Notes from the Counseling Department

A short blog, for a short month, in just under the wire! This month, the counseling team at Bigelow conducted the Signs of Suicide (SOS) Program for the 7th grade.  This program was implemented in Newton during the 2013-14 school year and has continued through the present.  It is given to students across the district in 7th grade, 9th grade and 11th grade.  SOS is a classroom based instructional model which uses videos and facilitated discussion to cover the topics of depression and suicide.  It also includes a brief screening tool which asks the students to self-report about their mood and possible symptoms over the last few weeks.  This screening tool requires parental permission.  If a student screens in, a counselor speaks with them within 24 hours.  All students, regardless of screening status, are given the opportunity to indicate if they would like to speak to a counselor.  At Bigelow, we use one class period to do the program.  O...

Happy New Year!  A bit of a later blog post this month, as we have been getting back into the rhythm of the school day after some time off.  We've been busy as well, working to do the state-mandated SBIRT screening with the 8th grade students.  SBIRT stands for Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment and is a jointly created program from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).  It is designed to begin conversations with children and adolescents about their use of alcohol and other substances, quickly screen them to gauge where they are in terms of using, and offer small interventions and resources to help them think about their habits (or lack thereof).  You can read more about the use of SBIRT in Massachusetts schools here . As we (psychologist, counselors and school nurse) implement these screenings, it occurred to us that we view these conversati...

As we move into the last weeks of the calendar year, most of us are feeling the stress that comes from wrapping up.  Wrapping up work before we go on vacation, wrapping up what we thought we'd accomplish this year, wrapping up gifts for loved ones.  These feelings of stress can manifest in many ways including physically (headaches, stomachaches, fatigue), emotionally (feeling drained, feeling overwhelmed, feeling agitated or anxious) and interpersonally (snapping at others, not wanting to see others, feeling impatient with those around us).  What to do to manage this? The answer, as research suggests, is to engage in self-care, gratitude and interpersonal connections.  Both gratitude and interpersonal connections can be filed under the heading of self-care, which there has been a great deal of talk about over the last few years.  Self-care looks different for all of us but some of the beginning stages of it are the same.  When we start to feel irritated, ...

It is now suddenly November.  We've changed the clocks, the days are shorter, there's less sunshine and the temperatures have steadily dropped.  We are right in the thick of autumn-turning-to-winter and that means the holiday rush is coming.  While a number of us love this season, an even larger number of us anticipate it with less positive feelings.  We feel the pressure- the pressure to be with family, the pressure to celebrate with gifts and food, the pressure to BE JOYFUL and to BE GRATEFUL.  It can be.... overwhelming. Often when we as the adults are feeling pressure, it makes us irritable, short tempered and less patient.  It means that we have less tolerance for our kids, our partners and our co-workers.  We have less of ourselves to offer and the situations which normally would be No Big Thing suddenly become the Biggest Thing Possible.  We have so much on our minds that we make small mistakes that can have larger consequence...

In the United States, October is National Depression and Mental Health Screening Month. Perhaps the question we are asked most often is, "How can I tell the difference between normal adolescent moods and depression or some other type of mental illness?" It is normative for pre-adolescents and adolescents to have big, loud, dramatic emotions.  These can shift quickly:  one minute they are laughing with their friends and the next they're shouting at you, angry that you embarrassed them by saying, "What's so funny?"  It is also normative for middle schoolers to be irritable, grumpy, secretive and irrational or for them to be bubbly, enthusiastic and passionate about a new issue every week.  It comes down to trusting your gut:  you've lived with your child for 11, 12, 13, or 14 years- if their behavior and mood appears to have changed drastically and you're worried, it is probably a good idea to address it, particularly if it has been going on for more...

A new school year is upon us!  Whether your summer seemed endless, with golden days and sparkling waves, or not remotely long enough, we are back to school and turning our thoughts towards fall.  A new school year always fills me with anticipation and hope- it is a new beginning, a chance to start fresh, a year that could be the best yet.  As humans, we are naturally excited by the idea of a new start with so many opportunities ahead of us.  But as with anything else, this excitement can also be accompanied by anxiety and worry about what lies ahead. We see it in the sixth grade students who enter the building for the first time, thrilled to be in middle school but concerned that what they've seen on television or in movies or read in books might be true.  Will they be stuffed into lockers?  Bullied?  Humiliated by older students or mean teachers? What if they get lost and are late to class?  What if they can't find their homework?  Who wil...

It's June.  In the Western Hemisphere, we tend to associate June with the beginning of summer, more sun, warmer days and more light.  For those of us in a school setting, we tend to associate June with final exams, end of term grades, graduations and summer vacation.  In other words, changes, transitions and endings. At the middle school level, this looks a bit different than you might expect. The majority of students can articulate their feelings, saying things like, "I'm worried about 8th grade!" or "I'm going to miss my friends!" or "I'm scared to go to 6th/9th grade!"  A subset of students, however, can't say these things and instead will emphatically deny any feelings of loss or worry or trepidation.  Those are the students who will remind us how much they can't wait to be out of the stupid building, away from our ugly, stupid faces.  When we hear students say that?  Well, those are the ones we want to talk to for a bit longe...