RHS Counselors Connection
November 2017 Edition
Welcome!
Stay Informed...
RHS School Counseling Website: http://www.rhsschoolcounseling.weebly.com
Subscribe to our Remind Text messaging service for specific grade levels- see http://rhsschoolcounseling.weebly.com/faq-for-parents.html
Teens & Stress Management
Teenagers, like adults, may experience stress everyday and can benefit from learning stress management skills. Most teens experience more stress when they perceive a situation as dangerous, difficult, or painful and they do not have the resources to cope. Some sources of stress for teens might include:
- school demands and frustrations
- negative thoughts and feelings about themselves
- changes in their bodies
- problems with friends and/or peers at school
- unsafe living environment/neighborhood
- separation or divorce of parents
- chronic illness or severe problems in the family
- death of a loved one
- moving or changing schools
- taking on too many activities or having too high expectations
- family financial problems
Some teens become overloaded with stress. When it happens, inadequately managed stress can lead to anxiety, withdrawal, aggression, physical illness, or poor coping skills such as drug and/or alcohol use.
When we perceive a situation as difficult or painful, changes occur in our minds and bodies to prepare us to respond to danger. This "fight, flight, or freeze” response includes faster heart and breathing rate, increased blood to muscles of arms and legs, cold or clammy hands and feet, upset stomach and/or a sense of dread.
The same mechanism that turns on the stress response can turn it off. As soon as we decide that a situation is no longer dangerous, changes can occur in our minds and bodies to help us relax and calm down. This "relaxation response” includes decreased heart and breathing rate and a sense of well being. Teens that develop a "relaxation response” and other stress management skills feel less helpless and have more choices when responding to stress.
Parents can help their teen in these ways:
- Monitor if stress is affecting their teen's health, behavior, thoughts, or feelings
- Listen carefully to teens and watch for overloading
- Learn and model stress management skills
- Support involvement in sports and other pro-social activities
Teens can decrease stress with the following behaviors and techniques:
- Exercise and eat regularly
- Avoid excess caffeine intake which can increase feelings of anxiety and agitation
- Avoid illegal drugs, alcohol and tobacco
- Learn relaxation exercises (abdominal breathing and muscle relaxation techniques)
- Develop assertiveness training skills. For example, state feelings in polite firm and not overly aggressive or passive ways: ("I feel angry when you yell at me” "Please stop yelling.”)
- Rehearse and practice situations which cause stress. One example is taking a speech class if talking in front of a class makes you anxious
- Learn practical coping skills. For example, break a large task into smaller, more attainable tasks
- Decrease negative self talk: challenge negative thoughts about yourself with alternative neutral or positive thoughts. "My life will never get better” can be transformed into "I may feel hopeless now, but my life will probably get better if I work at it and get some help”
- Learn to feel good about doing a competent or "good enough” job rather than demanding perfection from yourself and others
- Take a break from stressful situations. Activities like listening to music, talking to a friend, drawing, writing, or spending time with a pet can reduce stress
- Build a network of friends who help you cope in a positive way
From the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Feb 2013
5 Tips for Managing Stress
Get some sleep
Between homework, activities and hanging with friends, it can be hard to get enough sleep, especially during the school week. Ideally, adolescents should get nine hours a night. To maximize your chance of sleeping soundly, cut back on watching TV or engaging in a lot of screen time in the late evening hours. Don’t drink caffeine late in the day and try not to do stimulating activities too close to bedtime.
Focus on your strengths
Spend some time really thinking about the things you’re good at, and find ways to do more of those things. If you’re a math ace, you might tutor a younger neighbor who’s having trouble with the subject. If you are a spiritual person, you might volunteer at your church. If you’re artistic, take a photography class. Focusing on your strengths will help you keep your stresses in perspective.
Engage in physical activity
Physical activity is one of the most effective stress busters. That doesn’t mean you have to go for a jog if you hate running. Find activities you enjoy and build them into your routine such as yoga, hiking, biking, skateboarding or walking. The best types of physical activities are those that have a social component. Whether you’re into team sports, or prefer kayaking or rollerblading with a friend or two, you’re more likely to have fun — and keep at it — if you’re being active with friends.
Do things that make you happy
Besides physical activities, find other hobbies or activities that bring you joy. That might be listening to music, going to the movies or drawing. Make a point to keep doing these things even when you’re stressed and busy.
Talk to someone
It’s so much easier to manage stress when you let others lend a hand. Talk to a parent, teacher or other trusted adult. They may be able to help you find new ways to manage stress. Or they may help put you in touch with a psychologist who is trained in helping people make healthy choices and manage stress.
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the cultivation of moment-by-moment awareness of our surrounding environment is a practice that helps us better cope with the difficult thoughts and feelings that cause us stress and anxiety in everyday life.
