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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Sprache: Englisch
Practical ways to support educator mental health and well-being In The Mind-Body Connection for Educators: Intentional Movement for Wellness, Kathryn Kennedy, founder and executive director of Wellness for Educators, delivers a research-based, practical approach to supporting educators with trauma- and equity-informed somatic strategies for mental health and wellbeing. The book explains how our minds and our bodies are intricately connected, and, consequently, both are highly affected by trauma and prolonged stress. As research shows, when this residual pain is not healed, new learning cannot take place. To support educators' healing and learning processes, the book provides an overview of several mind-body disciplines, including yoga, mindfulness, meditation, Qigong, and breathwork. In addition to overviews of each discipline, Kathryn shares what the research says and provides engaging practices for educators. Readers will also find: * Identification of system-level contributing factors that bolster educator well-being, including supportive administration, social emotional learning programs, mentoring programs, points of connection, sense of belonging, and workplace wellness programs * Acknowledgement of systemic issues that can serve as barriers of educators' healing processes, especially those who identify as people of color, people of culture, and/or LGBTQIA2SI+ * Strategies to empower educators to address and work with their own trauma and negative emotions * Ways for educators to understand and heal secondary traumatic stress An essential resource for primary, secondary, and post-secondary educators, The Mind-Body Connection for Educators: Intentional Movement for Wellness is a great addition to the libraries of school administrators, principals, and other education professionals.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
About the Author
Foreword
Acknowledgments
CHAPTER 1: My Path to Educator Wellness
MY MENTAL HEALTH JOURNEY
THE BIRTH OF WELLNESS FOR EDUCATORS
COVID‐INFLUENCED EXPANSION
SWIM
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
NOTE
CHAPTER 2: The Intersection of Mental Health, Wellbeing, and Learning
DEFINING
TRAUMA
THE ACEs STUDY
POLYVAGAL THEORY
WINDOW OF TOLERANCE
THE BRAIN AND LEARNING
HEALING TRAUMA AND PROLONGED STRESS
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
CHAPTER 3: Elephant in the (Class)room: School‐ and Systemic‐Level Issues
POLICY SETTINGS OF EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS
QUALITY OF THE WORKING ENVIRONMENT
SYSTEMIC ISSUES
NOTES
CHAPTER 4: Mind‐Body Practices: What the Research Says
RESEARCH ON YOGA
RESEARCH ON BREATHWORK
RESEARCH ON MEDITATION
RESEARCH ON MINDFULNESS
RESEARCH ON QIGONG
RESEARCH ON YIN YOGA
PREPARATION FOR THE PRACTICES
CHAPTER 5: Yoga
KEY CONCEPTS
PRACTICES
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
NOTES
CHAPTER 6: Breathwork
KEY CONCEPTS
PRACTICES
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
CHAPTER 7: Meditation
KEY CONCEPTS AND PRACTICES
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
CHAPTER 8: Mindfulness
KEY CONCEPTS
PRACTICES
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
CHAPTER 9: Qigong
KEY CONCEPTS
PRACTICES
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
CHAPTER 10: Yin Yoga
KEY CONCEPTS
PRACTICES
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
CHAPTER 11: Beyond the Band‐Aids
References
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 9
Table 9.1 Five elements and their corresponding organ, climate, and season....
List of Illustrations
Chapter 1
Figure 1.1 Sisters from left to right – Kathryn Kennedy, Mary Snow, and Liz ...
Figure 1.2 Original logo.
Figure 1.3 System‐Wide Wellness Implementation Model (SWIM) logo.
Figure 1.4 Intersection of mental health, wellbeing, and learning.
Chapter 2
Figure 2.1 The brain, in right profile with the glossopharyngeal and vagus n...
Figure 2.2 Responses when we don't feel safe.
Figure 2.3 Window of Tolerance.
Figure 2.4 The brain and learning.
Figure 2.5 Pandemic approach and trauma‐informed approach.
Chapter 3
Figure 3.1 Toxic spaces.
Figure 3.2 Trauma and prolonged stress effect on educator attrition.
Source
...
Figure 3.3 Educator Wellbeing Model.
Figure 3.4 Four categories of educator wellbeing.
Chapter 4
Figure 4.1 Toe Squat.
Chapter 5
Figure 5.1 Chakras.
