From the Chair: Start Your Year Well

After a hopefully refreshing winter break, we are now back to a new semester or quarter at school. This can be a busy and stressful time of year for everyone. Using nature-based school counseling, whether by taking a walk, planting a school garden or taking time for playing outside, you and your students can add a feeling of wellness to your day. This is often termed eco-wellness. It can help students refocus, improve academic outcomes and feel more connected to school. Leaving the office periodically to work with students, in a nature-based setting, can be refreshing for school counselors too! Winter is the perfect time of year to do this in most of Florida.

School counselor self-care is important to practice regularly, throughout the school year. To be able to be there for our students, we must be able to cultivate compassion and care for ourselves. For many school counselors, now is the most challenging time of their careers. We must prioritize our own self-care to prevent burnout and compassion fatigue. By having a specific self-care plan (SMART goal), you will be more likely to follow through. Trying to increase sleep, exercise, or beginning to use or increase mindfulness practices are all good self-care goals for the new year.

Part of our own self-care is being able to say no to things we just don’t have time for. Whether this is one more duty at school or an additional task a friend or family member asks you to do, saying no or asking for help is something many school counselors struggle with because of our giving nature. Knowing your limits and when to say no is also a great self-care goal to have for 2022.

During stressful times, our minds seem to never stop. Our students experience this, too. Teaching students basic mindfulness techniques such as belly breathing, a body scan, five-finger breathing, a brain dump, etc., can help make systemic changes at your school. Introduce older students to mindfulness apps like Calm or Headspace. Mindfulness can help students better regulate their emotions and gain self-control, it teaches empathy and it can help with concentration. Teaching mindfulness fits with many SEL initiatives and curriculum.

If there was ever a time to teach students to be resilient, it is now. During the pandemic, many of our students have had to figure out how to be resilient on their own. It is a myth that children just know how to be resilient. Fostering resilience in students can help them cope with future or current life stressors. Teaching skills such as problem solving, how and whom to ask for help, and how to cope with loss can build resilience. Keep in mind that students’ social skills may be rusty because of the pandemic and they may need skill refreshers. Teaching students how to be resilient will help them throughout life, not just during the pandemic.

Contact Cindy Topdemir, Ph.D., Florida School Counseling Association Governing Board chair, at topdemir@fla-schoolcounselor.org.