Strengthening school counselors’ ability to be with today’s students’ mental health & wellness

The Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) recently invited YES Institute to facilitate a dialogue for K-12 school counselors. The session, “Student Mental Health and Gender: Developmental and Ecological Perspectives,” explored how we as a community can guide and support young people in these unprecedented times. Our team reviewed emerging research, led powerful discussions on student experiences, and examined promising practices to empower youth for success. 

“The session today has had a great impact on reiterating the importance of gender, the ways society impacts the expression of gender, and how all these things impact students, parents, and us.”  – MDCPS Counselor

Over two days, 140 counselors took the journey of self-discovery and unwrapped the layers around mental health, gender, social media, and youth empowerment. Quite a few of the counselors shared similarly that in their experiences things are different with our children and teenagers today than a few years ago. 

“I truly appreciated how we were able to reflect on our own experiences to be able to relate to our students.”  – MDCPS Counselor

Nikolas, our Youth Empowerment Coordinator, related to the experiences of young people as he shared his personal story with the counselors. As a young trans man who grew up in Miami Dade schools and now being a young adult, he’s noting that kids today are struggling between external pressures telling them who to be and opposing views on what they’re supposed to be doing; essentially causing a cycle of self-inflicted harm, whether it be physical, emotional, or mental.

“We have to figure out how to honor cultural traditions while also acknowledging the experiences of today’s  youth.” – MDCPS Counselor

What the counselors are seeing in their schools today are youth who are exhibiting incredibly weak coping skills. Counselors are experiencing students who need resilience skills and tools and social-emotional learning. Our youth leaders in the Youth Empowerment Council also shared that their peers would joke about harming themselves when they got an ‘F’ in school. 

“I realized just how pervasive gender expectations are when it comes to the impact on children’s mental well-being.” – MDCPS Counselor

When our team asked the participants who they see struggling more with stress and crisis at school in regards to gender, the overwhelming response was: girls. Research shows that today girls have higher rates of anxiety. The counselors brought up personal and professional anecdotes about the social pressure to be a certain type of girl and how overwhelming that can be.  

“I learned to be more mindful of how gender roles affect our perspective and how I counsel students.” – MDCPS Counselor

YES Institute pointed out that many of us are solely looking at social media for its harmful effects and should also consider its benefits to our youth. Social media has managed to build a community for quite a few of the youth in the pride community who are looking for support, as some of our Youth leaders have shared. 

“I learned to be mindful of cultures, beliefs, and how it is impacting youth and families. This presentation was eye-opening to be mindful of the impacts and stigma of cultural expectations and the impacts on families, and youth. Hence, it is important to allow families to have their own time to accept gender and orientation. I love the idea of trauma-informed driven education. Educating the youth to find healthy coping skills.” – MDCPS Counselor

A lot of counselors were ready to have the conversation and wanted solutions and tools to offer to the youth as they experience bullying. YES Institute shared that one of the fundamental factors that can strengthen mental health and wellness is exploring purpose and life direction.

“I learned so much! Great information about how trauma affects the brain, trauma-informed care, and responsible social media use.”  – MDCPS Counselor

If you would like to explore how YES Institute can design a powerful educational presentation for your organization, workplace, school, or faith community, please reach us at [email protected] or 305-663-7195.

Join us for our upcoming Communication Toolbox on Saturday, April 13, from 9am-2pm. Register here.

 

OTHER NOTES: 

 

Niko: The reason to have these conversations is “let the kids off the hook”

Let them be who they are

 

– Niko shared about having purpose

is always going to be JOY: youth are told, go to school, get a job, go to college; but we’re not teaching them to do more of what they love which inevitably leads them to their path of purpose

My purpose in life is helping youth in the pride community, bridging the gap from where they are to where they want to be by supporting them in their joy until they can see it and then form the direction to get there. 

 

Adults in society have let down our youth for having them think that 

 

We adults stopped experiencing joy and kids are feeling blamed for the way the world is right now. 

 

What is being taught at home and in society it’s not allowing them to get to know their own inner compass. Do we allow kids to express themselves and explore?

 

How can we bridge the gap from where we are to where we want to be? – Nikolas