What happens when schools address social and emotional wellness from an integrative model?

 

Shelly offers several contract services for schools that address the social and emotional needs of students, parents and educators.  All services are offered in the context of mindful awareness, a way of being in the present moment in order to see one's internal and external experience clearly.  Mindfulness work with students, parents, and educators can help to cultivate a caring and responsive community.  

 

Mindfulness practices can help to reduce stress, increase attention and concentration, increase one’s ability to empathize with others and help to deal with difficult emotions.  Mindfulness practices can help a student to make healthy decisions and to feel more comfortable in their own skin.  The developmental path from a child to an adult is an exciting and pivotal time, during which change is constantly happening – physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Kids are better equipped to handle modern culture’s onslaught of academic, social, and societal pressures when they are able to draw from a developed inner resilience. Like learning to play basketball or understanding math, this takes regular practice in order to create a change in one's lifestyle and in the brain structure.  By learning social and emotional skills and mindfulness practices, kids may be able to prevent future mental/emotional disorders. 

 

Public and private schools across the country have been embracing mindfulness practices as a way to improve attention/concentration, reduce violence and aggression (internal as well as external), enhance academic performance and create a more positive and peaceful school environment.  Mostly, mindfulness practices, that include stress-reduction and calming exercises, are of interest to schools due to the increasing numbers of youth with psychological issues and the ever increasing pressure-cooker culture in which kids are expected to excel faster than they can developmentally sustain.  

 

Students are under an unprecedented amount of stress to perform academically, get into the right college and get on a successful career path.  There is another side to their education that is often overlooked – the social and emotional learning that can help them to feel good about their lives, create and maintain healthy relationships, and foster creative and deeply meaningful living.  Mindfulness-Based Life Skills help fill this gap by raising self-awareness and developing inner resilience, so that kids and teens may go out into the world with self-love, confidence, and compassion. 

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Contract Services

Services are custom created based on needs of school and developmental level of students.

• Classes for Students (taught over 6 weeks, semester or academic year)

• Teacher workshops and trainings

• Parent Support Classes

• Consultation for Social and Emotional Issues

• Curriculum Support for Health and Wellness Classes

 

Topics

All topics are explored from a base of mindful-awareness.

Examples Include:

• Self-Care

• Mindfulness Basics

• Stress-Reduction

• Social trends in middle school, high school and college

• Preparing for College Social & Emotional needs

• Substance Use

• Sexuality

• Relationships

• Conscious Parenting

• Emotional Red Flags

• How to seek help

• Fostering Love and Indepedence with Children

• Independent Living Skills needed for college and beyond

• Bullying

• Body Image and Eating Disorders

• Influence of Media on Child's Development

• Core Inner-Resilience Skills

• Understanding and Creating Values

• Relaxation

• Time/Life Management

• Teacher Burn-Out

• Teacher/Parent Attunement with Kids

• Conflict Resolution