Figure 5.2 Sun Salutation.
Figure 5.3 Mountain.
Figure 5.4 Upward Salute.
Figure 5.5 Standing Forward Bend.
Figure 5.6 High Lunge.
Figure 5.7 Plank.
Figure 5.8 Chaturanga.
Figure 5.9 Cobra.
Figure 5.10 Downward Dog.
Figure 5.11 High Lunge.
Figure 5.12 Standing Forward Bend.
Figure 5.13 Upward Salute.
Figure 5.14 Mountain.
Figure 5.15 Warrior I.
Figure 5.16 Warrior II.
Figure 5.17 Warrior III.
Figure 5.18 Eagle.
Figure 5.19 Tree.
Figure 5.20 Legs Up the Wall.
Figure 5.21 Supported Child.
Figure 5.22 Heart Opening.
Figure 5.23 Yoga nidra nest.
Figure 5.24 Yoga nidra.
Chapter 6
Figure 6.1 Three‐Part Breath.
Figure 6.2 Surya Bhedana.
Figure 6.3 Chandra Bhedana.
Figure 6.4 Nadi Shodhana.
Figure 6.5 Bhramari.
Figure 6.6 Sitkari.
Figure 6.7 Sitali.
Figure 6.8 Lion's Breath – Inhale.
Figure 6.9 Lion's Breath – Exhale.
Chapter 8
Figure 8.1 Gratitude list.
Chapter 9
Figure 9.1 Five elements.
Chapter 10
Figure 10.1 The Goldilocks method.
Figure 10.2 Butterfly.
Figure 10.3 Frog.
Figure 10.4 Dragon.
Figure 10.5 Caterpillar.
Figure 10.6 Spinal Twist.
Figure 10.7 Final Relaxation.
Chapter 11
Figure 11.1 What happens when we don't take the time to heal by Tori Press I...
Guide
Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
About the Author
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
References
Index
Wiley End User License Agreement
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The Mind‐Body Connection for Educators
INTENTIONAL MOVEMENT FOR WELLNESS
by Kathryn Kennedy, PhD
Copyright © 2023 Jossey‐Bass Publishing. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
ISBNs: 9781119873471 (paperback), 9781119873525 (ePDF), 9781119873662 (ePub)
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2023000842 (print), 2023000843 (ebook)
Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Image: © Chiociolla/Getty Images
Take time to listen to your inner child and their needs;
cultivate a safe space for them to heal, play, and create.
The freedom that results from doing so is profound and limitless.
With immense love and gratitude,
—Kathryn
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With one foot in digital and online learning and the other in mental health and wellness, Kathryn has been cultivating two primary passions for over 20 years. She serves as founder and principal consultant of Consult4Ed Group and founder and executive director of Wellness for Educators. On the digital and online learning side, Kathryn's past roles include director of the Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute, the research arm of Michigan Virtual; director of Research for the International Association for K–12 Online Learning (iNACOL) (now the Aurora Institute); adjunct professor and advisor for the EdD program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education; and assistant professor of instructional technology at Georgia Southern University. She is one of the founding editors‐in‐chief of both the Journal of Online Learning Research and the Handbook of Research on K–12 Online and Blended Learning. She currently serves on the Leadership Team for the National Standards for Quality Online Learning and engages in exciting work with her Consult4ED Group team, which consists of over 30 amazing consultants representing a variety of expertise in the education field. On the mental health and wellness side, Kathryn combined her work in education and wellness to create Wellness for Educators, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that is invested in and passionate about supporting educators worldwide with research‐based, trauma‐ and equity‐informed trainings, coaching, and strategies for whole‐school social, emotional, mental, and physical health and wellbeing. Her team at Wellness for Educators consists of inspirational educators, licensed mental health professionals, and certified somatic practitioners. She is also working on a memoir focused on her lived experience of and healing process from early childhood trauma. She resides in the Finger Lakes region of New York with her husband Curtis and their fur babies.
FOREWORD
Kathryn Kennedy is the rare person and author who successfully investigates her own challenges in a way that supports healing and thriving. Even more impressive is that she masterfully opens her exploration to others without ever sounding sanctimonious or minimizing the complexity of what educators are facing. She does this with empathy, humor, and intelligence and gives readers confidence that they, too, can invest in their own wellbeing and chart a joyful, easier path forward by attending to the mind‐body connection.
