In this newsletter I am sharing another fantastic online mental health resource: This Way Up. What I particularly like about this website is that some of the resources can be translated from English into eleven other languages so that its wellbeing information can reach a much wider audience.

First of all, I would like to encourage you to complete the School TV Wellbeing barometer for 2024. As with anything in life, communication is so important. Through sharing your child’s experiences, School TV and Medbury School will be much better prepared and able to provide effective wellbeing support to you as parents.

This Way Up is run by clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, researchers, and web technicians based at St Vincent’s Hospital and the University of New South Wales. Online courses are available and the website has a range of excellent resources on topics such as insomnia, panic attacks, social anxiety, depression, mindfulness, anxiety just to name a few.

To give you a taste of what is available please see a summary of some of the multilingual coping and resilience tools. The downloadable versions have language options, are more detailed in their tips and tools and are beautifully presented - they are well worth a look for the whole family/whānau.

Five simple steps to calm your emotions:

• Describe how you feel

• Take a few ‘belly’ breaths

• Check on your thoughts

• Resist the urge to react

• Allow your emotions to pass

Five helpful steps for tackling your problems:

• Consider the problem

• Focus on what you can control

• Take action

• Be kind to yourself

• Stay flexible

Effective ways to express yourself:

• Know how to be heard

• Describe how you feel

• Ask for what you need

• Know your boundaries, then communicate them

• Be a good listener

I do hope that the tools and resources shared by This Way Up are helpful for you and your family/whānau in developing a lifelong support toolkit.

Image sourced from: This Way Up

Jenelle Hooson

Jenelle is a fully registered member with NZAC (New Zealand Association of Counsellors).

If you wish to discuss the services the School Counsellor can provide, please talk to your child’s homeroom teacher or make contact with Jenelle directly: jenelle.hooson@medbury.school.nz