Mental Health Matters
RESOURCES FROM YOUR LMHP
Theme: Healthy Relationships...Connection and Respect
Vol. XVII - 2/17/21
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Providing Support For Campus Communities
This newsletter is designed to support the health and well-being of district employees while continuing to provide services to student and families. Each bimonthly edition will highlight tips and resources for staff and showcase some district happenings.
As we face new and existing challenges this school year, the Licensed Mental Health Professionals (LMHP) are available to support students and families who are interested in receiving our assistance with complex needs. Referrals to your LMHP are most often made through campus counselors, administrators, child study teams and direct student/family referral. Visit the website to learn more about how we provide support. https://www.austinisd.org/student-health/lmhp
**DISCLAIMER: This newsletter contains several links to non AISD resources. AISD does not sponsor or endorse any businesses or programs. Please check websites for updated information.
"Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves, even when we risk disappointing others." - Brené Brown
"SUPPORTING THE WHOLE EDUCATOR WHO SUPPORTS THE WHOLE CHILD"
MENTAL HEALTH INFORMATION
Healthy Teen Dating
February is National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month. Throughout the month, young people and allies raise awareness on the issue of Teen Dating Violence (TDV), in hopes to prevent and break the cycle. Some examples of advocacy include presentations and theatrical performances.
TDV affects millions of teens and young adults in the US each year, with sexual and racial/ethnic minority groups being disproportionately affected. On average, 1 out of 3 teens will experience some form of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse from a dating partner. Beyond the month of February, it’s important that we recognize, support, and engage in conversations with young people daily.
Dating should be fun, and healthy relationships include Respect, Trust, Support, Honesty, Safety, and Kindness. To learn more about discussing healthy relationships and breaking the cycle of Teen Dating Violence, check out these two organizations:
Expect Respect, a Program of SAFE Alliance that promotes healthy relationships among children and teens.
Love is Respect, a 24-hour resource for allies and teens experiencing dating violence. Text: "Loveis" to 22522, or Call 1.866.331.9474
ONE LOVE
Music Heals and Connects
One lazy Saturday afternoon, my husband and I stopped into a little spot along Greenville Avenue in Dallas and in walked a man with a sax. He walked up to a guy sitting at a piano and with no words, the two began playing Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me”. Magical. We all have these connections to a song and to the people or context held in the memory.
Music heals: Our first experience with rhythm is our mother’s heartbeat in utero. Dr. Bruce Perry, a leading trauma expert, teaches that patterned rhythms activate calming mechanisms in our brain. Musical activities such as singing, dancing, and drumming can support in the healing of developmental trauma. Likewise, music can improve mood, boost immunity, recover memories and support healthy aging.
Music connects: Listening to music releases oxytocin, which is shown to increase bonding and trust in relationships and activates brain circuitry responsible for feeling empathy for others.
During this month dedicated to relationships, look to music. Pull out some old songs, reminisce, roll down your windows and sing loud to the radio, sing a lullaby, dance with someone you love.
“One Love’', Bob Marley
“Stand by Me”, Playing for Change
AISD HIGHLIGHTS
Downloading Appreciation
Connecting our Austin ISD community during a pandemic has required us to heavily rely on technology. Everyone across our district- especially our students, teachers, and administration has had to ensure our technology needs are met to function in a digital world with ease.
In this edition, we’d like to highlight the tireless efforts of our Technology Department staff. Between April-August 2020, technicians collected, cleaned, fixed, and redistributed 14,000+ Chromebooks. Additionally, more were ordered and distributed. Busses were outfitted with WiFi. Hustle is an understatement.
Within the district our relationships are valuable. We may not always recognize who’s behind the scenes, helping us with our screens. Technology goes beyond just Chromebooks. The Department includes Field (campus) Technicians, System Support, Server Support, Business Systems, Tech Design Coaches, MIS, Tech Compliance and QA systems. Our district could not function without the expertise and support of our entire Tech Department.
Over the past year the AISD Technology Department has been in overdrive, working diligently to ensure our staff and students are ready and connected for learning.
In honor of supporting one another, you are encouraged to take a moment to share your appreciation to the Technology Department.