With regular practice of mindfulness exercises, rather than being led on auto-pilot by emotions influenced by negative past experiences and fears of future occurrences, we harness the ability to root the mind in the present moment and deal with life’s challenges in a clear-minded, calm, assertive way.
In turn, we develop a fully conscious mind-set that frees us from the imprisonment of unhelpful, self-limiting thought patterns, and enables us to be fully present to focus on positive emotions that increase compassion and understanding in ourselves and others.
6 Mindful Exercises To Try
1.Mindful Breathing
This exercise can be done standing up or sitting down, and pretty much anywhere at any time. If you can sit down in the meditation (lotus) position, that's great, if not, no worries.
Either way, all you have to do is be still and focus on your breath for just one minute.
- Start by breathing in and out slowly. One breath cycle should last for approximately 6 seconds.
- Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth, letting your breath flow effortlessly in and out of your body.
- Let go of your thoughts. Let go of things you have to do later today or pending projects that need your attention. Simply let thoughts rise and fall of their own accord and be at one with your breath.
- Purposefully watch your breath, focusing your sense of awareness on its pathway as it enters your body and fills you with life.
- Then watch with your awareness as it works work its way up and out of your mouth and its energy dissipates into the world.
If you are someone who thought they’d never be able to meditate, guess what? You are half way there already!
If you enjoyed one minute of this mind-calming exercise, why not try two or three?
2. Mindful Observation
This exercise is simple but incredibly powerful because it helps you notice and appreciate seemingly simple elements of your environment in a more profound way.
The exercise is designed to connect us with the beauty of the natural environment, something that is easily missed when we are rushing around in the car or hopping on and off trains on the way to work.
- Choose a natural object from within your immediate environment and focus on watching it for a minute or two. This could be a flower or an insect, or even the clouds or the moon.
- Don’t do anything except notice the thing you are looking at. Simply relax into watching for as long as your concentration allows.
- Look at this object as if you are seeing it for the first time.
- Visually explore every aspect of its formation, and allow yourself to be consumed by its presence.
- Allow yourself to connect with its energy and its purpose within the natural world.
3. Mindful Awareness
This exercise is designed to cultivate a heightened awareness and appreciation of simple daily tasks and the results they achieve.
Think of something that happens every day more than once; something you take for granted, like opening a door, for example.
At the very moment you touch the doorknob to open the door, stop for a moment and be mindful of where you are, how you feel in that moment and where the door will lead you.
Similarly, the moment you open your computer to start work, take a moment to appreciate the hands that enable this process and the brain that facilitates your understanding of how to use the computer.
These ‘touch point' cues don’t have to be physical ones.
For example: Each time you think a negative thought, you might choose to take a moment to stop, label the thought as unhelpful and release the negativity.
Or, perhaps each time you smell food, you take a moment to stop and appreciate how lucky you are to have good food to eat and share with your family and friends.
Choose a touch point that resonates with you today and, instead of going through your daily motions on autopilot, take occasional moments to stop and cultivate purposeful awareness of what you are doing and the blessings these actions brings to your life.
4. Mindful Listening
This exercise is designed to open your ears to sound in a non-judgmental way, and indeed to train your mind to be less swayed by the influence of past experiences and preconception.
So much of what we “feel” is influenced by past experience. For example, we may dislike a song because it reminds of us of a breakup or another period of life when things felt negative.
So the idea of this exercise is to listen to some music from a neutral standpoint, with a present awareness that is unhindered by preconception.
Select a piece of music you have never heard before. You may have something in your own collection that you have never listened to, or you might choose to turn the radio dial until something catches your ear.
- Close your eyes and put on your headphones.
- Try not to get drawn into judging the music by its genre, title or artist name before it has begun. Instead, ignore any labels and neutrally allow yourself to get lost in the journey of sound for the duration of the song.
- Allow yourself to explore every aspect of track. Even if the music isn’t to your liking at first, let go of your dislike and give your awareness full permission to climb inside the track and dance among the sound waves.
- Explore the song by listening to the dynamics of each instrument. Separate each sound in your mind and analyze each one by one.
- Hone in on the vocals: the sound of the voice, its range and tones. If there is more than one voice, separate them out as you did in step 4.
The idea is to listen intently, to become fully entwined with the composition without preconception or judgment of the genre, artist, lyrics or instrumentation. Don't think, hear.
5. Mindful Immersion
The intention of this exercise is to cultivate contentment in the moment and escape the persistent striving we find ourselves caught up in on a daily basis.
Rather than anxiously wanting to finish an everyday routine task in order to get on with doing something else, take that regular routine and fully experience it like never before.
For example: if you are cleaning your house, pay attention to every detail of the activity.
