Students are interesting because I think generally
they're excited to be back with their peers,
especially for those who are back in school face to face.
I think with students, it's again another transition.
So it's how am I going to manage my homework
now that I don't have the same flexibility?
Maybe my teachers aren't going to be as lenient
about me turning in that assignment late
because I'm in school.
And the expectation went back to how it was pre Covid.
I think also, while it's a great thing
that kids are able
to socialize again, some of those social anxiety pieces
kick up for some students.
Some students really liked
having that alone time in that space, and they got use
to it. Other students are eager to be with their friends.
And so I think the message I would send to students is
be cautious and be honest about how you're feeling
about being with your friends.
What what do you want that to look like?
What feels good?
How are you balancing your homew Is it overwhelming? Is it under
Talk to your teachers.
I think schools are
an incredible system with so many built supports.
We have amazing school
counselors throughout
all of Arizona taking advantage of some
of our school counselors.
And the resources they have
is a great thing for students to do at the collegiate level.
We have a ton of resources on our college campuses as well
for students to use student services, counseling, support,
peer groups, tutoring services.
And those are all outlets
that are incredibly beneficial for students of all ages.
I think the same message applies to educators as it does
to students and parents.
One of the the differences, I would say, about
educators is really talking with other educators
about their experiences,
their feelings and how they're managing
their classroom, for example.
I know that some teachers are juggling hybrid
based settings, and that is a challenge in and of itself.
Teachers are often our front line workers.
They see students struggling with a variety of things,
emotional, behavioral, family systems, related issues.
And they can take on that stress, too.
There's actually an organization called TREC.
They have amazing resources for teachers in particular,
but educators really need a special space to talk
to one another outside of maybe their family
or their other social supports because they are experiencing
such unique stressors, especially related to Covid.
And this new transition that we're all in.
You are a licensed professional counselor
here in the state of Arizona.
Can you tell us a little bit
about how Covid has come into play throughout the sessions
that you've been having with some of your clients?
I think many of the clients
that I work with, whether I was seeing them befor
Covid or during Covid
Covid has really exacerbated people's responses to stressors
So things that maybe
weren't stressful before are stressful now.
And so it's really illuminated how people cope
and how they adapt to change
when change is unexpected and feels very much out of control.
I would say my motto, working with clients,
especially as it relates to
Covid, is we can only control what we can control,
what we can't control.
We don't necessarily need to fixate on
because it's not helpful.
It tends to create
more anxiety and more frustration along the way.
So, for example, you can wear a mask
even of the people around you are deciding not to.
You can get vaccinated if others choose not to as well
Exactly, and you can
choose to make changes that feel good for you.
One of the big recommendations I have for people of all ages
is just carving out 30 seconds, maybe three minutes of our day
to really recognize
how we were feeling and how did we respond to that feeling.
Most of the time,
if we're feeling happy,
we don't take too much time
to really think about it.
We enjoy it. We're very much in the moment.
But when we're feeling
maybe anxious or sad or frustrated or overwhelmed,
we--we often tend to push those feelings
aside or work through them rather than saying
this is really how I'm feeling and maybe I need this,
maybe I need to go
take a five minute walk,
maybe I need to do some deep breathing.
Maybe I just need a few minutes to myself in a quiet space.
And just taking that
little bit of time tends to make a big difference
because it does reframe
what we can control , but also it gives us space to acknowledg
how we're feeling.
We were speaking ahead of this interview,
and you mentioned that
you are not particularly in love with the term the new normal.
Can you explain that, please?
I don't love that term, because normal to me means average
as a counselor, as a researcher,
that seems more like a stats term than anything else.
I think normal when
we talk about it, especially as it relates to Covid,
we're talking about how our routines have changed.
And it's that desire
to have our routines back to what they were before.
And so normal is relative.
Average is relative. I really prefer the
term adaptation.
How do we adapt to change?
How flexible can we be?
How resilient can we be?
Maybe with the understanding that normal isn't going to be
what it was before and it might never go back to that again.
And that's a really big concept to digest.
But if we think about it
day to day, it becomes a little bit more palatable.
It becomes more understanding and reasonable to manage.
Dr Amanda Tashijan thank you very much
for joining us. Absolutely. Thank you for having me.