Teacher Therapy
I need therapy. You need therapy. We all need therapy.
Why? Because teachers are
developmental partners.
Teachers are used every day by students who are growing and developing — or, worse, are NOT growing and developing and are rightly angry about it.
Teachers are faced with students who have suffered trauma and, worse, know they’re returning to traumatizing conditions at home.
Teachers are routinely expected to do the impossible, to
risk their physical health for the sake of their students’ mental health
quickly make up for “learning loss”
alleviate parents’ anxieties about COVID
alleviate students’ anxieties about COVID
provide the battleground for curricular culture wars
care ceaselessly while not being cared for adequately
And teachers are human.
Not broken.
Not sick.
Just human. Which means they bring their own anxieties and limits and exhaustion and trauma to the classroom and need help in managing all those forces, in self-regulating and keeping their heads above water. So they can be there for their students who need them to be
rock solid reliable.
So yeah. Teachers need therapy. And their schools should pay for it.
Psycho-coaching would work, too.