From the Wellness Centre
Year Ten teenMHFA Course
This course is coming to an end in the next couple of weeks. To recap, students are taught to initiate a caring conversation with a friend or peer whom they’ve noticed has been showing signs of not coping as they typically would. This conversation can be a lifesaver as the students are taught the difference between indicators of a developing mental health problem and a crisis. MHFA Australia defines a crisis as having thoughts of suicide, engaging NSSI as a coping strategy, being very intoxicated with alcohol or other drugs and experiencing bullying and abuse; a crisis requires immediate attention and the support of an adult.
For mental health problems, the students use the Action Plan which has five options depending on the situation as their guide. Please initiate conversations at home about mental health literacy; ask to see the handbook and you’ll notice the content and opportunities to chat with your young person; be curious and open-minded about the course.
If the students participated in at least three of the five lessons including the crucial crisis film, they will receive a Certificate of Completion for their resume; these will be distributed by early Term Two. There are a few fantastic options for students this term such as SCUBA and da Vinci, which may clash with MHFA/Health Ed lessons; I will ensure that catch-up times are offered for the students.
Training Opportunities
Conversations about Non-Suicidal Self-Injury
Being hosted by Great Southern Grammar and Palmerston, at Great Southern Grammar, Thursday 14 March from 9.00am to 1.45pm.
See details in the link below and register your interest with kjohnston@palmerston.org.au or with me sheryl.moncur@gsg.wa.edu.au
Conversations-About-NSSI-Course-Flyer_August-2023_Web.pdf (mhfa.com.au)
Older Persons Mental Health First Aid Course in April
This brilliant 12 hours/two day course will occur during the April school holidays – Friday 5 and Sunday 7 at Great Southern Grammar.
See the brochure for further information and also email sheryl.moncur@gsg.wa.edu.au or kjohnson@palmerston.org.au to register your participation. Again, we are being sponsored by Palmerston and WAMHC. Group numbers will be capped at 20.
Maggie Dent is coming to Perth for two events
Maggie has written many books on parenting, is a mother to four male children/adults now (and a doting grandmother), has a fantastic podcast and … is a household name. Her pragmatic, research-based based and engaging events are always illuminating and entertaining.
Mothering Our Boys (Friday 15 March)
Calming Today's Anxious Kids - Maggie Dent (Saturday 18 May)
Introducing the marvellous Linda Stade
Linda Stade is another of my favourite educator/writer/consultants, (like Claire Eaton whom I showcased last fortnight) whose particular interest is the education and wellbeing of tweens and teens. If you subscribe, you will receive a fortnightly blog in your inbox which explores and offers up-to-date, insights and analysis of such topics as wellbeing of young people, parenting tips, age-stage tasks, friendship dynamics and such like. We staff were very fortunate to have Linda as a guest speaker a few years ago – she is engaging and so relevant. See below some recent offerings from Linda Stade.
Courage in Action: Teaching Young People to Stand Up! (inspiringgirls.info)
Every child needs a toolkit for positive mental health. What's in it? (lindastade.com)
Linda Stade Education - Writer, Speaker, Consultant
Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg
I was introduced to Charles Duhigg as I listened to a recent Radio National programme All in the Mind. A Yale and Harvard Business School Graduate, a Pulitzer Prize winner, an award winning journalist … Duhigg set out to explore the “secrets of supercommunicators to reveal the art – and the science – of successful communication”.
What drew my attention to this programme and what motivated me to buy the book are the simple tenets that all conversations are about one of three mindsets (or actually can be all three) and that astute communicators can steer conversations towards clear message delivery and receival. These three conversations – which correspond to practical decision making conversations, emotional conversations, and conversations about identity – are best captured by three questions: what's this really about?, how do we feel?, and who are we?. Each of these conversations draws on a different type of mindset and mental processing, activating different parts of our brains – from the frontal control network or the command centre for our thoughts and actions, to the emotional and memory areas of the brain. Miscommunication occurs when people are having different kinds of conversations - if you're speaking emotionally while I'm talking practically we are in essence using different cognitive languages. We may find that we are not “matching” and may become frustrated and unheard in the chat.
Families, couples, parents, friends, colleagues in conversation with their young people/person, can establish from the outset what kind of conversation they wish to have … or we can ask … is this a problem-solving conversation? Or a supportive one? For example, a discussion might begin when a friend asks for help, thinking through a work problem (what's this really about?) and then proceeds to admit he's feeling stressed (how do we feel?) before finally focusing on how other people will react when they learn about this issue (who are we?).
To simplify further, a clarifying conversation between adults and young people (parents, caregivers and teachers) may follow thus: Do you want to be helped? (a practical conversation), hugged? (an emotional conversation) or heard? (a more social conversation). Of course, if may be all three, but we can attune our skills to pay better attention, listen more closely, speak more openly … which elicits alignment and matching.
These few paragraphs comprise a crude distillation of an entire book – but I warmly encourage you to source this further – as when two nervous systems align and synchronise … deep connections might occur, epiphanies may erupt, humility might bloom, forgiveness may slowly emerge, conflict may be less prickly, our loved ones might feel heard, our rigid position holding might soften, our neural chemicals may sing and we may finally understand that other people really do matter … as well as ourselves.
Yours in maintaining mental fitness,
Ms Sheryl Moncur | School Counsellor