As a therapist of over 20 years with more than a decade of experience in leadership roles at the intersection of education and mental health, I have a clear view of how difficult things are for educators and how much The Mind‐Body Connection for Educators adds to the narrative and the solutions. When my co‐authors and I wrote WHOLE: What Teachers Need to Help Students Thrive in 2019, we were sounding alarm bells about educator wellbeing. Fast‐forward to the present day, and the stressors have amplified and escalated at a rate no one could have predicted just a few years ago.
If you are an educator and you find yourself in a perpetual survival state of fight, flight, or shutdown, you are in good company. Kathryn unpacks many of the policy and systemic issues that are causing so much stress with great care. But this book goes far beyond that macro lens by giving you practices and lifelines you can put in place immediately to invite yourself back into your own life and your own body. You deserve to take care of yourself. You deserve rest, connection, safety, joy, and the world’s deepest appreciation for what you do every day.
Dive into this book and follow where your curiosity takes you. Try out the different practices and pay attention to what your nervous system wants more of – maybe it's practices that bring you energy or practices that help you feel calm. Whatever it is, this book and the Wellness for Educators community will give you a path to keep moving toward what you need to lighten the load. And Kathryn is a most sincere and perfect guide.
– Michelle Kinder, MEd., LPC, ACC
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
“We work on ourselves in order to help others, but also we help others in order to work on ourselves.”
– Pema Chödrön
This book is not only the story and foundation of Wellness for Educators, but it also serves as a small piece of my own journey. That journey wouldn't be what it is without those who have walked alongside me. As it's one of the practices listed in Chapter 8, I've created a gratitude list to acknowledge the multitude of support.
Gratitude to my family and friends – Thank you so much for your support!
Gratitude to Wiley and Jossey‐Bass Publishers and my dedicated team – Ashante Thomas, Mary Beth Rosswurm, Pete Gaughan, Rahini Devi Radhakrishnan and Sunnye Collins. Thank you all for your guidance, patience, and support!
Gratitude to my pre‐submission reviewers – Dr. Colin Ackerman, Dr. Cathy Cavanaugh, Dr. Méroudjie Denis, Dr. Wendy Drexler, Vickie Echols, Dr. Aileen Fullchange, Dr. Rebecca Itow, Dr. Curtis Jirsa, Liz Kennedy, Dr. J.J. Lewis, Margo Rosingana, Jonathan Santos Silva, Antonia Small, and Mary Snow. Thank you for taking the time to make this book so much better with your expertise and experience!
Gratitude for our Wellness for Educators’ Board members, both past and present – Peter Arashiro, Dr. Mikela Bjork, Erika Bjorum, Dr. Carey Borkoski, Dr. Cathy Cavanaugh, Dr. Méroudjie Denis, Dystanie Douglas‐Burger, Dr. Wendy Drexler, Dr. Tonia Dousay, Dr. Aileen Fullchange, Alejandra Ramos Gómez, Taylor Gonzalez, Dr. Nicol Howard, Dr. Rebecca Itow, Shomari Jones, Dr. J.J. Lewis, Dr. Tia Madkins, Brenda Maurao, Stephanie McGary, Judy Perez, Dr. Allison Powell, Meredith Roe, Francisco “Tito” Santos Silva, Jonathan Santos Silva. Sarika Simpson, Dr. Dacia Smith, Mark Sparvell, Sophie Teitlebaum, and Dr. Kristen Vogt. Thank you all for providing your expertise, guidance, and experience and for helping us navigate as we continue to grow.
Gratitude to our past and present staff, contractors, and partners – we are stronger together and can affect more change through meaningful collaboration!
