Resource Guide to Support For Secondary School

Message from the Secondary School Counsellor

Dear student,

Over the last six months, you have witnessed much change and personal challenge. 

As your Psychological Guidance Counsellor, I wanted to remind you that as we adapt day by day, sometimes hour by hour, that we are all in this together.

You are not alone and I hope that as well as engaging with me on a one-to-one basis or on Teams, that you will also come to see the new Senior Counselling Resource pages (on the ISL Qatar website) and soon to be on Teams, as a convenient source of additional guided self-help.

The staff at ISL Qatar are proud of how you have held yourselves together. You have been flexible, determined and resilient. You are respectful of sudden changes, in fact, you have used your ALT skills to great aplomb. Those thinking communication, research, social and self-management skills, are not wasted on you as you adapted and once again ‘knuckled down’ to accommodate a ‘blended’ way of learning.

Your journey so far may have been boring, isolating, depressing and stressful.

As young people, I know how much you value and care about your social life, how feeling as though you belong affects your academic success.

The changes you continue to experience may appear as though they have negatively affected you.  You may have embraced the opportunity to reinvent yourself via new pursuits interests and people.

Conversely, if negative thinking, feeling or behaviour is affecting your everyday life please get in touch with me.

No issue that keeps you awake at night is ‘silly’ ‘selfish’ ‘ridiculous’ or ‘a waste of my time’.

Let me show you how counselling can help you nip those negative thoughts, predictions, anxieties or depressive episodes in the bud!

I look forward to meeting you as and when required but for now please find your soon to be favourite bookmark, here.

All the very best for a mentally healthy approach to academic success!!

‘Miss Jen’
Room F309 (upper floor)
Jennifer Heathcote Osborne.

 

GREAT NEWS

Qatar is ‘tackling stigma, improving access and integrating physical and mental health. The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and public sector healthcare providers are working together to tackle the stigma often associated with mental health. This stigma can act as a barrier to people seeking help.
See the article here 

 

Home During COVID-19: How to Help Teens Cope

  • How can Counselling help you to reduce procrastination? 

A study has found that dealing with underlying negative emotions that lead to procrastination, using various anti-procrastination techniques, such as Talking therapies and or mindfulness, trying to find something positive or worthwhile about important tasks that you find aversive. 

You can read the full article here. Alternatively, if you prefer a summarized version, here are the main takeaways from the study

  • Negative affect is a state which involves feelings and emotions described through key terms such as “distressed”, “upset”, “guilty”, “scared”, and “nervous”.

  • The present study found that current-day negative affect is a significant predictor of next-day procrastination, which means that if we feel negative emotions today, we’re more likely to procrastinate tomorrow.

  • This issue can be attributed to several psychological mechanisms, such as people’s preference for short-term mood repair at the expense of long-term goal achievement, and the interference of negative emotions with people’s general motivation and drive.

  • You can reduce procrastination by dealing with underlying negative emotions that lead to it, using various anti-procrastination techniques, such talking therapies - counselling and mindfulness or trying to find something positive or worthwhile about important tasks that you find aversive.

  • Being able to predict situations where you’re more likely to engage in procrastination, as a result of expected negative emotions, can also help you figure out when and where you should implement the aforementioned anti-procrastination techniques, and can help you set some of them up in advance.

Ref https://solvingprocrastination.com/2020. 
 

September is Suicide Awareness Month

https://www.blessingmanifesting.com/2016/09/one-conversation-can-save-life-suicide-awareness.html

Guided Self Help Booklets

Secondary Booklet for self care Social Emotional  Support 

TOP TIPS FOR PARENTS
Parents, we haven't forgotten you!!

The last few months have been tough for most of us. We haven’t been able to see our friends, go about our lives in the way we would like to and have fun. 

Please find self care tips for parents here