Rather than treat this as a regular chore, create an entirely new experience by noticing every aspect of your actions:
Feel and become the motion when sweeping the floor, sense the muscles you use when scrubbing the dishes, develop a more efficient way of wiping the windows clean.
The idea is to get creative and discover new experiences within a familiar routine task.
Instead of labouring through and constantly thinking about finishing the task, become aware of every step and fully immerse yourself in the progress. Take the activity beyond a routine by aligning yourself with it physically, mentally and spiritually.
Who knows, you might even enjoy the cleaning for once!
6. Mindful Appreciation
In this last exercise, all you have to do is notice 5 things in your day that usually go unappreciated.
These things can be objects or people; it’s up to you. Use a notepad to check off 5 by the end of the day.
The point of this exercise is to simply give thanks and appreciate the seemingly insignificant things in life, the things that support our existence but rarely get a second thought amidst our desire for bigger and better things.
For example: electricity powers your kettle, the postman delivers your mail, your clothes provide you warmth, your nose lets you smell the flowers in the park, your ears let you hear the birds in the tree by the bus stop, but…
- Do you know how these things/processes came to exist, or how they really work?
- Have you ever properly acknowledged how these things benefit your life and the lives of others?
- Have you ever thought about what life might be like without these things?
- Have you ever stopped to notice their finer, more intricate details?
- Have you ever sat down and thought about the relationships between these things and how together they play an interconnected role in the functioning of the earth?
Once you have identified your 5 things, make it your duty to find out everything you can about their creation and purpose to truly appreciate the way in which they support your life.
The Power of Positive Thinking
College Corner
Savannah State University
Savannah State University is a four-year, state-supported, historically black university located in Savannah, Georgia, United States. It is the oldest public historically black university in the state.
Address: 3219 College St, Savannah, GA 31404
Acceptance rate: 77.6% (2014)
Mascot: Savannah Tiger
Phone: (912) 358-4778
Undergraduate tuition and fees: In-state tuition: 8,844 USD (2016), Out-of-state tuition: 15,254 USD (2016)
Career Planning & Spotlight
Great Career Decisions Begin with Knowing Who You Are
The following five areas provide excellent information that leads to increasing your self-knowledge and provides the solid foundation upon which to make career – and life – choices.
- Goals: What do I want?
To develop your goals, use these questions as a starting point: What do I want out of life? What do I want to achieve? What kind of life do I envision for myself? What kind of contribution or difference do I want to make? The best goals are written and follow the SMARTER formula: specific, measureable, attainable, relevant, time-bound, evaluate, and re-evaluate. The last two criteria allow for tracking and follow-up as well as adjustments as time goes on. - Aptitudes: What are my strengths?
The best word to describe aptitudes is potential. They reveal the potential of a person to acquire the skills required to perform different tasks competently. Aptitudes are objectively measured innate or natural talents. Your aptitudes stabilize around the age of 14, and remain relatively stable across the lifespan. They provide good insight into the type of tasks and learning or performance environments that support success and satisfaction.Most individuals have an aptitude profile with aptitudes in a combination of the low, mid and high ranges. Being strong in every aptitude can be a challenge in finding work that is rich and interdisciplinary enough to use so many strengths. Your career, job, learning and work environments, and other activities in life should allow you to use your aptitudes. With this information, you can choose a career direction where the time spent in education and training will have the greatest payoff in skill development, that is, in the areas where you have the greatest potential. - Interests: What do I like? What don’t I like?
Discovering what you are interested in is also discovering what is motivating to you. Some people are interested in practically everything, while others are very focused in their interests. It’s important to identify what you like or don’t like, whether tasks, activities, subject matter, types of people, or occupations. Knowing your interests can lead you to the careers and educational possibilities that may be most meaningful for you. Since defining interests is related to exposure, students may not always know the full range of their interests because they have limited life experience. - Personality Style: How do I think, feel and behave?
Personality Style: How do I think, feel and behave? Your unique personality is expressed through permanent traits and characteristic response patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Personality is important to consider relative to career decisions because jobs and work environments may be a better or worse fit for different people based on personality. Some personality characteristics include extraversion and introversion, tough-mindedness, sensitivity, independence, self-control, and openness to change. Understanding personality style also leads to understanding performance environments and company cultures. - Values: What is important to me?
Values are the standards or criteria by which we evaluate the importance of things or activities. Examples of work values include achievement, independence, recognition, relationships, support from managers and company policies, and working conditions. Values serve as a compass to keep us focused on what is most important, and assist in making good decisions.
