Summerside school counsellor providing well-being tips through YouTube videos

A school counsellor in Summerside, P.E.I.,is taking dedication to the job to a whole new levelwhen it comes to ensuring her studentsfeel well.

Jo Cullen, who works at Athena Consolidated, started making videos about positive self-talk, mindfulness and flexible thinkingduring the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in 2020.

"We didn't have much of a protocol at that point for reaching out to students and how we would make contact with families," Cullen said.

"So I came up with the idea that I would just make a daily video and post it to our school's Facebook page, our school's website, and on YouTube, and that the kids could access some social and emotional learning materials."

More recently, Cullen has been posting videos on her personal YouTube page.

Her videos have reached beyond P.E.I.'s borders andhelped more than school children, she said.

"During the previous lockdown I had people in Alberta who were using them at group homes. I was getting emails saying they were finding them very helpful there," Cullen said.

"It's good to know that what you're doing makes a difference, and that you can help people feel some sense of agency when we're in a time that is pretty unpredictable."

Children have more anxiety now than at the start of the pandemic, Cullen said, because of the risingCOVID-19 cases in the province.

"I think there is more anxiety this time around because P.E.I. is seeing rising cases that we hadn't seen in the past. We've kind of been preparing all this time but not seeing all the actual things that kids were afraid of coming true."

Most of them are also getting pandemic fatigue, burnt-out from pandemic restrictions though Cullen said a lot of this comes from observing frustrated parents.

"[Kids] take their cues from adults both verbally and non-verbally, they pick up on our cues."

Focus on what we control

Her advice for thriving through the pandemicand its restrictionsis to focus on what we can control.

"For example, we don't have control over the numbers Dr. Morrison is going to announce every day, but the things we do have control over are whether we wear our mask, wash our hands and get vaccinated," Cullen said.

Stressing over things we can't control is"more anxiety inducing," she said.

Here are some tipsfrom some ofCullen's videosforchildren from kindergarten to Grade 8:

• Take breaks.
• Exercise.
• Get outside.
• Eliminate negative self-talk.
• Practise mindfulness.
• Do a daily self-check.

It's important for children to get outside and playwhile they're learning online, Cullen said.

"Children learn best through play, that's their time, and nature definitely resets us and helps us tune our nervous system. That helps us feel safe and calm."

In general, taking a break is what's most important, she said.

"The best advice I can give is to give yourself a break, focus on what you can do, not what you can't do," Cullen said.

"Then the better chances we'll have to really thrive than just survive, through the school closure."