This is a Paragraph. Click on "Edit Text" or double click on the text box to start editing the content and make sure to add any relevant details or information that you want to share with your visitors.
If you work in education you know. If you do not you need to. Schools are becoming the front lines of mental health, and teachers and administrators are being asked to do more and more every year, including providing support at levels not seen before and dealing with behavior that they were not trained to deal with. They were trained to teach not be therapists! In the years to come, if something does not change, we will see a mass exodus from the educational setting that will decimate our nations youth. Sign up below to be notified when the new book is available!
the NEWEST
the TEACHER therapist:
A Guide to Becoming the Teacher You Were Never Trained to Be
the STORY
In 2015, I got a call from a friend of mine whom I admire tremendously. Nate had always been the guy that had the level head. The one everyone respected and liked. I was not that guy. I was the guy that went against the grain, challenged the system...moved towards conflict. So when he mentioned to me that there was this job at a school in the district he was in, and he said he thought I might be good at it and that it might be worth applying, I was sort of in shock for a bit. I was not looking for a job in education at the time. I had a thriving private mental health practice working with very difficult kids and family systems; and I was not short on work. However, the call came at a time when I suppose I was open to new and innovative ideas; so I was naturally intrigued. Nate told me that one of the charter schools in Littleton Public Schools was looking to fill a Dean position; and that specifically they were looking for someone with a mental health background. Interesting.
Having come from an environment where kids assaulted adults, and therapists for that matter, regularly, many of whom were not safe enough to be in public school, my natural thought was “How hard could that be?” In my experience, any kid that was able to manage in a public school had behavior that was not nearly as difficult as what I dealt with daily. “This will be a piece of cake” I remember thinking. So I applied, met with the principal and the other administrator, spoke my vision for the fusion of mental health and education, got hired, worked there for 3 years….and in one moment in March of 2018...walked into my principals office and resigned.
This book is in part the story of that experience. What I learned, how I was humbled, what I am hopeful for and what needs to change if we want a viable educational future at all. It is also a survival guide for teachers that choose to stay or for those who are new to the profession in the coming years. It's 2021, and teachers will be leaving the profession in droves in the coming years. The country will find itself in a crisis where qualified and competent candidates to teach children will be harder and harder to find. The pandemic did nothing more than speed up the racing car towards the cliff. It was already in motion when I was in education back in 2015. Something needs to change. Those in power need to take this VERY seriously; as seriously or more seriously than they took the pandemic in 2020. That said, I know teachers a little more now. I know they crave hope but also practicality. So peppered in here, I'll include some of my creative ideas for helping out; ones that I've come up with while the whole of the educational system had to radically shift in March of 2020. Lastly, I will simply end this introduction with this: If you are a teacher, educator or an administrator of any sort; YOU...YES...YOU ….ARE AN ABSOLUTE WARRIOR...A HERO AMONG HEROES. With utmost humility, my heart goes out to all of you and I am in awe of what you do day in and day out. I wish everyone out there in America could see what I saw in those 3 years. I think if they did, it might be the start of a shift towards honoring you all the way you deserve and bringing back the love you are slowly losing for the work you do with children each day. If you can...hang in there..you are valued...you are loved and you are appreciated and you absolutely ARE making a difference in the lives of those kids; even if it sometimes doesn't seem that way.