3 Tips to Support Mental Health for Educators
Tired of experiencing stress and burnout as a teacher? We’re sharing our best tips to support mental health for educators, whether you’re staying in the classroom or thinking about leaving teaching.
At Educator Forever, we support teachers around the world. As teachers begin to reflect on their classroom teaching experiences to build more sustainable and joy-filled lives, we often hear stories of burnout. Many teachers express feeling like their mental health has been pushed to the side and not prioritized during their time as classroom teachers.
Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Even more, it affects how we think, feel, and act. When we are flourishing, we are able to handle stress, form healthy and reciprocal relationships with others, and make choices that benefit ourselves and those around us.
But mental wellness for teachers can be a struggle, as we balance the pressure and stress of the job.
Understanding Teachers and Mental Health
Research shows that teachers are more than twice as likely to be stressed as other working adults. Although the concept of “burnout” can be overused and misinterpreted, it’s important to recognize that when we work in systems that don’t value our needs as whole humans, our mental health can decline rapidly.
According to a study from the American Educational Research Association, teachers in the U.S. are 40% more likely to experience symptoms of anxiety than healthcare workers and 20% more likely than traditional office workers.
Other surveys and reports have shown that many teachers also experience stress-related health problems, such as headaches, stomach aches, dizziness and more.
If you’re struggling with prioritizing your wellness or teaching in a setting that leads to overwhelm and exhaustion, here are some tips to support your mental health.
3 Tips to Improve Mental Health for Educators
GAIN CLARITY
Due to the non-stop nature of our jobs as educators, it’s easy to fall into a state of mental health decline and not even recognize it’s happening. Sometimes we even recreate this frenzied state in our work beyond the classroom after leaving teaching.
Before you can accurately reflect on what you need to move toward a more sustainable life, it’s important to take a pulse-check of your current quality of life and the wellness practices you are currently practicing.
We believe that we heal in community. The below assessments are meant to provide you with insight into your wellness so you can gain clarity but are not meant to diagnose or recommend certain treatments.
PROQOL - Compassion Satisfaction and Compassion Fatigue Assessment. This assessment asks you to reflect on your experiences in a helping profession, both positive and negative. Next, you have the opportunity to interpret your scores and compare them to the average score. If you have any concerns, you can discuss them with a physical or mental health care professional. After completing the assessment, reflect on questions, such as:
What was challenging about the assessment? Why?
What surprised me about the assessment? Why?
What areas do I need support with? Who can I pull in for accountability?
The Wellness Compass Practices Assessment. This assessment is not exhaustive, but merely suggestive. Feel empowered to add areas of self-care that are relevant for you and rate yourself on how often and how well you are currently taking care of yourself. After completing the assessment, reflect on questions, such as:
What areas of self-care do I practice most? What areas do I often ignore?
Are there certain items on the list that you have a strong physical/emotional reaction to? For example, practicing self-compassion or allowing yourself to cry.
EXPLORE THE STAGES OF AN EDUCATOR’S JOURNEY
There has been research focused on the stages of burnout and different types of burnout, but it’s not common to find information related to identifying the current stage of our educational careers.
After working with thousands of educators, we noticed common themes emerge. We created the Stages of an Educator’s Journey toolkit to help you identify the stage that you’re in and how you can thrive in each stage. This is key to supporting mental health for educators.
Here is a brief breakdown and you can read about each stage in depth here.
Stage 1: Becoming an Educator — Often stage one is filled with hopes and excitement about becoming a teacher. The length of this stage depends on many different factors, including student teaching experience and the school where you land your first position after graduation.
Stage 2: Burnout/Exhaustion — Once you hit Stage 2, you are depleted and mentally/physically exhausted. In this stage, you might have low confidence about your skills and what you have to offer beyond being a classroom teacher. Even more, your limiting beliefs prevent you from using your skills to fuel your passion.
Stage 3: Finding Community for Teachers — If you’re in this stage, you might already be part of the Educator Forever Network, or have other innovative educators in your life whom you can safely speak about your hopes and aspirations. Stage 3 is all about finding a community of support to guide you and cheer you on.
Stage 4: Seeing Possibilities — Stage 4 is an exciting time because it’s when educators realize that there are so many options outside of classroom teaching. Even more, they realize that they can stay in education without compromising their wellness or staying in a district or school that doesn’t value them as a whole human or do what’s best for kids.