Gratitude to my somatic psychology and mind‐body education schools – Embody Lab and Transformative Programs – and teachers – Sheleana Aiyana, Bayo Akomolafe, Karine Bell, Micah Bizant, Kelsey Blackwell, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Patrisse Cullors, Deb Dana, Lisa Dion, Lisa Jo Epstein, Mordecai Ettinger, Sam Field, Ruella Frank, Dr. Maureen Gallagher, Dr. Ruby Gibson, Dr. Sam Grant, Dr. Amber Elizabeth Gray, Dr. Angela Grayson, Staci Haines, Monica Hunken, Isaiah Jackson‐Ramirez, Dr. Rae Johnson, Farzana Khan, Dr. Sará King, Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Zea Leguizamon, Dr. Peter Levine, Dr. Scott Lyons, Susan McConnell, Resmaa Menakem, Kekuni Minton, Manuela Mischke‐Reeds, Sherri Mitchell, Rusia Mohiuddin, Jessica Montgovery, Emory Moore, Nikki Myers, Nkem Ndefo, Euphrasia Nyaki, Dr. Pat Ogden, Dr. Diane Poole Heller, Dr. Stephen Porges, Dr. Arielle Schwartz, Dr. Dan Siegel, Sam Taitel, Kai Cheng Thom, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, and Dr. Albert Wong.
Gratitude to my yoga, meditation, mindfulness, and Qigong teachers – Aiyana Athenian, Ajeet, Mara Crans, Joan Hanley (Hari Kirin Kaur Khalsa), Snatam Kaur, Saibhung Kaur Khalsa, Sukhpran Kaur Khalsa, Balmeet Lasky, Mindy Miller Muse, Master Lisa O'Shea, Krishna Peter Perry, Satya Melissa Farr, Margo Rosingana, Prem Sadasivananda, Dr. Arielle Schwartz, Antonia Small, and Sagel Urlacher.
Gratitude to my somatic support systems – Heather Spangler (acupuncture), Sylvia Tavares (Emotional Freedom Technique), Anthony Fazio (acupuncture), and Paul Gagnon (massage therapy).
Gratitude to my therapists over the years – Dr. Jody Telfair‐Richards, Dr. Nancy Coleman, Susan Miner, and Marissa Ahern.
Gratitude to Dr. Cathy Cavanaugh and Dr. Wendy Drexler for your friendship and mentorship, and for not only reviewing the book, but also for being part of Wellness for Educators’ original board during our infancy. Thank you also for your support during my nervous breakdown. To know that I was not alone, especially in the academic journey, was so critically grounding during a very unstable time in my life.
Gratitude to my sisters – Liz Kennedy and Mary Snow – for your willingness to believe in the vision, for being creative ideation partners, and for graciously accepting delayed pay at the start of our journey (ha!). Thank you for being constants in my life – Love you!
Gratitude to my husband – Curtis – for being an amazing sounding board during my creative sparks and for supporting my need for Holy Donuts and other tasty treats during deadline dashes. Thank you for walking alongside me in the trauma‐healing journey and life in general. Grateful to be present and walking alongside you in this life – Love you!
“To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no‐man's‐land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again.”
– Pema Chödrön
Creating and expanding this organization and traveling on my trauma‐healing journey continues to put me outside of my nest on a regular basis. I am grateful to myself for always choosing the path that is most meaningful to me, which has, more often than not, been the most challenging one.
“Usually we think that brave people have no fear. The truth is that they are intimate with fear.”
– Pema Chödrön
Our journey of mental health and wellbeing is not a one and done. It's a daily practice. While it isn't always fun to do the work, if we approach it with compassionate curiosity, it can provide us with insight not only into our relationships with others, but most importantly, into our relationship with ourselves.
Gratitude to you for your willingness to care for yourself in whatever way is meaningful to you.
CHAPTER 1My Path to Educator Wellness
Throughout this book, you will be invited to take an intentional pause. This will be a place where you can check in with yourself to see how your mind and body are feeling. You'll see the words Intentional Pause with the lotus image and a list of questions. This practice of intentionally pausing can help you build and strengthen your mind‐body connection, and, when practiced regularly, heal trauma and prolonged stress.
INTENTIONAL PAUSE*
What do I notice in my mind? (observe without judgment)
What do I notice in my body? (observe without judgment)
What do I notice in my feelings? (observe without judgment)
What do I notice in my thoughts? (observe without judgment)
What do I need at this moment to feel supported? (observe without judgment and give yourself what you need to feel supported)
*Note: Take an intentional pause whenever you feel like you need one, not just in the places where you are invited to do so.
I first started talking about my interest in educator wellbeing in 2017. Many of my friends and colleagues in the digital learning space were curious and confused, and rightfully so. Why would someone like me, a researcher in online and digital learning for almost two decades, want to delve into educator wellbeing?
