Finding the Words (eBook)

Empowering Struggling Students through Guided Conversations

Hayley Watson (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024
371 Seiten
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
978-1-394-18715-7 (ISBN)

Infos

Boost your confidence in supporting the mental health of all students

Educators can't always fix or change students' challenging situations, but with Dr. Hayley Watson's Finding the Words, they can create compassionate, safe spaces to truly make a difference to student wellbeing. As educators, we are in a position where we can help students break out of cycles of anxiety, low mood, and peer struggles, without needing to be a mental health expert. This book shows you how to support students with issues like parental loss, low body image, bullying, addiction, and more-with practical language that you can use anytime you are on-the-spot with a struggling student. This language helps you set boundaries to protect your own wellbeing, by guiding your students towards self-reliance and resilience.

In Finding the Words, author and clinical psychologist Hayley Watson offers practical advice with a personal, self-reflective, and relatable tone. In each chapter, you'll explore the topics students struggle with most, including hot-button issues like consent and prejudice. You'll learn how to talk to kids about these issues in a way that helps them make positive changes in their lives. With this book, you will feel like you have a psychologist on hand to support you in those moments when you know your response could mean the world to a struggling student.

• Understand the common issues your students face-anxiety, low body image, acting out, and beyond
• Read first-person accounts from youth ages 5-19, showing how appropriate responses can nurture and support students through any challenge they face
• Gain specific, practical techniques and takeaways to use right away in your interactions with students
• Learn the most effective language to use when you are on-the-spot with a struggling student

This is a critical resource for school leaders, teacher leaders, classroom teachers and school staff. Any adults who work with youth can benefit from this insightful, expert advice on how to help in the moments when your students need you most.

Dr. Hayley Watson is a clinical psychologist specializing in children and adolescents and the founder of Open Parachute, a video-based school mental health program using documentary stories of real students sharing their experiences of overcoming struggle. The platform reaches more than half a million students and educators worldwide.

Inhalt

Praise for Finding Words

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: Understanding Student Mental Health

Section 1: Rejecting/Acceptance (Remembering Love)

Chapter 2: Finding the Words with Students Who Are in Rejecting Behavior Patterns

Chapter 3: Encouraging Students Who Are Disengaged from School

Chapter 4: Supporting Students Who Face Abuse and Domestic Violence

Chapter 5: Coaching Students Who Bully or Are Aggressive/Violent

Chapter 6: Helping Gender Diverse Students Feel Included

Section 2: Controlling/Spontaneity (Remembering Safety)

Chapter 7: Finding the Words with Students Who Are in Controlling Behavior Patterns

Chapter 8: Supporting Students Who Are Worried, Anxious, or Stressed

Chapter 9: Guiding Students Away from Peer Rivalry

Chapter 10: Talking to Students about Unhealthy Eating Habits

Section 3: Avoiding/Openness (Remembering Courage)

Chapter 11: Finding the Words with Students Who Are in Avoiding Behavior Patterns

Chapter 12: Supporting Students Who Self-Harm

Chapter 13: Helping Students Who People Please

Chapter 14: Encouraging Students Who Are Depressed or Apathetic

Chapter 15: Guiding Students Who Are Caught in Addictive Patterns

Chapter 16: Communicating with Students Who Have Faced Loss

Section 4: Following/Leadership (Remembering Identity)

Chapter 17: Finding the Words with Students Who Are in Following Behavior Patterns

Chapter 18: Supporting Students Who Are Negatively Impacted by Gender Norms

Chapter 19: Guiding Students to Make Healthy Choices on Social Media

Chapter 20: Supporting Students with Low Body Image

Chapter 21: Helping Students Stand Up to Peer Pressure

Chapter 22: Supporting Students Who Are Bullied

Chapter 23: Guiding Students Who Violate Consent

Chapter 24: Helping Students Who Face Prejudice

Section 5: Repeating/Freedom (Remembering Clarity)

Chapter 25: Finding the Words with Students Who Are in Repeating Behavior Patterns

Chapter 26: Minimizing the Influence of Pornography and "Rape Culture"

Chapter 27: Supporting Students Who Experience Intergenerational Trauma

Chapter 28: Helping Students Cope with Being Objectified

Chapter 29: Responding to Students Who Share Stories of Parental Conflict and Separation

Chapter 30: What's Next?

