidence, as if he couldn’t possibly be wrong. What stayed with me wasn’t just the inaccuracy. It was his certainty about something he clearly didn’t know anything about. That kind of misplaced confidence, especially from someone in a position of authority, is not just unprofessional. It’s unethical. And it’s far more common than people think.
To survive, I did the only thing I could: I shut everything off.
I turned off every breaker in my house. I cooked with a single external burner and a flashlight. I ived in darkness. No devices. No lights. No hope. I didn’t know if I was going to make it through.
And in that darkness, I started to write, not to be productive or creative, but simply to cope. I wrote down every fear, every loss, every moment of grief. Over time, those pages became the foundation for my book:
From Sensitivity to Resilience: Coping Strategies for Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity.
To my surprise, it became a bestseller.
But that wasn’t the end of the story. It was the beginning.
When Awareness Became Purpose
During this time, one of my practitioners said something that stayed with me:
“This is here to awaken you to your purpose.”
At the time, I didn’t want to hear it. I wasn’t looking for purpose, I just wanted to survive, but she was right. This experience was my awakening.
During my book signings, I started noticing a troubling pattern. Teenagers would walk into the store—glued to their phones, wearing smartwatches and earbuds, totally immersed in their screens. I would share the symptom list from my book and ask, “How many of these symptoms do you have?”
They had them all.
And when I asked, “Would you like to learn how to stay safe?”
They said no.
That moment hit me hard. These teenagers didn’t know they were in danger—and worse, they didn’t want to know.
So I started digging deeper. I began researching the risks. What I found confirmed is, this is a global public health issue—one especially affecting children.
The Silent Impact on Our Kids
Children are not just smaller versions of adults. Their bodies and brains are still developing.
Their skulls are thinner, meaning radiation penetrates more deeply. And they are facing a lifetime of cumulative exposure unlike anything previous generations have known.
Experts around the world are sounding the alarm:
Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge reports that just 20 minutes of screen time can dysregulate a child’s brain—leading to anxiety, mood swings, meltdowns, and poor sleep. This isn’t about screen addiction. Their nervous systems simply aren’t wired for that level of stimulation.
Dr. Lennart Hardell found that early use of mobile phones significantly increases the risk of developing brain tumors.
Dr. Julie McCredden, a neuroscientist, discovered that children can absorb up to 30 times more radiation in key memory centers of the brain than adults—affecting learning, attention, and emotional regulation.
The more I learned, the clearer it became, something had to change.
That’s why I created Safe Kids, Strong Moms—to empower families to protect their children in a wireless world.
The truth is, most of us were handed technology without guidance—no instruction manual, no boundaries, no understanding of long-term effects. And now we’re trying to navigate it while raising children in an even more connected, overstimulating world.
We do our best:
We ask our kids to get off their screens—while holding our own phones in our hands.
We try to limit their tech use—while texts, emails, and notifications keep piling up.
We feel scattered, rushed, disconnected and wonder why our kids feel the same.
But our children aren’t just listening to what we say.
They’re watching what we do.
The Power of Modeling
This is one of the most honest and humbling truths in parenting today.
Whether we realize it or not, we are modeling how to interact with technology—how to be
present, how to regulate, how to respond to the world around us.
Our tone, our energy, our habits—they don’t just influence our kids.
They become their inner voice.
Your calm becomes their calm.
Your overwhelm becomes theirs too.
This isn’t about blame. It’s about alignment.
It’s about asking ourselves:
Is the way I’m living in line with what I want to teach my children?
Bringing the Message to Schools
This work has taken me beyond living rooms and into classrooms.
I’ve been visiting elementary schools to share our Safe Kids, Strong Moms program with children in grades 3 to 5—teaching them what Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR ) is and how to build lifelong habits to stay safe and self-regulated in a digital world. The program is simple but powerful: five modules, delivered over five weeks—just one hour per week.
And the response has been eye-opening.
Every teacher I speak with tells me the same thing:
“We’re seeing more anxiety, more emotional dysregulation, and more kids who seem overwhelmed—and younger than ever before.”
They tell me this program is timely, and that it fills a gap. But more than that, they’re asking for consistency—a way to make sure what kids learn in school is reinforced at home. Our 18-Day EMF Home Reset does just that, it is a step-by-step guide to help families create healthier, more balanced environments at home. It bridges the gap between what kids learn in school and what they experience every day in their own space.
Because lasting change doesn’t come from a single conversation—it comes from collective awareness and intentional action across every level: our homes, our schools, our communities, our policymakers, tech companies, parents, and teachers. It takes both knowledge and practice to create a culture where our children not just survive the onslaught of technology but thrive.
A New Way Forward
We’re at a turning point.
Children are being raised in a world saturated with wireless radiation, screen exposure, and
digital noise, yet most families and educators have never been told what that really means for developing
brains and bodies. That’s not just a gap in education. It’s a public health crisis in the making.
Safe Kids, Strong Moms was founded to meet that crisis head-on.
Our mission is to empower families, schools, and communities with high-quality resources that reduce EMF risks, support healthier living, and promote informed, proactive choices in an increasingly wireless world.
But awareness alone is not enough.
We are building a coalition, one that demands real change from every direction:
In homes: by giving families the tools to create safer, calmer, more connected environments
In schools: by teaching children lifelong tech safety and self-regulation skills
In communities: by raising awareness about EMF risks and pushing for safer infrastructure
In public policy: by advocating for stricter regulation on wireless expansion, especially near schools and homes
And in the tech industry itself: by urging companies to develop health-conscious technology that puts safety over profit
We’re here to raise voices, not just concerns.
To push for accountability, not just adaptation.
And to create a culture where protecting our children’s health is not optional—it’s the standard.
Whether it’s saying no to another 5G tower near a school, showing parents how to reduce EMF in the home, or helping a teacher recognize the signs of digital overload in a child—this work matters.
The new way forward begins now.
And it belongs to all of us.
Get Involved join our Mother’s coalition to be the voice of change
Claire Sookman is the founder of Safe Kids, Strong Moms and the bestselling author of From Sensitivity to Resilience: Coping Strategies for Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity. A step-mom, educator, and international advocate, Claire is dedicated to helping families reduce EMF exposure and build healthier, more intentional digital habits. Through educational programs, global resources, and a growing Mothers Coalition, she is advancing child safety and digital wellness around the world.