HEALTHY LIVING
Languages of Love and Appreciation
At our core, we need to feel a connection to others. When this need is met, our relationships flourish, and we flourish. This is true within our families, friendships, and our workplaces. We are each unique in how we receive and express love and appreciation.
Many of us may be familiar with the Five Love Languages written in 1992 by marriage counselor Dr. Gary Chapman. He recognized a trend and realized that conflict often boiled down to differences in how we individually define love. If one person feels appreciated when they are praised and the other shows appreciation by quality time, they can both start feeling invisible to the other, missing the attempts for connection.
Take this quiz to identify your love language.
Dr. Chapman identified five primary ways people receive and express love and found that each person generally prefers one or two of these methods. He defined these love languages as: quality time, acts of service, words of affirmation, gift giving, and physical touch.
This idea is also relevant in the workplace. In hopes of ensuring our colleagues feel valued, we must express appreciation in ways that are meaningful to them. Dr. Chapman along with Dr. White identified five languages of appreciation that can be found in this book here.
MINDFULNESS MOMENT
Cultivate Love
Loving-kindness meditation, is a Buddhist method of developing compassion, and can be adapted by anyone, regardless of religious affiliation. This is a practice of choosing love in our minds, not based on whether others "deserve" it, but because we recognize that love is more healing in this world than judgment, hatred, or fear.
1. Sit comfortably in a quiet place and whisper the words slowly over and over about yourselves first.
May I be filled with loving kindness.
May I be well.
May I be peaceful and at ease.
May I be happy and free.
2. Picture that love extending to those you love. For example, "May Diana be filled with loving kindness..."
3. Next, picture that love extending to the next circle of people. For example your neighbors, extended family, etc.
4. If ready, invite yourself to think of people you're having a hard time forgiving or people you're no longer friends with.
5. To end, visualize your love going out from your heart to surround the world. Ask that as you go about your day, that you show up ready to accept everything said to you by others as either their love for you or their call to be loved.
Keep in mind this practice is more for you than the other person --you're not letting anyone off the hook or justifying hurtful behavior. You don't need to feel these words to have them do their work. You are slowly re-wiring your brain toward love.
Science backed reasons to try Loving Kindness Meditation here.
COMMUNITY RESOURCES
Local Agencies Promoting Healthy Relationships
The LMHP team is always on the lookout for resources to connect AISD families to the best and most comprehensive support services in the Austin and Central Texas community.
We all deserve relationships based upon honesty, trust and respect. In this edition, we highlight SAFE Alliance and Austin Child Guidance Center (ACGC), two amazing organizations that promote healthy relationships.
The SAFE Alliance exists to stop abuse for everyone by serving the survivors of child abuse, sexual assault and exploitation, and domestic violence. We are dedicated to ending violence through prevention, advocacy, and comprehensive services for individuals, families, and communities that have been affected by abuse.
24/7 SAFEline
Call: 512.267.SAFE (7233)
Chat: CLICK HERE
For Deaf, DeafBlind, DeafDisabled, and Hard of Hearing people: please use relay/VRS
Free virtual healthy relationships workshops
ACGC offers a variety of outpatient mental health services, to include: individual, family, and group therapy; psychiatric evaluations; psychological assessments; and parent education classes
FREE, virtual groups for Spring 2021.
WE WOULD LOVE YOUR FEEDBACK!!
PARENT ENGAGEMENT SUPPORT OFFICE
AISD COMMUNITY RESOURCES BOOK
EAP DEPARTMENT HIGHLIGHT
LMHP SPOTLIGHT
Meet Sarah Key, LMSW, who supports elementary schools in North Austin, Kealing MS and the Rosedale School. Before joining the AISD LMHP team three years ago, she worked as the school social worker at Bastrop High School. Sarah started her career with Communities in Schools back in 2007 working at Pecan Springs ES, Eastside Memorial HS, and Bastrop HS.
Sarah has been working to remove barriers to learning for young people in Central Texas for over 15 years. She strives to approach students and families through a lens of genuine curiosity and positive regard to foster working relationships. “Our families are the experts of their lives and we are there to meet them where they are”.
Outside of work, Sarah keeps busy raising 2 young kids, 8 chickens, and 1 lazy pit mix. Her passions include backcountry backpacking, horses, and gardening.