From 2004 to 2018, I worked as a digital librarian and an instructional technology professor at a handful of universities, and as a director of research at a couple of nonprofit organizations. I'm a qualitative researcher, so over the years, I distributed questionnaires and surveys, conducted interviews and focus groups, collected and reviewed digital and analog artifacts – all in order to listen to, understand, and share educators’ stories and lived experiences. I've heard from thousands of educators over time, including teachers, special education staff, English language learning specialists, school counselors, school psychologists, school librarians, educational technology coordinators, district administrators, school administrators, state policy makers, and more.
Even though the research projects I've worked on and continue to work on are mostly focused on online and digital learning, the main theme across all of them has been educator stress (including secondary traumatic stress), trauma, and burnout. Anyone close to or involved directly in the field of education knows that educators have been pushed to the limits by constant change; intense focus on high‐stakes, standards‐based teaching; initiative fatigue; among many other stressors. Hearing these stories again and again as an educator myself was really hard to handle without doing something about it. Additionally and simultaneously, since 1985, I have been on a personal journey to understand and support my own mental health and wellbeing.
MY MENTAL HEALTH JOURNEY
I was six years old when my father tried to kill my mother. I was in the room with them when it happened. I didn't know it at the time, but this was my father's second attempt at trying to hurt my mother. Because he was a Korean War veteran, my father was hospitalized at the Bedford VA Hospital in Massachusetts. The health professionals diagnosed him with bipolar disorder. The hospital and my family encouraged him to get the help he needed, which included medication and a regular therapy schedule. He didn't want anything to do with that, and instead of staying near the hospital and our family for the support we all needed, he wanted to escape from the pressure.
That escape came in 1987 when my father decided to move us to Florida. No one except my father wanted it to happen. No one could stop him either. On the day we were leaving for Florida, everyone gathered at our house in Medford, where my parents had lived for over 30 years. The camper was packed, and when we started to pull away, I ran to the back window, waving frantically and crying uncontrollably, while those who could keep me safe grew smaller and smaller.
Like all the other times we traveled in our camper, I laid in the top bunk above the driver's cabin and counted the lines on the highway as we trekked south to the Sunshine State. After four nights at campgrounds along the way, we arrived at Fort Myers Beach, where we lived in our camper for the summer. Right before school started, my parents found a house in Cape Coral and enrolled me in 4th grade.
On my first day of school, my teacher introduced herself and laid out the ground rules of her classroom. She had an apple tree made of construction paper on the back wall of the classroom. Each student's name was assigned to an apple. Our teacher explained that if you didn't do your homework, if you were late to school, or if you did something wrong, you would have to put a worm in your apple. To do this, you would go to the front of the classroom, get a worm from the teacher, and walk to the back of the room to put the worm in your apple. By the end of the week, if you had five or more worms in your apple, you didn't go to recess.
Given what I had been through and what I was still going through, I rebelled by not completing my schoolwork, and by being oppositional and exhibiting what adults thought of as “bad behavior.” Consequently, I had the most worms in my apple every week and didn't participate in recess at all that year. Even though I was hell‐bent on causing as many problems as I could at school, I advanced to 5th grade.
This is when I met Mr. Weaver, the educator who had the biggest impact on my life. Even on the first day of school, I knew things would be different. Mr. Weaver sat us down and took the time to get to know each of us. He took the time to establish meaningful relationships with us and make the learning environment safe and inclusive. He encouraged healthy collaboration with others. He got to know the “why” behind our behaviors and the “how” and “what” we needed to feel supported. I'm grateful each day I think back on Mr. Weaver. Things could have gone much differently for me had we not crossed paths. I never missed a day of recess that year, and I improved academically.
Fast‐forward to 1992. I was 14. My dad tried to hurt my mom again. I was in the room with them when it happened. The next day, without my dad knowing, my mom and I flew to Boston to live with family. My mom almost went through with a divorce, but within three months, despite my family's objections and my dad's continued refusal to get help to support himself, my mom and I moved back to Florida to live with him again.
