The Principal's Handbook

Building Mental Health Skills in Schools: A Conversation with Dr. Hayley Watson
[00:00:00] Well, welcome everyone to the principal's handbook. I'm so excited to have Dr. Hayley Watson with us here today. She is from Open Parachute, a clinical psychologist, and she's going to talk to us today about mental health in schools. So welcome to the podcast, Hayley. Thanks for being here. Thank you so much for having me.
It's such a pleasure. Yeah, if you could just start by talking about your background and what, , you do at Open Parachute. Yes, so I am a clinical psychologist, so I've worked with young people and their families across a whole spectrum. I've worked in private practice, but also I've worked with students who are chronically absent, who have fallen through the cracks of social services, so kind of, um, and everything in between.
And what we do at Open Parachute, we Create resources for schools that make it easy for teachers to teach mental health skills to students. So really, the whole goal with this is to be preventative and to, you know, we need our tiered system. We need tier two and tier [00:01:00] three supports. But what we I really see is lacking.
Is this base skill set of understanding of how to support ourselves? , that's for all of us, adults and students alike, but how do make choices that support her own well being? How do you change our thoughts when we're in difficult situations? And so when we teach. That whole skill set that means the whole school community, , can navigate challenges more effectively and you're not stuck in this, you know, putting out fires constantly.
And , that's really sort of the passion, I guess, coming from being a psychologist where you can only see help one student at a time and only the students that can overcome barriers to access. Really, my focus and passion is how do we get these skills into the hands of everyone? So that everyone can thrive in the long term.
Well, when you were talking, I was already thinking about so a huge thing that I always battled when I was a principal is I had a school counselor. She was wonderful, wanted to do lessons with kids. And [00:02:00] we tried so many different formats of how do we do lessons on mental health for students that are beneficial, that they're getting the most out of it, but also that.
There's carryover, right? When there's a discipline incident or something happens in the classroom, there's carryover, the teachers know. And so we pretty much landed on any time she's doing it. And the teachers aren't there or the teachers aren't involved. There's not going to be carryover. And so I love the idea that the teachers do the lessons, because I do think that gets more buy in from staff and they can use that all the time when they're talking to kids.
Exactly, because what we really need is that shared language. So if you're just focusing on, you know, it's like we need everything. We need the skill to be taught explicitly. So we do need a class where this is taught just like reading and writing and anything else. But then you're absolutely right, we need it reinforced over and over again.
And the only way you're going to do that is if you have this shared language where everyone kind of has the same understanding, the [00:03:00] same skill set, and it can get reinforced again and again. And so, you know, the beautiful thing about putting this in the hands of teachers is that so many teachers feel that sense of helplessness or, you know, when it comes to mental health, it feels like this area that they don't know, or they don't have a skill set in because they haven't, you know, had training in that area.
And so our whole goal with the resources is to help them feel more empowered to say, of course, you don't have to be a mental health expert to be able to have some really effective. And I think it's really effective conversations and dialogue and strategies with your students that just create such a more cohesive and, um, you know, mental health focused classroom environment so that there's more thriving all around.
Well, and the other thing I think when teachers teach it, and we say this about coaching too, so I'm a life coach and when I coach other people, I'm coaching myself, right? Because I'm reinforcing everything that I know about coaching. And I think that's true for [00:04:00] the teachers when they're teaching these lessons.
They're also learning these skills because my counselor was teaching a lesson once to fifth graders. And it was basically that your thoughts create your feelings, which create your actions. And I laugh because I'm like, that's what I teach in coaching. That's so cool that we're teaching that to kids. But I'm like, adults don't know that.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, exactly. I feel the same. Like, , our lessons are focused around, we have peer voices, so we have real students with lived experience, not actors, really authentically sharing their experience. And so the kids get to learn from that. But I love it, because we learn from that too. , these kids have so much wisdom to share, and they're talking about, you know, really real life challenges.
A friend said something mean to me, or I felt left out, or I'm stressed about something. And we can all relate to that. And so whether you're a teacher, whether you're a school leader, whether you're a student, you can really sort of, when we have these role models to go by, when we have these, you know, experiences and [00:05:00] examples, we can all learn collectively.
