Welcome

This month, the SBS Counseling Department is sponsoring a community-wide Self-Care Challenge. Our community is turning New Year’s Resolutions into Self-Care Action. For each completed task, the participant’s name will be entered to win a prize. Winners will be drawn at Housemeeting, our weekly community meeting, each week during the month of January. If you visit campus this month, you’ll see the Self-Care Challenge sheets adorning the walls throughout the hallways of the main building. We invite you to download your own Self-Care Challenge worksheet and join us in the pursuit of self-care this new year.

Beyond a monthly challenge, SBS actively practices our commitment to mental health and wellness at SBS year-round. Employees participate annually in dedicated training, and this year the focus is on Mental Health First Aid from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. Mental Health First Aid is a skills-based training course that teaches participants about mental health and substance-use issues. There are a myriad of training programs available to educational institutions and SBS selected Mental Health First Aid training because it does a great job of teaching participants how to identify, understand, and respond to mental health challenges that our unique SBS student population faces. It was important to intentionally select a program that supports our diverse student body; a student body composed of boarding and day, international and domestic, and middle and upper school students. 

Director of Counseling Services Kate Reid reminds us how important it is for the adults in our community to recognize warning signs and feel both competent and confident supporting a student in their time of need. Approximately three quarters of full-time SBS employees have completed the Mental Health First Aid Training. One participant, language faculty Will Saladin, shares “Mental Health First Aid training was a great opportunity to practice and reflect on what approaches are most helpful when students are struggling. It's been very present in my mind as I support them throughout the year, both in English and in French.” 

It’s not just teaching faculty at SBS that pursue professional development in mental health and wellness. Our admissions department is fully invested in the wellbeing of our entire student community and serves as trusted adults to numerous students in many ways. Associate Director of Enrollment Ian Hefele offers, “The Mental Health First Aid training is important because it shows how impactful "present listening" can be when assisting someone in a mental health crisis. The self-care aspect of the program is also extraordinarily important during the continued pandemic.” Assistant Director of Enrollment and musical theater faculty Liz Vollinger explains, "Learning how to best support our students and ensure that they have a safe space to express their feelings freely is such important work, and the Mental Health First Aid training provided a tool kit that we can use in real-life situations during times of crisis. I appreciated that this program emphasized that this training was by no means a replacement for professional help— simply a means to provide our community with more adults capable of providing support and resources. The more we all learn the healthier our community becomes." 

Supporting Kate is Merideth Zide, new to SBS this academic year. Meredith came to Stoneleigh-Burnham from over a decade working in community mental health. With a masters degree in mental health counseling from Westfield State University, Merideth primarily focused on work with adolescents and emerging adults both in residential and outpatient settings.

Kate and Merideth have a shared goal of normalizing the practice of students pursuing therapy with outside providers. The SBS Counseling Department supports this effort by helping each student find a therapist that they connect with and by providing a private space for each student to attend their session during the academic day. Kate shares, “Working with adolescents coming out of a pandemic comes with many challenges and I believe SBS is doing a great job in having the flexibility to support our students in what they need at the moment while also challenging them to see their full potential.”

Kate earned her Master of Social Work degree from Springfield College and is a licensed School Adjustment Counselor and Social Worker. Kate has a passion for adventure based counseling, which allows students to build social-emotional skills outside the traditional classroom environment. Additionally, Kate previously worked as a Medical Social Worker for Baystate Health and a School Based Clinician for River Valley Counseling Center. 

Kate and Merideth want all SBS students to know that there are numerous ways to receive support from the SBS Counseling Department— a teacher or advisor may make a recommendation, a parent or guardian may reach out with a concern, or - best yet - students can advocate for themselves by visiting or contacting the Counseling Department directly to request an appointment with either Kate or Merideth. For some students, support means establishing a weekly meeting time to work on skill building or navigate a challenging social or emotional situation. For others, it means figuring out what community supports we can put into place to help each student be successful. The SBS Counseling Department endeavors to meet each student wherever they are and help them get to where they want to be.

If you or a student you know are in need of support, reach out to a trusted adult - be it your advisor, coach, houseparent, or teacher - or connect with Kate and Merideth directly. Completing daily tasks during this month’s community-wide Self-Care Challenge is an opportunity to practice self-care, and we encourage you to prioritize mental health all year long.