For a long time, one of the questions I reflected on in therapy was what did it feel like to live in a space that was not safe, especially as a child? My brain did its job to suppress what happened when I was six since I didn't have the capacity to process it at that time. Despite that, my body and mind remembered the trauma. I experienced recurring nightmares and anxiety into my teenage years because I didn't express and work through my emotions and experiences (and really didn't know how to at the time). I engaged with counselors and therapists, including an art therapist who helped me get rid of my recurring nightmare. I used cognitive behavioral therapy to shift the challenging feelings and emotions brought on by trauma and prolonged stress. Though the cognitive‐based therapy helped me work through my understanding of my experiences, I was still not 100%.
The toll that trauma had taken on me resurfaced in 2009 when I was 30. I was in the middle of my doctoral program at the University of Florida. At the time, I was working on my dissertation focused on the importance of teaching teachers how to teach online. I was conducting three research studies alongside one of my doctoral advisors. I was teaching two undergraduate courses to preservice teachers. I was enrolled in three graduate courses. I was serving as a supervisor teacher for six masters‐level preservice teachers who were interested in learning what it's like to teach in an online school. I was working a part‐time job in order to put myself through school. At that time, I had multiple loans I was paying back so they wouldn't incur interest. I was in an unhealthy long‐distance relationship. Long story short, I was under a lot of pressure and stress.
Around that time, I found out one of my family members tried to commit suicide, and they didn't want me to tell anyone else. My mom, who was 75 at the time, came to visit me in Florida for the winter, and while she was with me, she fell down the stairs at my apartment complex and suffered a hematoma and severe concussion. She was okay, thank goodness.
Once I knew my mom was okay, I suffered a nervous breakdown and was admitted to the hospital. I started having frequent panic attacks, which I had never had before. After being pushed to take medication that caused me to have suicidal thoughts, I started seeing a university counselor who told me to “put on my big girl panties” and keep taking the meds. I listened because I honestly didn't know what else to do at that point. But after having a scary experience where I woke up at 3 a.m. on the bottom of my tub with the shower head pouring down on me and the water up to my nose, I decided to take a three‐month leave of absence from my doctoral program and moved to Maine to live with my family.
During that time, I couldn't do anything. My mind just wasn't functioning the way it used to, and I was really scared. I was experiencing acute agoraphobia (fear of going out and being in public) because I was afraid of having panic attacks in public. With the support and safety of my family and friends, and after many months of a combination of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), yoga, group exercise, and meditation, I was able to resume my doctoral program and graduated that year.
In 2010, I was so curious about my inability to learn when I was extremely stressed and traumatized that I set off on a learning journey through thousands of hours of training in neuroscience, somatic psychology, embodiment, trauma healing, yoga, mindfulness, meditation, Qigong, and more. We'll dive into what I learned while on my journey in the next chapter, “The Intersection of Mental Health, Wellbeing, and Learning.”
In 2018, after 18 years of working in multiple nonprofits, I took a leap of faith into the world of education consulting to continue my work in the area of online and digital learning. On New Year's Eve that year, I was excited to see what 2019 had in store for me. I tossed and turned all night with an overwhelming need to merge my passions for education, mental health, and wellbeing, and create much‐needed support for educators. This sleepless night led to the birth of Wellness for Educators.
INTENTIONAL PAUSE
What do I notice in my mind? (observe without judgment)
What do I notice in my body? (observe without judgment)
What do I notice in my feelings? (observe without judgment)
What do I notice in my thoughts? (observe without judgment)
What do I need at this moment to feel supported? (observe without judgment and give yourself what you need to feel supported)
THE BIRTH OF WELLNESS FOR EDUCATORS
After noodling on the idea of Wellness for Educators, I shared it with my two older sisters, Mary and Liz, both of whom have ties to education and mental health and wellbeing. Mary started her teaching career in mid‐coast Maine after graduating from Lesley College (now Lesley University) in 1980. For 36 years, she served in a variety of teaching roles including special education for K–8, general education for K–4, and substance abuse counseling for K–12. Liz also attended Lesley University and graduated in 1995 with her Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Science and Certificate in Early Childhood Education. She served in administration and management in the healthcare field for over 25 years. Both offered feedback as I iterated on ideas for what we could do with the organization. Based on their feedback, we started small on a shoestring budget.
Figure 1.1 Sisters from left to right – Kathryn Kennedy, Mary Snow, and Liz Kennedy.
We worked with a friend of Mary's who is a local author and illustrator – Mary Beth Owens – to design our first logo.
Figure 1.2 Original logo.