And there's so much power in that. What suggestions do you have for school leaders if, you know, they, they understand the importance of mental health, they want to implement this, but they also know they're lacking time, like what suggestions or they might get a lot of pushback from teachers. Yeah. In your experience, like what's the best way to navigate that?
Yes. So there's a couple of things that are super important. One of them is of course, time that is really, really powerful. If you as a can carve out the time and tie it to the curriculum, which is what, what we always help, help schools and districts with, but make sure that it's prioritized in the calendar so that it's not on the teachers to figure out how am I supposed to do this with everything else?
That's number one. So really, you know, work with that. The second thing is really making sure that you start slow. So you don't want to, you know, the, of course everybody knows the worst thing for a teacher is all of a sudden there's a new initiative. [00:06:00] And, you know, we're doing this new thing and you have to do it, you know, every week or you have, you know, there's this whole new directive and I've never heard of this before.
And now I have to do it. So really, that's what we always do when we work with districts is think about a five to 10 year plan. Don't think about a one year plan. So really figure out what's the smallest thing we can do in the first year. How do we bring on the teachers that we know are really excited first and get them to be sort of doing the pilot and having it be a bit of grassroots, you know, making sure that it grows that way on and then really putting the effort in to focusing on that buy in piece.
So teachers need to know the why. And so we need to really You know, pitch it and show it and guide them to that place instead of just sort of dictating. This is what we're doing. Have that collaborative communication, have that dialogue so that the teachers can be the ones nominating with. These are the challenges that we're seeing in our classroom.
And then you can match the resource to those needs. So that again, it's really making sure it It feels like a collaborative initiative, and it doesn't [00:07:00] feel like a top down, um, you know, thing that they have to do. It feels like something that's going to help them in, in their life, which these resources should be.
Any resource that they're using should be, but that communication needs to be there. One thing I always, um, told my teachers is it's great to really front load those lessons too at the beginning of the year when you're practicing routines and you might not be into as much instruction, like let's front load it as much as possible so that you can also refer back to it.
Definitely. And we always recommend you want it also consistently as much as you can throughout the year. I mean, of course, you always have to figure out timetabling and everything. But yeah, if you start at the beginning of the year, you're but also if you kind of make sure that it's not just this is the term or semester we're doing it and then we're never thinking about it again kind of making sure that it's sprinkled throughout and then the referring back is perfect you know it's so so powerful and this is what gives teachers so much more agency so that if a situation's happening and there's [00:08:00] no lesson that's been done there's no framework they're just left to their own devices and they're just in the spotlight of like what are you going to do now whereas if there's you've already taught the lesson it's so much easier.
You can just say, Hey, we learned something about this. Do you remember what we learned? That's an, you know, that's really fantastic. And that's in every teacher's comfort zone versus trying to figure out, well, how am I going to respond? Our kids are bullying each other. Our kids are being unkind or the student is disengaged.
And now I'm left to my own devices and now I'm stressed and burnt out. And now I need support. Like it just is a cascading effect. If we don't have that framework in place. Yeah, and as you're talking, I'm also thinking about giving, , some professional development to like your playground monitors, your cafeteria workers, like anybody who's working with students, because we had a lot of issues with kids with, , recess behaviors.
with not knowing how to play sports in an appropriate way at school. You know, they were so competitive and it would turn into physical [00:09:00] aggression. And it was just really, they just needed the skills to cope with when things didn't go their way. Absolutely. And this is why it's so important to have that whole school approach.
So we really want everyone having the same understanding and the same skill set, reinforcing the same behaviors and really having that understanding of where do behaviors come from. And always there's an element of mental health involved in that. How do I understand, you know, the most helpful response in that situation to guide a student back?
You know, because there's so many things when we're stressed in the moment, if we don't have a framework, we're just going to blurt the first thing out that comes to us. And that's probably going to be a product of how we were responded to when we were a child, or how we work with, you know, stressful situations.
