Mental Health: Self-Care and Mental Health for Educators

Mindfulness/stress management strategies and interventions can help teachers develop coping and awareness skills to reduce anxiety, depression, and improved health. Recent research from the Curry School of Education, U of VA suggest that we expand our focus when considering effective professional development. In a study of of 234 teachers, representing K-12, they found that “teachers who regularly use stress-reducing strategies increase their abilities to cope with the demands of the career and are positioned to do a better job educating students” (Breen, 2016). These findings strongly suggest that by prioritizing an educator’s social-emotional learning helps him or her to be there to participate in school wide SEL practices.  If you find yourself thinking it is counterintuitive to ask a professional to give so much and then to provide only professional development and not personal development (through the lens of SEL) you’re with us! 

In this session you will:

• mindfulness/stress reduction practices to promote self-regulation of attention;
• non-judgmental awareness;
• how to develop a personal mindfulness practice (which is necessary to be a mindful teacher which is necessary to teach mindfulness!); and
• how to maximize the space between stimulus and response.

Time: 1 hour