About the Author

Textauszug

Introduction

This book is unique in its approach. It is not a book about theories or analysis, it is a practical how-to handbook. It will provide you with guided conversations based on interviews with real students so that you can learn the specific language that will help you respond to the challenges your students face.

Mental health can be an overwhelming topic for educators. You hear the terrifying statistics. You know your students are struggling now more than ever. Mostly you might feel confident in your ability to help because you know your students and you're good at what you do. But right now, youth are in a mental health crisis, and sometimes you might get stuck when things are heavy or intense or on a scale you haven't yet experienced. Sometimes it's hard to know when to refer your students to a mental health professional and what you can say in those moments when there is no one else there but you.

This learning is essential for every educator, even if you don't want to speak about mental health at all with your students (which is completely understandable!). Think of it like CPR training. We aren't doctors, we don't know how to do surgery, but we all go through the training so that in the event that we are in front of someone whose heart has stopped, we can keep them alive until help arrives.

One of the hardest things about being an educator is that you are always “on.” When you encounter student struggles and mental health challenges, it is on the fly, in the moment, and you often don't have the luxury of providing much more than a few words. Feeling on the spot with a student's reality and not being quite sure what you should or shouldn't say can be a stressful and challenging experience. This is part of what is leading to so much teacher burnout.

Being an educator, you are immersed in human connection, and the messiness this entails, and you are the first to see the ever-changing landscape of challenges that young people face. Even though you might not feel equipped to deal with some of the things your students are experiencing, you are. You care, and you want to help. Those are the fundamentals. You don't need to be a psychologist or a mental health “expert.” All you need is a source of practical guidance that you can use to build on your already strong foundation to provide support for your students while also supporting yourself.

This book is that source. You can use the index to flip to any challenge you see occurring for your students, and in a matter of minutes, you will have an example of dialogue and language that you can draw on. This will help you move from your already strong foundation of connecting to and caring for your students to knowing precisely what to do in order to provide deep and meaningful mental health support. To provide the kind of support that builds resilience in students so they are more equipped to help themselves, and that creates a healthy boundary for you at the same time. When you know your words are helping, you are less likely to take the burden of what you hear in the classroom home with you, creating less stress in your life. These impactful conversations with struggling students will mean that you have more time, headspace, and energy to focus on teaching. And more specifically, teaching students who are mentally and emotionally ready to learn.

The information found in this book is based on my education in this field, which includes five academic degrees, my Ph.D. research into school bullying interventions, and my work as a clinical psychologist. But more than any of that, the greatest insights I have gained to advise my theoretical perspective are based on two things: First, my own therapeutic processing of the trauma that I faced in my early life, which allowed me to develop a deeply personal understanding of the theories I was presented with throughout my educational journey. By seeing my own patterns, changing some, and struggling to change others, I have become acutely aware of how our thoughts and feelings play out in the way we treat ourselves and each other on a daily basis. And second, the work I have done with schools and students over the past 20 years—some as a psychologist, some as a program developer, and some as a mentor and youth worker. Doing this work has given me a deep insight into the way mental health plays out in the real world, in school settings. The mental health challenges that educators are presented with are often confusing and multilayered, and there is usually a deficit of time to deal with the challenges of so many students in the midst of a busy school day. This is what led me to develop Open Parachute, which is a Tier 1 mental health curriculum program to assist teachers in delivering impactful mental health lessons to all of their students without needing to be a mental health “expert” themselves. Many of the teachers delivering these lessons all over the world have asked me a similar question: “If something comes up in class, what exactly do I say?” This book is an answer to that question, and is for all the brilliant educators out there who tirelessly (and often thanklessly) do the hard work every day to connect to and care for their students. In these pages, I hope you find the words that can help you navigate the challenges you face in your classroom every day.