Stage 5: Overwhelm — In this stage, the multitude of alternative jobs for teachers beyond the classroom can lead to overwhelm. Stage 5 provides us with important information about our next steps, but it’s also important to reflect on your self-care practices so you don’t experience the same burnout you did during Stage 2.
Stage 6: Imposter Syndrome — Stage 6 can pop up along your teaching career path beyond the classroom multiple times. You’ve likely experienced imposter syndrome before in other parts of your life. In this stage, we can move from pathologizing ourselves as individuals to acknowledging that the systems are created to keep us on the treadmill. Speak to yourself with compassion and practice self-care.
Stage 7: Growth Mindset — During this stage, you recognize that change happens when you step outside of your comfort zone. You understand that learning things is hard and uncomfortable, but you embrace challenges to make progress and meet your goals.
Stage 8: Imperfect Success — In Stage 8, you’ve likely experienced successful contracts or full-time positions beyond the classroom. Maybe you’ve built a successful education business and clients that keep coming back for your services. During this stage, it’s still important to take the time to reflect on your needs and aspirations moving forward.
After reviewing the stages, reflect on the following questions:
What stage am I in? How do I know?
How might I move to a stage that is more conducive to building the joy-filled and sustainable life I deserve? What would my day look like? What would I spend my time doing?
What goals should I set for myself? Where can I find the support I need to work toward them?
SEEK PEER SUPPORT OR PROFESSIONAL HELP
Peer support has been an important part of the mental health world for decades. In recent years, it’s grown tremendously! From grief support to teen support groups, you’ve likely heard about peer support groups in your local community.
Research shows that peer support can improve your quality of life. Even more, peer support connects people and provides a non-judgmental space for them to share their experiences. Peer support provides the practical, emotional, and ongoing support that is necessary to drive change.
But how often do you hear about peer support for educators? Chances are, not often. The world of mental health for educators is often filled with cutesy wellness ideas, donuts in the lounge, and one-off professional development opportunities or wellness workshops that don’t provide the ongoing support or systemic change that teachers deserve to thrive. Teachers deserve more!
At Educator Forever, we offer wellness circles led by a certified Trauma Informed Peer Support Facilitator. During wellness circles, you’ll prioritize your well-being through activities like gentle somatic movement, breathing exercises, mindfulness, and resilience-building practices. Our wellness circles are confidential and community guidelines are centered so participants can feel safe and brave to share their stories and experiences.
We believe in the power of destigmatizing mental health challenges. If you feel like you might need more help from a mental health professional, we encourage you to explore these resources:
Build a Sustainable Life in Education
Although we simply scratched the surface of what educators need to thrive, the tips above can empower you to take the first steps toward wellness. If you’re an educator reading along, we see you! It takes courage and resilience to recognize when a shift in your career or life is needed.
You’re not alone as you embrace new beginnings and redefine what mental health for teachers really means. The Educator Forever community stands as a testament to the endless possibilities for those who want to pursue alternative careers in education.
As you navigate your own journey, we encourage you to take advantage of the Beyond the Classroom Starter Kit. This toolkit will provide you with key insights as you build a more fulfilling and prosperous career as an educator beyond the classroom.
Our Beyond the Classroom Starter Kit include:
Our signature Beyond the Classroom Course
How to Earn More as a Teacher Course
2 months of membership to the Educator Forever Network
Have questions about improving mental health for educators or starting a new career outside the classroom? Contact Educator Forever today.
About the Author
April Brown (M.Ed) is Educator Forever’s Director of Learning and Development and a curriculum coach for the Curriculum Development Foundations and Advanced Curriculum certification programs. In 2015, April began designing curriculum and writing articles for an EdTech company as a side gig while teaching in Placencia, Belize. After having her daughter in 2016, April was eager to use her unique experience teaching and leading in mainstream and alternative settings in the United States and internationally to work remotely while still making a difference in education.
The Educator Forever Network empowered April to leverage her skills as a compassionate disruptor and out-of-the-box thinker to excel as an instructional/well-being coach, adjunct instructor of Trauma Supportive Schools and Mindfulness courses, curriculum developer, and writer for publications such as PBS SoCal, Education.com, and Britannica for Parents. April is an advocate for teachers and students – inside and outside of the classroom. You can find April in rural Vermont spending time with her husband, two beautiful daughters, and charming rottweilers.