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Importance of Self-Care to Create School Environments Where Students and Staff Thrive Dr. Mark Sander, Psy.D., L.P. Dr. Charlene Myklebust, Psy.D.
Importance of Self-Care to Create School Environments Where Students and Staff Thrive
Dr. Mark Sander, Psy.D., L.P.Dr. Charlene Myklebust, Psy.D.
Why Do I Work with Children?
● REFLECT FOR A MOMENT ABOUT:
● WHY YOU WENT INTO THE EDUCATION FIELD● YOUR INITIAL HOPES AND DREAMS● WHERE YOU ARE NOW WITH YOUR CHOICE● WHERE YOU HOPE TO BE IN THE FUTURE
Importance of Safe Environment for Adults to Experiment and Self Care
Taking care of ourselves is critical for us being our best and modeling our best for students and families and colleagues Self care must not be seen as a luxury but rather an ethical duty and essential part of our job Building leaders should promote and actively model self-care and create an environment where self-care is valued School leaders must create an environment where it is safe for adults to share & reflect on beliefs and practices
Why Wellness in Our Work?
• High rates of stress for staff in schools • Vicarious trauma and secondary stress• High rates of employee turnover• Benefits for adults and students in school
Stress Impacts Our Ability to do Our Jobs
• Stress is one of the main preventable causes of employee absences.
Ipso-Reid employee wellness statistics study (2004).
• According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, stress-related disorders are one of the most prevalent reason for worker disability, costing between $20-$30 billion annually due to worker absenteeism.
Working in Schools can be Challenging
• 80% of teachers reported feeling physically and emotionally exhausted at the end of the day.
• Surveys of 30,000 teachers revealed 89% stated they were enthusiastic about teaching when they started, only 15% feel that way now.
American Federation of Teachers (2015) with the group Badass Teachers
Many Employees are Unwell• According to the US Department of Health & Human
Services, for every 100 employees in this country:– 27 have cardiovascular disease– 24 have high blood pressure– 50 or more have high cholesterol– 26 are overweight by 20% or more– 10 are heavy drinkers– 59 don’t get adequate exercise
BURNOUT
pinterest.com
Impacts of Secondary TraumaEmotional: anger, sadness, grief, guilt, depression, hopelessness, numbing, overwhelmedPhysical: headaches, stomach aches, chronic exhaustion, illness, hyperarousal, sleep problemsPersonal: isolation, pessimism, withdrawn, increased substance abuseWorkplace: avoidance, minimizing, unmotivated, job dissatisfaction, inability to empathize, dislike of students/co-workers
Responses to Secondary Trauma• Coping with external trauma by compartmentalizing – avoiding
feeling and thinking, yet the pain goes into our very bodies• Warning signs, including:
• A sense that I can never do enough (“My to-do list is a mile long” or “It doesn’t matter what I do, I never seem to be making a dent in my pile”).
• Deliberate Avoidance (“I leave my email box full” or “ I don’t return phone calls”).
• Inability to empathize (“I feel emotionally asleep, numb or apathetic”).
• Grandiosity: (“If I don’t do this, no one will!” or “No one can do it as well or the same way I do).
Burnout - Definition
• The condition of someone who has become very physically and emotionally tired after doing a difficult job for a long time (Merriam-Webster).
Low energy, fatigue, emotional exhaustion, passivity, avoidanceIrritability, easily angered, little things become big thingsNegativity, down on self or others, discouragedFeeling helpless, feeling powerlessAnhedonia, work is just not funTrouble sleeping, weight loss or gain, headachesGastrointestinal problems, high blood pressure
Compassion Fatigue/Vicarious Traumatization/Secondary Traumatic Stress
The emotional residue or strain of exposure to working with those experiencing the consequences of traumatic events. It can occur due to exposure on one case or can be due to a “cumulative” level of trauma.
American Institute of Stress, 2016
PROFESSIONAL QUALITY OF LIFE SCALE (PROQOL)
https://www.proqol.org/uploads/ProQOL_5_English_Self-Score_3-2012.pdf
How does Adult Stress Impact Youth?
• Adults who are on the path to burnout report significantly more:– Negativity in their interactions with
students/clients• Sarcasm• Aggression• Responding negatively to mistakes
The Value of Having A Caring Adult in a Youth’s Life
• Developmental research shows increases in the likelihood that they will flourish, and become productive adults themselves.