What Is Really Going on with Students?

Every child is born with the wisdom to flourish. Every person inherently knows what they need to thrive. If they didn't, we wouldn't have survived so effectively as a species. And yet in today's world, many youth are struggling for a growing list of reasons. Many families face challenges that are beyond their control, and in many homes, the isolation and sudden changes of COVID exacerbated these challenges. Most students are in consistent contact with technology, and this can overwhelm and overstimulate them. While social media serves as a powerful tool for connection, it also increases many students' experiences of loneliness and decreases their self-esteem. With more and more image editing, increasing numbers of students feel ashamed of their bodies, which further diminishes their sense of self. Any student who does not quite fit in with their peers begins to see themselves as “less than,” which impacts their agency and motivation to strive. There are so many ever-changing challenges that children and teenagers face in our world right now that it has become an impossible task for parents to protect them or prepare them adequately.

While this can all feel pretty bleak and disheartening, the good news is that there actually is something that we, as adults, can do to help. No, we don't have all the answers. No, we can't make their challenges go away. But what we can do is remind them that they have everything they need to find their way to the other side of whatever they are facing. It might not be easy, and it might take time, but they can learn to reflect on and understand their own experiences, and do things to actively build their support systems and support themselves. These steps will drastically improve any student's mental health, and these are things that we can coach and encourage them to do every single day.

Humans have the capacity to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. This has been proven time and time again. When faced with struggle, we have the incredible ability to shift, change, and adapt to achieve greatness that we never would have imagined. When faced with 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela cultivated the courage and open-heartedness to lead an entire nation to a peaceful revolution. When faced with starvation and isolation, Anne Frank found the wisdom to write words that would teach profound compassion to the world for generations to come. When brutally gunned down, Malala Yousafzai found the strength to speak with such a commanding presence that she started an educational revolution that gave millions of girls the opportunity to expand their minds. Each of these incredible people changed the course of history simply by facing a personal challenge. As they struggled, they dug deep within themselves, and in so doing, found their own unique brilliance that could help not only themselves, but the world around them.

Every one of us has within themselves that brilliance and power. We just don't always know how to access it.

And so instead of expanding to our fullest potential when we face adversity, many of us simply fall into despair and get caught up in our fears. We start to self-destruct. We are so lost in our reactions that we become disconnected from our natural internal motivation to thrive. This is what separates us from animals. Our incredible mind has the ability to make something out of nothing. So when we are connected to ourselves and the world around us, we can be courageous and compassionate beyond measure, inspiring the world to do what is right and good and fair for everyone. But when our mind is spinning away from us and we no longer have a grasp on who we are or what we're capable of, all that mental power becomes focused on escaping what we're feeling. At all costs.

In the classroom, this might look like daydreaming, persistent disruptive behavior, withdrawal, nonattendance, or overly dramatic responses. All of this flags a deeper issue that this student is facing.

Imagine walking along a mountain path that's clearly marked, so every time you come to a crossroads you can see an indication of the right direction to take. Maybe it takes you a while to...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 11.3.2024
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik ► Bildungstheorie
• Schlagworte: Bildungswesen • Bullying • Education • K-12 • K-12 / Leitung u. Verwaltung • k-12 teacher • Leadership & Administration (K-12) • Parental Loss • social media impacts • student body image • student mental health • student resilience how to empower kids • Student Trauma • Student wellbeing • supporting students • talking to students • teacher boundaries • teacher stress • teacher wellbeing • troubled students
• ISBN-10: 1-394-18715-7 / 1394187157
• ISBN-13: 978-1-394-18715-7 / 9781394187157