All of the above components of self-knowledge are important; decisions should not be based on just one of the above components. Information from each of the five areas gives a more holistic and complete understanding of who you are. The diagram below shows how the intersection of your goals, aptitudes, interests, values and personality converge to create what we call your “Sweet Spot”. The careers that match up with your Sweet Spot offer the most promise for you. This rich information about yourself becomes a great starting point for beginning to identify jobs, careers, and work environments where you can do your best work and make your unique contribution.
For the rest of this article go to https://careervision.org/great-career-decisions-begin-knowing-2/
A Different Way to Look at Finding Your Passion
Radiographers
Radiographers are medical professionals and members of the health care team who:
- Perform diagnostic imaging procedures such as X-ray examinations of the bones, heart, lungs, and abdomen to be used for analyzing medical issues
- Work closely with doctors in all medical specialties and with radiologists who interpret the images to either diagnose or rule out disease and injury
- Work in a variety of health care settings:
- Hospitals
- Urgent care centers and free standing emergency centers
- Doctor's offices and
- Diagnostic imaging centers
How to Become a Radiographer
Radiologic technologists and MRI technologists typically need an associate’s degree. Many MRI technologists start out as radiologic technologists and specialize later in their career. Radiologic technologists must be licensed or certified in most states. Few states license MRI technologists. Employers typically require or prefer prospective technologists to be certified even if the state does not require it.
Pay
The median annual wage for magnetic resonance imaging technologists was $68,420 in May 2016. The median annual wage for radiologic technologists was $57,450 in May 2016.
Job Outlook
Overall employment of radiologic and MRI technologists is projected to grow 12 percent from 2016 to 2026, faster than the average for all occupations. As the population grows older, there will be an increase in medical conditions that require imaging as a tool for making diagnoses.
St. Johns River State College has a Radiologic Technology Program. For more information go to http://www.sjrstate.edu/workforce/radiologic.html
Go to http://rhsschoolcounseling.weebly.com/scholarships.html for more scholarship information.
One of the nation's most generous and selective undergraduate merit awards.Valued at more than $250,000 (out-of-state) or $150,000 (in-state), the scholarship includes tuition, stipend, study abroad and professional development funding.
McDermott Scholars have:
- Interned at Google, Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Supreme Court, NPR, National Institutes of Health and CERN.
- Gone on to Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford, Johns Hopkins and Cambridge.
- Won Fulbrights, Goldwaters, NSF Fellowships, Marshalls and a Gates Cambridge.
- Worked at Microsoft, McKinsey, Texas Instruments, the White House, U.N., NASA, Cleveland Clinic and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
USF Kosove Society Scholarship- all-inclusive scholarship to USF-Tampa
Academic excellence, leadership and a commitment to community service are the hallmarks of the Kosove Society and its scholars. This scholarship serves students in all majors and disciplines. Scholarship covers tuition, fees, textbooks, housing and meal plans each semester. To apply go to www.usfkosovesociety.org for information. Deadline December 1, 2017
YMCA- Reading Tutors
Work in a small group environment or one-on-one with a kindergartener to 3rd grade student developing positive self-esteem and reading skills. Afterschool Mondays through Thursdays. Contact Clarissa Evans Y READS Program Coordinator at cevans@firstcoastymca.org or 904-336-2043
Community Hospice thrift shop is looking for teen volunteers for all aspects of their store. Volunteers must be at least 15 years old. Please contact Moira Minta, Thrift Shop Volunteer Coordinator, at mminta@communityhospice.com or call 904-998-1718 for more information.
Student Resources
SAP (Student Assistance Program) Counselor- Kim Barrera
The Student Assistance Program works with identified adolescents to screen for risk factors that may interfere with a student’s ability to positively cope with life challenges and stressors. The program consists of individual and/or group prevention activities where teens work with an SAP team member 1-4 times a month on a short term basis. SAP does not provide direct therapy services but can assist students with accessing services through Clay Behavioral Health. You can ask any of your teachers to go see Ms. Barrera in Building 5 room 554 or you can talk with your School Counselor to be referred for services.
Military Life Counselor- Atrews Bell
Mr. Bell provides a variety of services and/or referrals for students with a parent/guardian on active duty or retired military. This can include academic assistance, personal counseling, help with transitioning from school to school and much more. See your School Counselor for more details or stop by Mr. Bells office in Building 1 room 140.
Contact Us!
Pre-IB & IB Students
Temporarily covering student last names N & O
(904) 336- 8912
Lori.feathergill@myoneclay.net
Maria Littlejohn
Student Last Names A-E
Temporarily covering student last name P
(904) 336- 8904
Maria.littlejohn@myoneclay.net
Jackie Welch
Student Last Names F-L
Temporarily covering student last name M
(904) 336- 8903
Jacquelyn. welch@myoneclay.net
Tabbatha Johns
Student Last Names S-Z
Temporarily covering student last names Q & R
(904) 336-8906