Mental Health
Mental Health Resources
Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
LifeWorks EAP is available 24 hours a day at no cost to help staff and their families. This program offers confidential assistance through a free, web-based resource with a telephone support service providing access to caring professional consultants and masters-level counselors.
Phone: English: (888) 456-1324, Spanish: (888) 732-9020
Your Life Iowa is Also Here for You!
If you need to decompress and talk to someone about the stress and anxieties you may have, Your Life Iowa is here for you. You will be connected with a licensed therapist. There are three ways to access the services.
Call (855) 581-8111
Text (855) 895-8398
Call 211, choose extension 8
COVID Recovery Iowa Available for Any Iowan Affected by COVID-19
COVID Recovery Iowa offers free counseling and other services to any Iowan who has been affected by COVID-19
COVID Recovery Iowa is a grant that Iowa received in order to offer services and supports to individuals and families who have been impacted by COVID-19. COVID Recovery Iowa provides support groups, crisis counseling, educational and supportive information to those in need over email, phone, zoom and social media. Share this information with your family and friends!
There's a Name for the Blah You're Feeling: It's Called Languishing
It's not burnout and it not quite depression, but somewhere in the middle is the feeling of being joyless and aimless and many people have experienced it. Now there is a name for it: languishing.
The Other Side of Languishing is Flourishing. Here's How to Get There
A growing body of research shows that there are simple steps you can take to recharge your emotional batteries and spark a sense of fulfillment, purpose and happiness. The psychology community calls this lofty combination of physical, mental and emotional fitness "flourishing.”
Manipulate Time with These Powerful 20 Time Management Tips
We all get the same 24 hours, right? This article shares 20 tips -- from time audits and time limits for tasks to prioritization, delegation and learning to say "no" -- to help you maximize your time management and make the most of your day.
Join Us for Round 2 of Listening Circles: Achieving a Functional Work-Life Balance
Our Heartland AEA SEBMH group has designed and scheduled a second round of Listening Circles. In this round, we will consider how to create and maintain a functional work-life balance. We will be drawing upon the ideas in this article from Edutopia. We encourage you to read the article prior to participating; however, it is not required.
As a reminder, the goal of Listening Circles is to create a brave space for staff to be heard, free of judgment, and with no fear of consequences for speaking their truth. It is believed that this practice will be helpful for building and maintaining a healthy community in which ALL staff feels connected and respected.
Here is what some of our colleagues have said about participating in the first round of Listening Circles:
"The listening circle is a place where you can feel connected to others in our Heartland AEA family and share in a reflective, thoughtful, caring way. It was a meaningful experience."
"I thought I might be walking into group therapy and wasn't too eager to do that! But Listening Circles aren't like that. They are led by our incredibly bright and caring staff in a structured way so we can hear from our colleagues, learn from each other, gain understanding and build connections. It's time well spent!"
"This was a very non-threatening process. We always had the option to pass and that was totally okay."
We encourage you to participate in an upcoming Listening Circle with your fellow Heartland AEA colleagues!
How to Participate
Listening Circles have been scheduled over the next three weeks at various times throughout the day to accommodate as many schedules as possible. Registration for each circle will be capped at eight participants to allow for meaningful sharing from all participants. If you are interested in participating as a group, feel free to have your group members sign up for the same time or contact your regional lead to see about setting up a separate time for your group to engage in a circle.
A New Way to Think About Work-Life Balance
We're constantly told that we need to make sure we have a good work-life balance and that we need to embrace self-care, but these ideas are not one size fits all. In this article, a school leader shares how he came to understand that work-life balance looks different for different people and there's no need to feel guilty about that.
More Listening Circles on the Way
Our Heartland AEA SEBMH group is working on designing and scheduling a second round of Listening Circles. In this next round, we will consider how to create and maintain a functional work-life balance. We will be drawing upon the ideas in the above article from Edutopia. We hope you find the article beneficial, and we encourage you to participate in an upcoming Listening Circle with your fellow Heartland AEA colleagues.
How to Build a Strong Inner Foundation for Your Life
Have you ever thought about whether you have a strong inner foundation that helps to guide your life choices? Having a strong inner foundation is an important part of intentional living because it helps you make decisions that shape your future for the better.
21 Tips for a Positive New Year
Consider these 21 tips from best-selling author Jon Gordon to start your 2021 on a positive note. Find this information and more on Jon Gordon's website.
Yale Offering Another Free Course on Managing Emotions in Times of Uncertainty
Yale is offering another course FREE to educators and school staff across the globe on Coursera.
