Teacher Wellness

Teacher Wellness Institute

The Teacher Wellness Institute is based in the belief that school-based mental health requires the care and support of not only students but the teachers and staff who guide them each and every school day. Using a trauma-informed, ecological approach, the TWI has worked with many schools in the Central Texas region, holding focus and support groups as well as professional development workshops that focus on skill-building and strengths-based approaches to managing stress as well as classrooms.

Healthy Teachers, Healthy Kids

(Seek Institute & Vida Clinic, 2019)

TWI was developed with the intention of providing educators with the knowledge and skills needed to build student resilience as well as strengthen their own well-being. Services focus on group, individual, and school-wide interventions that at every step are informed and enhanced by educator and campus feedback.

Our own research points to the importance of educator wellness in student outcomes. When measures of student behavior were examined alongside measures that captured educator stress, results showed that increased staff stress predicted higher levels of student anger control issues, aggression, conduct problems, hyperactivity and externalizing behavior problems as a whole.

(Seek Institute & Vida Clinic, 2019)

However, when staff were better informed about trauma and traumatic stress, it predicted positive outcomes in students, such as lower levels of student aggression, depression, physical symptoms of stress, and a better ability to manage day-to-day activities. Giving educators the tools and information needed to interact with students and their own stress with a trauma-informed mindset builds healthier kids.

Teacher and Staff Praise for TWI

Educators who participate in TWI programming are able to better focus on student needs when able to manage stress in a healthier manner. TWI participants learn ways to understand and positively respond to challenges, increase gratitude, utilize skills to decrease bodily reactions to stress and increase adaptive thinking. Below are some teacher responses to our groups:

I am more patient and aware with my students. I take time to observe what they may be struggling with as they enter my classroom every day versus being too busy within my own mental time management.

-Participating Teacher

I really love how I feel each time I leave a wellness activity. I equally feel accomplished and relief. I'm ready to take on the day.......and life!

-Participating Teacher