And, None of us, you know, we have our first response is usually not that helpful. My first response is not that helpful, you know I'll snap or I'll rush or I'll you know, we really need that slow down. Okay, I need to know [00:10:00] What are some of the things I can use? What are the some of the things this child has been taught already and then it also when the kids kids pick up on this stuff So quickly, so when they've started to pick up on it again, we just need a reminder So , that, yeah, recess or whatever, they don't have to be teaching a whole skill set, they can just be nudging.
Hey, remember you, and even, even if they don't know what the skill is, you probably learned a skill to help yourself here. Do you want to try using it? Like it's, it can be this really beautiful thing where it's coming from the kids. You know, and that, but that requires a lot of practice. Yeah, and I think more and more, , school districts have to get on board with us because I'm thinking about just my time in administration and in the beginning doing a lot of in school restrictions and things like that and how that changed over time.
And I'm in Ohio. And even the laws have changed. So in K 3, you can't suspend unless they bring a weapon or there's a couple other things. But I mean, it has to be pretty severe, which is not a bad thing, right? It's changed our thinking. , [00:11:00] but it just shows the need for us to really change our perspective of how are we getting to the root of behaviors?
How are we helping kids who have. needs. Exactly. And it's always the question I always come back to is the why, you know, why is that behavior happening? And if you're just dealing with the what, you're just dealing with what you see, you're never, it's just going to happen again and again and again. And you're just going to be putting out that same fire again and again and again.
But if you have that deeper understanding of like, Oh, this is because this child is, When they're feeling anxious or when they're feeling, you know, insecure or embarrassed, their response is to act out. Let's deal with that deeper underlying feeling and if we can all address that, this child doesn't have a need to act out in that way anymore.
You know, and so , that's when you really make change. That's when you really have those ripple effects. Yeah, what are your suggestions if principals are dealing with some students who maybe the tier one curriculum's not working, they're being taught all the skills, they're still struggling, , they [00:12:00] end up in the office, what recommendations do you have?
Yeah, so that's where you really want to have as well, you know, that tier two, tier three, really strong in place. So one of the things we have what we call a counselor collection. So it's really kind of drilling down the tier one level. You want to teach a really strong basic skill set for navigating challenges, but then at the tier two level, and I say tier two because groups are usually more effective for kids than that.
You know, sometimes you absolutely, students will need that tier three, that one on one, but if you can get. Those groups of kids together that share similar challenges, and you can really drill down and help them understand that they're not alone. Help them create a space where they can be real and honest and vulnerable.
That is going to help them kind of breakthrough. Because if the tier one solution is not working for them, then there's something bigger going on there that you want to tackle. But again, you still don't want to be in that reactive space where you're just dealing with a punishment. I mean, of course, it.
There needs to be consequences. This is not [00:13:00] about not having consequences, but it's about, okay, how do we now identify You know, this is, they need more. And oftentimes when you get kids in a group and they have that safety and they have that regular place to reflect and kind of overcome things, they do work through those challenges and you end up uncovering things that you didn't even realize were happening for them in classroom.
, and then that gets them back and engaged. So we're talking about students and mental health. What suggestions do you have for principals working with their teachers? Because, we talk about teachers don't always feel equipped for student mental health issues. And I can speak as a principal, I didn't always feel equipped for teacher mental health issues.
So what suggestions do you have for that? Definitely. So this is a big one and it's , so important. So again, I always come back to the skillset. You know, we need to make sure we are. teaching a skill set and teaching strategies for how educators can support their own mental [00:14:00] health and well being. , so that's one thing.
Use your PD to focus on staff well being, to focus on, getting , that tier one solution for your staff essentially. But then the biggest You know, strategy, I would say when it comes, you know, as a leader is you need to role model. So if it's really hard in a workplace to prioritize your own mental health, to be able to kind of step back and work on strategies to help yourself, especially in education.
It's so fast paced. It's so stressful. What I see happening is when the leader role models taking care of themselves, you know, using strategies, whether it's a resource like ours or something else where they're learning a skill set and applying it and shares that with their team and creates that space, even in little ways in staff meetings, just to have a simple check in and to share vulnerably to say, Hey, you know that change we just went through Feeling pretty stressful to me.