Developed by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, Managing Emotions in Times of Uncertainty & Stress will provide participants with the knowledge, skills, and strategies to understand and manage their emotions and those of their students. The 10-hour online course is designed for school staff, including teachers, paraprofessionals, counselors, principals, and non-teaching staff in preK-12 schools.
Resource Guide Provides Tips on How to Celebrate Safely This Holiday Season
This Holiday Resource Guide provides a one-stop-shop for approaching the holiday season in the midst of a pandemic. This downloadable interactive PDF contains a compilation of resources for celebrating safely this holiday season.
If You're Feeling Blue This Holiday Season...
While most people may seem to be enjoying the holiday season, many people are experiencing the “blues.” Unfortunately, stress and depression don’t take a holiday. In fact, the periods leading up to and during the winter holidays can bring additional stress, anxiety, loneliness and depression.
If you are a person struggling to find the holiday spirit or bright skies at all, with all 2020 has dished out, LifeWorks can help.
Yale Offering Another Free Course on Managing Emotions in Times of Uncertainty
Yale is offering another course FREE to educators and school staff across the globe on Coursera.
Developed by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, Managing Emotions in Times of Uncertainty & Stress will provide participants with the knowledge, skills, and strategies to understand and manage their emotions and those of their students. The 10-hour online course is designed for school staff, including teachers, paraprofessionals, counselors, principals, and non-teaching staff in preK-12 schools.
Ten Ways to Bounce Back
Staying resilient is like keeping fit, and just as most people feel better when they are fit, life challenges will be less formidable when we learn to stay resilient. Here are ten ways to bounce back from challenges you face at work and at home.
Listening Circles: Safe Spaces for You to Speak and Feel Connected
With the crisis of the current pandemic, there has been an increased awareness of the stressors faced by ALL our staff and the need to provide quality supports. One of the supports we are making available for our staff, starting in November, is Listening Circles.
The goal is to create a brave space for staff to be heard, free of judgment, and with no fear of consequences for speaking their truth. It is believed that this practice will be helpful for building and maintaining a healthy community in which ALL staff feels connected and respected. Listening circles have been scheduled at various times throughout the day to accommodate as many schedules as possible.
Listening Circles Flyer
Registration
Professional Learning to Support Educator and AEA Staff Well-being and Resiliency Building
Through the use of COVID-19 Relief Funds, made available by the State of Iowa and our partners at Polk County Health Services, Heartland AEA is offering an exciting opportunity to support educator well-being and resiliency building.
As a result of the current pandemic, the stressors placed upon educators have been further magnified, with many lives significantly disrupted due to millions of students now at home, thousands of educators teaching from home, and entire families and communities living in isolation. ALL educational staff is facing a plethora of challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic. Schools may be shifting between online learning and in-person learning; educators are adapting to new schedules and different ways of teaching; and trying to meet the needs of their students, while also meeting the needs of their own family and friends.
CARE (Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education) workshops are unique, evidence-based professional development programs that help educators handle the stresses and rediscover the jobs of teaching.
The goal of CARE is to:
Offer educators tools and resources for reducing stress, preventing burnout, enlivening teaching, and helping students thrive socially, emotionally and academically.
CARE introduces tools such as:
Mindful awareness practices
Caring and emotion skills training
Research shows that such practices are helpful for developing awareness, openness, emotional responsiveness and sensitivity - all essential qualities for modeling healthy behavior in the classroom and optimizing teaching and learning. By practicing the skills learned in the program, educators learn to cultivate calmness, awareness, presence, compassion, empathy and ability to listen. In the classroom these qualities improve teachers’ classroom management, curricular implementation and relationships with their students.
REGISTRATION
We will be offering separate sessions to meet the unique needs of administrators, educators and Heartland AEA staff. Registration is limited to 35 participants per session.
AEA Staff Session
Dec. 9 and 14; Jan. 13, 22, 27, and 29
8:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m., Via Zoom
Registration Course 190771
Five Ways to Be Kinder to Yourself
Pandemic fatigue is real. Even the most upbeat and positive of us are feeling worn down, dragged out, stressed out and depressed. So what can we do? We start by being kinder to ourselves. Author, speaker, and coach Stephanie Dalfonzo gives us five ways to be kinder to ourselves.
Take Some Time for Yourself every day!
It can be as simple as taking 5 minutes to sit and enjoy a cup of your favorite tea. It could be taking a longer amount of time to enjoy a nice hot bath. Perhaps a walk in nature - this is how I connect every single day. It could be journaling, listening to a guided meditation or painting for 5 - 10 minutes. (This is what "Happier Now" author Nataly Kogan does for herself.)
