James Wogan was selected to be a member of CDE’s Student Mental Health Policy Workgroup (SMHPW). The purpose of the distinguished SMHPW is to assess the mental health needs of California students and gather evidence to support policy recommendations to the California State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPPI) and the California Legislature. This multi-disciplinary workgroup is comprised of teachers, school counselors, school social workers, school psychologists, school nurses, and school administrators, and state and county mental health professionals.
K-12 Comprehensive Toolkit for Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention:
Columbia Suicide Risk Assessment / Suicide Severity Rating Scale, Strengths, Risk Factors, Precipitants. From Harvard, ask about access to firearms regardless of means.
Tiny home village for homeless youth in Oakland / Berkeley. Way to go @YouthSpiritArts Sally and team at #YSA. Thank you for making community better and for giving young people a chance to give back.
Recently released School Based Mental Health (SBMH) Guidebook. Authors across disciplines (School Social Work, School Psychology, and School Counseling PPSC) collaborated to develop this manual.
Check out this interview with Gabor Maté, MD, Canadian Doctor and Addiction Specialist.
I recently helped a father to get sober after years of addiction to opioids and alcohol. He said “it feels SO GOOD to get honest…. um, kinda sorted, well mostly honest, well okay there is some stuff I left out because I’m too ashamed to talk about it.” We all need someone on our side, especially if we need to get honest with ourselves before we get honest with others.
It’s bad ass when clients see articles like this in my waiting room, or online, then come in to therapy appointments ready to face their pain, learn, and change patterns of thinking and behaving.
You might have heard that we “can’t save our ass and save our face at the same time,” (thank you NA), but that sure the hell doesn’t stop brilliant addict brains 🧠 from trying.
We learn the most from the people we serve. Mostly from teenagers, I’ve that we can’t criticize ourselves into positive and lasting change. We can’t criticize ourselves out of criticizing ourselves. The trap of negativity creates the illusion of growth and change.
When I was a younger therapist, I would say things like, “Don’t beat yourself up…give yourself a break….”. Now that I’m a little more um seasoned, I say things like, “You can go ahead and beat yourself up, I can’t stop you, just not all day.”’
In therapy (along with concurrent programs like AA and NA), many clients reduce the negative thinking that comes with addiction by 50% and then, when the time is right, we walk through that fire 🔥 together.
🧠 Expert musicologist and friend Michael Emeneu (Montreal, Canada) breaks down the benefits of learning music by ear. Click link above to see concise article on Medium.
Mindfulness, in-the-moment awareness, and being “present,” goes hand-in-hand with being authentic, mental health and wellness. See link to article in Flipboard magazine SEL.
If you’re struggling in any way, whoever you chose to reach out to is a lucky person. You help them by allowing them to help you, and you’re tacitly saying, “I trust you.”
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