A Teacher, a Counsellor, and a Book
Teaching and counselling come together through compassion, reflection, and connection
He tipped over the desk, cursing at everyone in the classroom. The kids were stunned. The class teacher rushed to grab him as he ran to the door. Twenty-three other ten-year-olds were in the class.
I took a breath, then asked the kids to look at me. I opened a book and read a story. I always have a book on me. Two social workers came into the class to try to soothe the student. One student asked, “Why did he flip out?’ I responded, ‘Sometimes people have big emotions that feel like too much.’ I kept reading in a calm voice. In that moment, my role was to stay with the rest of the class.
Moments like this bring me back to a question I have been sitting with for the past few years: how do my decades of teaching and my newer experiences as a mental health counsellor fit together at this point in my life? I love teaching. I love being a counsellor. Both are who I am: someone who loves to help.
For most of my teaching life, my goal has been to help students complete tasks, stretch their learning, think more creatively, and, most importantly, enjoy learning. Since I started seeing clients at night, I've become more aware of how much I want to care for my students’ overall well-being along with their learning. I am slowly realizing what connects these roles is my desire to see the whole person, whether in a classroom or a counselling room.
In the past few years, I have spent much of my time over-preparing for lessons to balance the needs of students, teachers, and the curriculum. With my clients, I do the same, as I look at notes and approaches to help them be who they wish to be. In the classroom, I am a teacher. Increasingly, my experiences as a counsellor shape how I teach. It is amazing and tiring at the same time.
At school, there are students I check in on regularly. One of them is the student who melted down. I make a point of seeing him at least once a day to ask how he is doing. Some days he talks about the teachers he hates, the students he hates, and how boring everything is. Today, he apologized for what happened in the class. I wanted him to know that he didn’t need to apologize for having strong feelings. We talked about his actions and how they made the others feel. He looked down. I told him we can work together to find ways to manage these feelings. These two roles take a lot of energy, but it feels good when they come together.