Be your own cheerleader!
Celebrate your wins and accomplishments. Recently a healer that I work with had to remind me of this. I was being hard on myself and she said "look at all you have accomplished, and you are just glossing right past it!" Write it all down and look at it every day! I invite you to join me in this practice - it feels really good!
Let go of needing to be "Polly Perfect" - especially during these crazy times!
I am a recovering "Polly Perfect," and I can tell you it is exhausting! Studies have found that perfectionists have higher levels of stress, burnout and anxiety. In all that we are enduring in 2020, we need to give ourselves a break.
Turn down the volume on your inner critic and turn up the volume on your self advocate.
When you begin to notice "that voice," literally put your hand out like a traffic cop and say "STOP" or "CANCEL/CANCEL!" And reframe what you said (or were about to say) in a kinder, gentler way.
Tell yourself "I AM ENOUGH."
My wise daughter, Crissi, has this beautiful quote from Sierra Boggess on her phone to remind herself many times a day:
You are enough.
You are so enough.
It is unbelievable,
how enough you are.
Explore more from Stephanie Dalfonzo at stephaniedalfonzo.com.
Dr. Laurie Santos' Five Favorite Tips for Coping When Times are Really Challenging & Tough
In this video, Dr. Laurie Santos, Professor of Psychology at Yale, highlights five evidence-based ways to cope as we are battling a worldwide pandemic that is causing fear, uncertainty and disruption in our normal routines.
Top 5 Evidence-based Coping Tips
Depression and the Pandemic - A Deep Dive
Oct. 4-10, 2020 was Mental Illness Awareness Week in the United States. To help bring awareness to this important aspect of well-being, LifeWorks has launched a new microsite – Depression and the pandemic: a deep dive.
In this microsite, explore the relationship between the pandemic and depression through four pillars of well-being: mental, social, physical and financial.
4 Key Dimensions of Self-Care
Self-care includes all the things you do to take care of your well-being in four key dimensions – your emotional, physical, psychological, and spiritual health.
If you are a person who gives a lot of yourself in service to the well-being, learning, and growth of others in some way, self-care and care of others becomes an important balancing act.
5 Natural Ways to Boost Your Mental Health During Stressful Times
Life today is razor's-edge tense. If your regular coping methods aren't measuring up, there are science-backed actions we can add on our own to ease anxiety, depression and stress — all done naturally, no doctor's note required.
Good and Bad Stress: Do You Know the Difference?
Some stress is actually good for us. It can help our minds focus, our senses sharpen and our bodies get ready for physical challenges, but one thing is clear: it’s unavoidable. So we need to find ways to harness the power of short-term stress and control the negative effects of long-term stress. Search for Heartland AEA when asked to search for your organization.
Feeling Overwhelmed by Media? You Aren't Alone
It is important to stay informed, especially during this time when information is changing rapidly. This access and availability can be helpful and necessary for our day-to-day decision making. However, this level of constant connection and availability of media at our fingertips can also be exhausting and overwhelming. While the appropriate boundaries look different for everyone, here are some things to keep in mind when addressing media consumption.
New State Program Offers Free Counseling & Stress Relief Resources
COVID Recovery Iowa, a new federally-funded program managed by the state, is ready to help Iowans cope with the added stress of the pandemic. From producers watching the virus devastate the ag economy, to the inability to celebrate life’s milestones and watching as our seniors live in isolation for months at a time, the normal stresses of daily life have increased many times over. COVID Recovery Iowa is now offering free, confidential virtual counseling to any Iowa resident who wants it. They are also providing access to a number of stress-management activities such as yoga, cooking classes, parental resources and more. Those interested in utilizing any of the free resources can find out more at the COVID Recovery website or by calling (844) 775-9276.
How to Love Yourself to the Core
When was the last time you nurtured your spirit? It is important to nurture the spiritual body in addition to the physical body. All aspects (mental, physical, emotional and spiritual) must be acknowledged to maintain overall well-being and live a healthy life. There is an epidemic of low self-worth on this planet that will only be remedied with one person at a time committing to expressing unwavering gratitude, compassion and reverence. Through the heart-core connection to self-love, we can elevate our consciousness, deepen our connections with others and contribute to the collective respect, love and peace on earth.
Returning to Normal After the COVID-19 Pandemic Toolkit
Although you may be looking forward to returning to your “normal” way of life, normal might not look exactly like what life did before COVID-19. The resources in this toolkit will offer you guidance and support as you navigate the changes that the pandemic has brought.
