Secondary Weekly Highlights: Care and Wellbeing

Our Secondary Counsellor Team - Jason Pervas Ahmed and ChenYing Lee - provide crucial support and guidance in our wellbeing services of care for our community. They support students through 1:1 counselling and family counselling and they also lend their professional knowledge, skills and experience as members of our safeguarding and child protection team. In addition, both Jason and Chen Ying play a vital role in guiding our research, understanding and awareness of community wellbeing and mental health.

Many of us are seeking to manage anxiety and distress in ourselves, our families, friends and colleagues.

Entering a further period of lockdown and managing the consequences of the ongoing pandemic, has meant that many of us are seeking to manage anxiety and distress in ourselves, our families, friends and colleagues. This week, Jason shares two wellbeing resources and strategies to support adults and students seeking to manage anxiety and stress: BACE logs and the stress bucket.

BACE logs

During these uncertain and challenging times, there has been a greater emphasis on attending to our own emotional and mental wellbeing. This can be addressed as a part of a holistic approach, that incorporates a range of activities conducive to our overall sense of wellbeing. These therapeutic exercises provide a useful framework in helping to navigate our way through difficult periods, and for constructing adaptive coping mechanisms.

The Body Care, Achievement, Connection and Enjoyment (BACE) logs, help to capture and monitor these key areas. When we feel down or overwhelmed, there can be a tendency to withdraw or isolate ourselves and become inactive. This can also be applied to when we may feel anxious, as we tend to avoid trigger situations that induce feelings of anxiety. The BACE approach helps us to create a healthy routine and balance to our lives. These activities can affect our brain chemistry by acting directly on the release of neuro-transmitters.

• Achievement stimulates dopamine
• Purposeful activity stimulates serotonin
• Connecting with other people stimulates oxytocin
• Exercise stimulates endorphins

The Stress Bucket

Therefore, it is important to ensure the activities are incorporated into your everyday routine and will help with overcoming problems. This can enable us to focus on areas that we can have some control over and to promote a greater sense of autonomy in our lives. The ‘Stress Bucket’ provides a practical analogy to help with measuring our stress tolerance and for exploring ways of reducing overwhelming feelings. The resources can help us to identify specific stress triggers, increasing self-insight and developing healthier ways of self-managing. These activities can be completed on your own or in collaboration with others." Jason Pervas Ahmed, Counsellor Secondary Campus

Wishing you a wonderful weekend,

Maria Osowiecki

Secondary Principal

Editor's note:

The counselling service continues to support students and families especially during this period of uncertainty. We have a supportive GSite for students, staff and parents to access with a dedicated section on coping with Covid_19.

You can also read some earlier blogs from our Counsellors, Jason and ChenYing:

• The rollercoaster of life during the MCO
• How to Reduce the Stress of "Homeschooling"