Personal Goal: to enter into the counseling profession with optimism and to find it in all that I do.
Professional Goal: To complete a PhD in Educational Psychology and help create spectacular Gifted and Talented programs for students while keeping their mental wellbeing at the center of the curriculum.

I would like to add to my personal education philosophy to include crisis and trauma responses to 21st century learning situations and student needs.

        In regards to previous knowledge, I have been made aware of how serious that need for mental health awareness in schools has become.  The CDC quiz helped me realize I have learned a lot in my courses and that I recognize where mental health concerns may come from.  I know that I tiptoed through my high school years without anyone knowing the trauma I faced at home.  Back then bootstraps were the only “cure” for failure.  I clawed my way through adolescence on my own. I’m thankful that I was an athlete and, because of that, things were a little easier than they may have been had I not had my successes and my friends to sweep me up in their excellence.  My sister and brother both ended up not graduating and in jail, both riddled with mental health crises their entire lives.  I was able to compartmentalize and move past the “crabs in a bucket” mentality and verbal abuse that I lived with.  This course can help me further understand why I was able to do it and my brother and sister were not.  I have some ideas and I will be interested to read more about them throughout the course. 

In my future role in teaching and learning, I want to use the statistics and studies I have read over the last year to inform instruction.  I want to bring concrete ideas for trauma response teams, preventative care in the classroom, training and lesson resources for teachers, and community outreach for staff, parents, and students.  I think it is so important for teachers to understand where their tough kids are coming from-not give excuses but, rather, a basis on which to understand and find the strength to help student and teacher through whatever is causing their collective trauma.

Student specific trauma response will be important for creating meaningful PD for teachers.  Region 10 has a lot of great resources for professional development.  https://txr10.escworks.net/catalog/session.aspx?session_id=2641267 This course is titled “Youth Mental Health First Aid”.  Now, the hardest part is finding a class called “Teacher mental health First Aid”.  I looked all year last year for something like this and could not find a reasonable class for teachers, specifically.  Hopefully the need for it has caused some entities to create teacher courses; however, this would also be a great course to create as a T/L professional.

Spencer, C. M., Toews, M. L., Anders, K. M., & Emanuels, S. K. (2021). Risk markers for physical teen dating violence perpetration: A meta-analysis. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 22(3), 619–631. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838019875700 

Bonilla-Zorita, G., Griffiths, M. D., & Kuss, D. J. (2021). Online Dating and Problematic Use: A Systematic Review. International Journal of Mental Health & Addiction, 19(6), 2245–2278. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00318-9

Edwards, R., & Jones, W. (2002). The ABCD Model of Crisis Intervention . Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists . Retrieved March 2, 2022, from http://www.atss-hq.com/

Acevedo, A. (2015). A personalistic appraisal of Maslow’s needs theory of motivation: From “humanistic” psychology to integral humanism. Journal of Business Ethics, 148(4), 741–763. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2970-0

American Counseling Association. (2014). Code of Ethics.  Retrieved from https://www.counseling.org/resources/aca-code-of-ethics.pdf.

Child and Adolescent Mental Health. (2021, November 17). National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/child-and-adolescent-mental-health