Inspirational Quotes to Get Us Through the Coronavirus Shutdown
This essay is part of a column called The Wisdom Project by David Allan, editorial director of CNN Features. The quotes included speak to this time of coronavirus shutdowns and of health and economic fears.
25 Daily Affirmations to Improve Your Mindset
Your thoughts play a big part in your overall success and happiness. Because of this, it's important to find ways to improve your mindset. If you don’t, you risk falling into negative thought patterns and holding yourself back. Affirmations are a powerful way to improve your mindset daily. Research has shown they can increase our feelings of self-worth. Self-affirmation encourages you to think positively about the important things in your life: your family, career or hobbies.
Monthly Tips for a Healthier You
Keep moving to feel your best. Your choice of movement may depend on your schedule, budget, health, local resources and what you enjoy. Even with social distancing, there are a lot of ways you can keep moving. Why is this so important? Because getting moving improves your physical and emotional health. And, now more than ever, we could all use help feeling our best.
Interactive Health Monthly Newsletter: May 2020
Webinar: Frazzled Families and Overcoming Parental Burnout During COVID-19
Burning out is not an overnight phenomenon. But with parents in newfound roles of educators, remote workers, and caretakers during the pandemic, the feeling of overwhelming exhaustion has become increasingly more common.
May 2020 is Mental Health Awareness Month
To mark this occasion, LifeWorks is launching a new microsite. It explores how to stay informed and support the ones you love while preserving your mental health.
A stable mindset in an unstable world
Coping with Corona
This ebook provides practical tools that will allow you to apply the skills of emotional intelligence to better navigate these chaotic days. Marc Brackett, Ph.D. and Robin Stern, Ph.D. – who run the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence – have developed a research-proven model that will help you recognize and regulate your emotions and help your colleagues and family members do the same.
Coping with Corona: Applying Emotional Intelligence at Work and Home
Being Our Best Self During Challenging Times
In this week's blog post, find out what a meta-moment is and how it can help you stay in control and be your best self.
Marc Brackett, Ph.D., The Emotion Scientist Blog
How to Manage Anxiety During the COVID-19 Outbreak
Here is a look at how to cope with some of the common thoughts and feelings brought on by the current pandemic.
Q & A with Clinical Psychologist Dr. Brooke P. Halpern
May is Mental Health Month
Below you can find a list of the Mental Health training programs offered through LifeWorks.
Staying Resilient During COVID-19
The Compassion Resilience Toolkit offers videos and articles on a number of ways to support resiliency. Topics include control, stress awareness, expectations, mindfulness, gratitude and more.
It's Okay Not to be Okay
Author Jon Gordon reminds us that staying positive doesn't mean sucking it up and wearing a fake smile. It's okay to experience a wide range of emotions when dealing with grief of any kind. The positivity is in the ability to be optimistic about the future.
Also linked in the newsletter is the 11 Day Stay Positive Action Plan. Find this information and more on Jon Gordon's website.
Structure Your Day with Points
Everyone has a mental breaking point where we feel completely burnt out and lose our willpower. This is not usually caused by the number of tasks or amount of work we have, but rather the mental capacity each one will require. This point system is set up to help you allocate your mental energy in a manner that works for you.
Structure Your Day with "Points" to Budget Your Mental Energy
Emotions at Home: How do we want to feel?
In this week's blog post, Marc Brackett, Ph.D. describes how to build a positive emotional climate in your home by looking at the Emotional Intelligence Family Charter.
Emotion Scientist April 12, 2020
9 Ways to Relax Without Spending a Cent
There are numerous healthy, no-cost activities you can do to rest and recharge, many of which don’t require any supplies (or if they do, they’re things you can likely find in your kitchen). Social distancing doesn’t mean you have to stop practicing healthy selfcare—in fact, it’s the perfect time to start.
Understood.org You & Your Family Resource
Tips to help navigate your "new normal."
My 5 Parenting Rules for Letting Go and Getting Through the Coronavirus Crisis
Resources to Support Your Emotional Health
Ongoing concerns about the coronavirus (COVID-19) have many people feeling more stressed or anxious than usual — and that’s common during a health crisis or time of uncertainty. The good news: These resources from Interactive Health can help.
Interactive Health Coronavirus Resource Page
Compassion Resilience Toolkit
This is a site filled with many resources on staying resilient during COVID-19. Topics include mindfulness, boundaries, expectations and stress awareness.