Scales and Leffert, 1999
Healthy Lifestyle
Healthy eatingHealthy sleepingExerciseSocializeSchedule self-care/relaxation timesAttend to health problemsDevelop work skillsStay focused on your goals as an educator
A Few Notable Happiness & Positive Psychology Authors
Broadcasting HappinessMichelle GielenFormer anchor, CBS news
“Flow, the Secret to Happiness”Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiTed Talk
The Happiness AdvantageShawn Achor, Psychologist and CEO of Good Think Inc.
The Sweet Spot: How to Accomplish More by Doing LessChristine Carter, Ph.D.
Guidance from “The Sweet Spot” by Christine Carter
We all have a sweet spot where everything seems to flow; where we feel happy, competent, in synch with everything around us, uniquely talented, and predictably successful. It feels like magic, but it’s not.
Re-Focus
Pretend that you have less than 6 months to live. Ask yourself these questions:
●What do you need to do?●Whom do you need to talk to?●Where do you need to visit?●How will you spend your remaining time?
Perspective
How out of whack has your “real life” become?
Flow by Csikszentmihalyi - he ran a study in the 1970’s in which people were instructed to only perform “have to’s” for 48 hours - no play.
He induced generalized anxiety disorder in the subjects.
We get anxious when we aren’t having fun.
Getting to Self-Care
●Our most productive pace is our most consistent one.● “Minimum effect” dose of exercise.●Don’t check email first thing in the morning.●Do something restful or playful every day.●Whatever you decide to engage in for a “recess”
activity, it can’t be on a to-do or regular responsibility.
Myths
“If we work hard, we’ll be successful. If we are successful, then we will be happy.”
● Scientifically broken and backwards.● Error – “Every time we have a success, we change the
goalpost of what success looks like.”●We have pushed happiness over the cognitive horizon.
Happiness Advantage/Positive Psychology
Impact of raising happiness in the present:
● brain performs better●more creativity ● greater energy
Happiness Advantage
● A positive brain fuels performance, specifically by:
➢ decreasing stress by 23%➢ improving creative problem solving by 20%➢ increasing productive energy by 31%
How to Create Lasting Positive Change
For 2 minutes a day, 21 days in a row:
● Express 3 Gratitudes (Emmons and McCullough, 2003)
● We will work harder, faster, and more intelligently if we go slow to go fast.
● Send one positive e-mail a day to a friend or colleague.
Four More Essential Practices:
Journaling (Slatcher and Pennebaker, 2006)
Exercise (Babyak et al., 2000)
Meditation (Dweck, 2007)
Random Acts of Kindness (Lyubomirsky, 2005)
Staff Self-Care Plan
https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/sites/default/files/Building%20TSS%20Handout%20Packet_A
LL.pdf
HUMOR, LAUGHTER AND HEALTH
Facts and Figures
• On average, a child laughs 300 times a day while an adult laughs only 17 times a day.
• Majority of men report that their laughter is a chuckle and the majority of women report that theirs is a giggle.
• Most laughter does not come from listening to jokes; it comes from spending time with family and friends.
• People tend to laugh more when in groups. People should surround themselves with others who laugh, because laughter is contagious.
HUMOR, LAUGHTER AND HEALTH
• “ There ain’t much fun in medicine, but there’s a heck of a lot of medicine in fun.”
-Josh Billings, humorist, poet, and lecturer
• “ The crisis of today is the joke of tomorrow”-H.G. Wells, author
• “ Humor equals tragedy plus time”
MINDFULNESS
newbuddist.com
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
• Mindfulness training shown to reduce stress, depression and anxiety
• Included in SAMHSA’s National Evidence Based Program Registry (Ratings > 3 on a 0-4 scale)
• Created to address chronic pain, but useful for physical and mental health problems
• Two different research groups have adapted MBSR for teachers
Wellness is an Active Process…
• Wellness is an active process of becoming aware of and making choices toward a more successful existence.– Process --improvement is always possible
– Aware -- continuously seeking more information about how we can improve.
• Choices -- consider a variety of options and select those in best interest.
• Success -- determined by each individual to be their collection of life accomplishments.
A Promise to Yourself
Take a moment to jot down one thing that you intend to integrate into your daily life to take care of you.
Share your intention with your tablemates.
Thanks and we wish you well . . .
Web Resources Michelle Gielen -http://broadcastinghappiness.com/
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi -https://www.ted.com/speakers/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi
Shawn Achor -https://www.ted.com/speakers/shawn_achor
Christine Carter, Ph.D. -http://www.braveoverperfect.com/