How is everyone else feeling if [00:15:00] you sort of have that open dialogue and often leaders feel like they have to be stoic and you have to, you know, put on the brave face. And what that does is that sort of means if one of your staff is struggling, they feel like, well, I have to. Put on that bright face too, and I have to be stoic, and I can't really share what's really happening, and that's when things just percolate under the surface, and all of a sudden you have students, or teachers on sick leave, or teachers that are burnt out because they haven't been able to address it.
So, it's really about creating that sense of safety and role modeling it, and it's so hard because for all of us, it's the first thing that goes out the window, , our mental health and well being, when we have so many things to do. But it's so,, so important as a leader that you show your teams this is what it looks like and you're safe with me to explore this.
Yeah, I agree. And I always say that principals need to have boundaries and model that for [00:16:00] teachers. Yes, you know, don't be a principal emailing them at seven o'clock at night and then telling them to take a break because I know, and it's hard. It's really hard. Like I even find in our organization. I have to be very , conscious of that too, because, you know, people look to you and you're the one setting the tone.
And if you don't set the tone and you don't Okay. Practice what you preach. It's really hard. It's like parenting, right? If you say, you know, don't eat the cookie and I'm eating the cookie, it's pretty hard for the, for your child to say, but wait, you're eating the cookie. So it's that , same strategy.
You know, they watch ,, people watch each other and they learn from each other. Yeah. , what data could principals look at to evaluate the effectiveness of their overall school? So we talked about students, staff, their own well being of their overall schools, mental health initiatives that they're doing in the well being of everyone.
This is a really important question because There's so many different surveys out there. There's so much [00:17:00] different data you can look at and the question I always come back to is you know when you're Measuring mental health and you give surveys to students or to educators The questions that are asked in those surveys are really about how do you feel in the moment?
So, you know, are you annoyed because your friend just said something rude to you are you in a class that you don't like all of those things are going to impact how you respond to a survey so trying to measure student mental health is kind of problematic and also in a school system you can't control You can't control your students mental health.
You can't control the challenges they face outside those walls. You can't control their feelings or their mood or anything like that. The only thing you can control is the skills you provide them with. So what I always recommend, and what I find is the most useful, is the mental health. measure the skills they're learning.
So, you [00:18:00] know, have a solution that teaches them a skillset and then measure their ability. , so again, that looks like scenario based questions. That looks like, , teacher observation of using skillsets, , those kinds of things. So , it's testing , their learning, which kind of makes more sense in a school setting anyway, because we do get down this rabbit hole where, you know, it.
We think that we can solve the challenge of students being stressed in school, but we can't. We can't take it away. What we can do is say, here's, I know you have a skill set for dealing with that stress, even if I can't take away your stressors. And that's really the goal of what we want to do in education, because that's the only thing we can really control.
Yeah. I think it's interesting you brought that up because in a previous episode, I was talking about getting feedback from staff for principles and I have found doing surveys just like you said with kids is really hard with staff. You have to watch the time of year because you could probably do the same survey.
In [00:19:00] January in the summer and then another time of the year and you're going to have completely different results exactly because it's all about your personal, you know, mood on that. Yes. Yeah. So I think that's a great point to think about is really assessing and I think even if you're thinking about your own staff's mental health like keeping all those factors in mind like what's the time of year what's going on at that point because we definitely see.
Yeah. Stress in December. We see stress, you know, Halloween time. October was always crazy. Certain times of the year for sure. Absolutely. And that's the thing to always remember. You know, it is a stressful profession and students are stressed. And again, that's not something we can control. It's really important that we focus on the things that we can influence.
That's I think why mental health starts to feel like such a minefield because there is so much of it that is just, you know, out of our hands. And so what we want to do in that education system, and this is where education really does play a role in [00:20:00] mental health, is let's build up those tools, just like we don't put kids behind the wheel of a car without teaching them driving skills.
