For this webinar series, participants will automatically be enrolled in all 5 sessions.

Speaker

Matt Hersh, Ph.D., DCEP

Description

Educators are charged with the foundational task of helping
each of their students to learn and grow. But what happens when educators themselves
don’t feel like they’re able to be their best selves? What happens when they
feel overly stressed, unsafe, on edge, and pressured to do more with less? In
this webinar series, we will compassionately acknowledge and directly address the
multiple challenges that educators, administrators, and school-based clinicians
face while illuminating the opportunities for greater well-being and work
satisfaction. Fortunately, there are reliable ways to support school personnel,
above and beyond more cultural and institutional changes that are also
desperately needed. This webinar series aims to help enhance educators and
clinicians’ well-being through the development of self-caring attitudes,
actions, and the practice of a communitarian-based perspective that should
neither stigmatize any individual nor leave anyone behind. We will discuss the dilemma
of being a dedicated educator in the post-pandemic era; help support educators
through harnessing the power of the mind, body, and relationships to decrease
burnout risk and enhance resilience; and support educators’ integration of
self-caring mindsets and skills into daily life in a robust and sustainable
fashion.

To receive PDPs and CEUs, participants must attend all 5 sessions and successfully pass a quiz following Session 5. Following the live webinar, registrants will be emailed a link to view the recorded webinar. The recording will be made available for 7 days after each session.

In this first webinar, we explore some of the foundational aspects of being an educator in this contemporary era. We will illuminate, as a community, both the stresses and the rewards of the job to place our everyday experience into a broader and more compassionate context. The fact that educators, apart from many other professionals, are implicitly asked to both “be themselves” and to self-regulate as role models for their students demands a special type of attention to their lived experience. We will explore a new model of self-caring that is personalized, developmentally sensitive, and flexible enough to meet each educator exactly where they are and how they want to be.

As we better understand the sources of our strength as well as our stress and burnout risk, we can simultaneously look to the power of the mind to help us face our challenges and strengthen our resilience. The diverse capacities of the mind – attention regulation, mindful awareness, perspective taking, and wise discernment, to name a few – can be cultivated in a purposeful and sustainable manner. In the moment and over time, we can then find ourselves feeling more (internally) in control amid even the most observably uncontrollable circumstances.

Our experience of stress and cultivation of well-being are not just located in the mind. Within our physiology and physical self, we can find both a barometer of our functioning and a powerful influencer of our vitality and resilience. In this webinar, we will explore how educators’ posture, breath, and energy can be harnessed to stave off the cumulative and insidious stresses endemic to the profession. Through discussion, experiential exercises, and self-reflection, we will empower your physiology and nervous system to create more balance and to feel more grounded.

Healthy relationships are a cornerstone of well-being. This principle applies to connections in your classroom as well as to camaraderie within the community of colleagues around you. Nurturing supportive relationships inside and outside of the school setting can help shift our perspective, bolster our sense of optimism, provide necessary guidance and wisdom, and help bring out the best in us. It is therefore vital for us to purposefully build and care for a community of trusted others who have our back. Likewise, we must cultivate a trusting and compassionate relationship with ourselves for optimal resilience. Through the heart practices of self-compassion, gratitude, and loving kindness, for example, we can turn toward ourselves and each other with increased openness and generosity of spirit. This lightness of being can then become a refuge during the stress of the workday and can be a comforting home base upon which to return whenever possible.


In the final webinar of this self-care cultivation and
burnout prevention series, we will reflect on sustainability of our self-caring
efforts. It is not enough to know the “what” of self-care practices. We must
extend our discussion and experience to the “how.” How will each of us bring
mind, body, and relationship-oriented wellness practices into our lives so that
they are personally meaningful, flexibly applied, and enduring? To this end, we
will explore factors such as motivation, readiness to change, habit formation,
and the purposeful planning of self-care practices. Such facets of a growth
mindset can breathe new life into how we care for ourselves and each other to
reduce suffering and maximize our lasting well-being.

About the Speaker

Dr. Matt Hersh (he/him) is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in the Boston area, and he integrates mindfulness, self-compassion, values work, and Energy Psychology into his therapeutic work for teens and adults. He is a diplomate of Comprehensive Energy Psychology, a certified teacher for the Mindfulness Institute for Emerging Adults, a YogaBody® Certified BreathWork coach, and a consultant presenter for the Massachusetts Partnerships for Youth. Matt is the founder of The Thriving Therapist, an online resource for mental health practitioners’ self-care support and burnout prevention. From this platform, he has created coursework and given talks on self-care to both practicing clinicians and mental health professional trainees. Matt is the author of The Thriving Therapist, a comprehensive book promoting sustainable self-care for psychotherapists and allied mental health practitioners. He was the 2023 recipient of the Mid-Career Practitioner award through APA’s Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy.

Membership Information

Most MPY webinars are available ONLY to current staff from member districts and organizations. Public school memberships include police and fire personnel. Former and retired employees and members of committees, including but not limited to, PTO/PTA, PAC, School Improvement Councils, Health Councils, Drug/Alcohol Councils, and school volunteers, are not considered MPY members.

PDPs and CEUs

MPY is an approved Professional Development Provider through the Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education (Provider No. F20180079). Professional Development Points (PDPs) are offered for most MPY professional development webinars. PDPs are issued in 10 hour increments, per DESE requirements.

Continuing Education Units (CEUs) are available for clinical staff through the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the Massachusetts Mental Health Counselors Association, Inc. (MaMHCA). The NASW and the MaMHCA approve each event individually. CEUs may be given in hourly increments.

To receive PDPs and CEUs, participants must pass the quiz.

Event Cancellation Policy

If you are unable to attend a MPY webinar you must cancel, through Bonnie Mullen at bonnie@mpyinc.org, one business day before the webinar.

For MPY hybrid conferences, the date in-person registration closes will be posted on MPY’s website. Virtual conference registration will close one business day before the hybrid conference. You cannot cancel or switch your registration from in-person to virtual after in-person registration closes. Please email Bonnie Mullen at bonnie@mpyinc.org with any questions regarding registration.

 

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If you are seeking to receive CEUs and/or PDPs, please click Register Now. Once you complete the webinar series, you will be able to take quizzes for CEUs and/or PDPs. Upon completion of each quiz, you will receive a certificate.

All sessions are 9:30 am – 11:30 am.

  • Session 1: October 16, 2024, The Dilemma of Being an Educator in the Post-Pandemic Era
  • Session 2: October 30, 2024, Harnessing the Power of the Mind to Reduce Burnout and Enhance Well-Being
  • Session 3: November 13, 2024, Unlocking Body-Based Solutions for Wellness and Stress Management
  • Session 4: December 11, 2024, Building Resilience Through Cultivation of Interpersonal Connection and Relationship with the Self
  • Session 5: December 18, 2024, Building Sustainable Self-Care Practices: Integrating Attitudes and Actions into Daily Life