President’s Letter: Sharing Approaches to Anxiety

In our field of work, other educators tend to consult and collaborate with us on helping to alleviate various aspects of anxiety in students. What are some direct services we can provide to students that will help with anxiety issues they may face? In this edition of the newsletter, I hope you will gain some strategies to assist our students who experience anxiety issues in school and at home. Please bear in mind that anxiety in students can take on many different lenses and the services we provide should not be one size fits all. I challenge you to look for innovative approaches in working with students who experience anxiety issues. I encourage you to research and engage in professional learning related to some of the trending strategies around this concern. Two trending strategies that come to my mind are restorative practices and mindfulness.

In addition to the direct services you are able to provide to students, I encourage you to share your professional learning findings/tips with your school staff and the parents of your students. Tackling student anxiety doesn’t have to rest solely with you. You can provide knowledge to others so they, in turn, can become champions for students. Talk with your administrator about the possibility of presenting some of your findings at a PTA meeting, if you don’t want to host a separate parent workshop. You can also talk with your administrator about presenting to faculty and staff on a professional learning day or for a few minutes during a faculty meeting. Sometimes we have to be the ones to share with the staff the effective practices related to issues that tend to fall in our arena so they can understand the value of the school counselor and see that we’re all in this together.

Let’s work together to address student anxiety so our students can grow up to become productive members of our society. We need our students to know that we are in the business of being champions for them.

Contact Maria Grovner, GSCA president, via our online leadership directory.