Let's teach them these skills so that, you know, before they have that accident, before they have that challenge, they know how to navigate it. And that means we're not going to have Um,, and then we're measuring is, can you overcome the things that are hard in your life? And that's really the million dollar question.
You know, your life is probably going to be hard in some way or another, , that's just the reality of being human. But do you have the tools to get yourself out of that and not go down a spiral of making worse and worse decisions? Yeah, and one of the things that I've been talking to more teachers about and even school leaders is this idea of what our expectations are, because I always say that, and I totally put myself in this category as a teacher and even as a principal, we start the year with this expectation, like this is the year, nothing bad's going to [00:21:00] happen.
It's going to be a great year, right? Like we kind of happen. set ourselves up for failure because we think it's going to be the best class ever, like it's going to be different. And I think if we change our expectations to, like you're saying, kids just don't have the skills that maybe they used to have, or we didn't focus on.
And so we just know going in, unless we teach those skills, it might be a hot mess. Yeah, absolutely. And it's really, you know, it sounds dire, but it's better to go in with the assumption. Every single one of your students is struggling with something,, people are struggling with battles that we know nothing about, you know, better to go in with that assumption, and then, you know, have a whole school approach that says, well, if you're not struggling with anything, no problem, these skills are not going to be lost on you.
They're going to help you later in life. You know, it's sort of , what would you rather a scenario where you're under preparing people and then you have these horrible situations happen, that are related to student mental health, addiction [00:22:00] and violence and bullying and all these things. Or do you want to overprepare and then you don't even know the things that you've prevented, you don't even have to hear about them.
And that's the part that's so powerful. Yeah, I think that's a great takeaway when we're thinking about what we want to do as we prepare in our classrooms and then as principals, how do we overprepare and just know that these situations happen and take our experiences instead of thinking every year is going to be better and not in a negative way, but like, let's overprepare.
So I love that. Yeah, absolutely. All right, Hayley, anything else you want to share with our listeners before we end today? Yeah, I think just You know, the challenge in education when it comes to mental health is this whole quintessential question, , how do we bring mental health into the classroom when there's so many other things that we have to do and we have these outcomes that we have to meet and it's a really big challenge and it's a big hurdle and for leaders, for teachers, for everyone, it's [00:23:00] sort of this unsolvable problem.
And so what I would , really recommend is Everything related to student mental health is going to help those educational goals. It's going to help those long term outcomes, but again, start small, start with the first step that you know you can manageably take and think of this in the long term way.
Don't feel like you have to solve it overnight. But if you do nothing, you're going to keep, veering towards it getting worse and worse and worse. If you start taking steps, you start on that positive track. And the first step is usually the hardest. Just like anything else, even for our own mental health.
You know, the first time you go to the gym, it's going to be hard. It's going to feel not very good. But then the more you do that, you get momentum. So I just really. Want to thank those educators and leaders out there. I know it's really, really hard. And I want to encourage you just take that step, trust that it is having an impact and that you'll be able to take the next step and the next step and the next step.
And then all of a sudden you'll look back [00:24:00] in 10 years and you'll go, wow, I changed the school community. I made an impact and you'll be able to see it. And I just really want to kind of keep that in mind because it is hard, and it is hard when we don't necessarily see the outcomes right away, and we're trying to manage a whole bunch of things, but just that encouragement that it, everything you do matters, and, , I just really appreciate you.
Yeah, I think that's great because we do want to see that immediate impact. And in education, it's a long game, right? We don't know the conversations until sometimes the student might come back 10 years later and tell you something and other times they don't. Exactly. Exactly. So , if you have a solution and you're working towards it and , you can have that framework that you trust, the impact is there even when you don't see it.
Yeah, that's great. Well, thanks so much for being here. How can people find you and reach out to you? Yes. So our website is openparachuteschools. com. So you can find all of our resources there and my book and all those kinds of things. And then, , on LinkedIn, I'm Dr. Hayley Watson, super [00:25:00] happy , to connect to anyone on there as well.
I love communicating , with school leaders and educators, , all over the world. All right. Well, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. Thank you so much for having me.