Schools are challenging places to work – those of us who work in schools are aware of the challenges faced by everyone in the education system. As a school we spend a lot of time looking after our students but we also have to make sure we look after our staff. On our inset day before the Christmas break we bought in the Nottinghamshire Educational Psychology Service (EPS) to run a session on staff wellbeing and resilience.
Whilst I don’t want to repeat all their content here (that wouldn’t be fair to the EPS) I have summarised some of the key messages in the hope that they will be of use to others.
If you don’t look after yourself you won’t be able to look after others.
In air safety drills you are always told to put your own oxygen mask on first – the same applies with mental health. We get so wrapped up with the problems of others we can neglect ourselves.
Find strategies that work for you
Not everyone is the same. Different people find different strategies work for them – be prepared to try more than one.
Emotional intelligence – know your emotions and how to manage them. Strong emotions are very powerful – recognise the stages in your emotions – the assault cycle provides a useful structure/explanation of what is happening.
Learn relaxation strategies
Find time to unwind and relax. I find that a long drive to work coupled with an audiobook or music (depending on my mood and energy levels) works for me. Some people do yoga or meditation – find something that helps you to unwind.
Challenge unhelpful thoughts (Cognitive behavioural therapy)
Try to change your default thinking (for those that read my post on The Chimp Paradox this is a similar idea to reprogramming the computer in the model by Steve Peters). Ask yourself questions like “is it really that important?” or “what would happen if I didn’t let this thought bother me?”. You then try to replace the negative thoughts with more positive ones. There are plenty of sites on the internet with more details – google is your friend here!
Find outside interests- FLOW
Immersive hobbies (like sports, cross stitch or even candy crush soda saga in my case!). From Wikipedia:
Schaffer (2013) proposed 7 flow conditions:
- Knowing what to do
- Knowing how to do it
- Knowing how well you are doing
- Knowing where to go (if navigation is involved)
- High perceived challenges
- High perceived skills
- Freedom from distractions
Peer supervision – looking for solutions (focus based circles)
We were shown a technique for looking for solutions to problems that you can work through as a group. Searching the internet reveals many variations on this technique – this is most similar to the version we tested. The version we tried had someone present about a problem for six minutes – during which only the presenter can speak (even if they run out of ideas the six minutes keeps running). In our first run we discussed the problem of getting staff to put their pots in the dishwasher (photo above). The second step sees the presenter being silent for six minutes while ideas are brainstormed. There is then another six minutes of dialogue and the final stage is to discuss the first steps for another six minutes (you are able to sum up or seek clarification outside the six minute windows).
This is a really useful technique and provides a very useful structure for discussing a problem.
Don’t give up
Remember that each time you face a problem, it will be easier to face a similar problem in future. After twenty years in special education I subconsciously use several of these strategies and they do work.
Further reading
Look on the internet for Martin Seligman (video below)
Fiendishlyclever 