Jennifer Mundy, LMFT

Parenting can be a challenge. Keep breathing! You’ve got this! Schedule an appointment to learn valuable parenting tools!

What are you adding to your gratitude list?

Give therapy a try!

Holiday tips! Enjoy a stress free meal by checking out these ideas!

Parents and caregivers of young children come join this parent workshop and support group. 3 Wednesday evenings in January!

The last in this series on anxiety. Kids don’t tend to grow out of mental health issues - rather, they tend to grow into them. Early intervention is super useful. So, where do you begin? How do you find the right therapist for your child and family?

Here are a list of questions you can ask a potential therapist. Choose the questions that make the most sense to you and ask the therapists in your initial phone conversation.

There is also a list of books that are a fantastic resource.

Our theme of tackling anxiety continues! Here are some ideas to build your tool box - practice mindfulness, use distractions when you have anxious thoughts, move your body or change or physical state, lean on your support system, and prioritize ways to take care of yourself.

A critical part of anxiety is taking risks. Small steps towards things that make us anxious. It’s all about avoiding avoiding - stop avoiding and start taking small steps towards things that make you nervous.

One way to support your child in climbing their bravery ladder is to create a challenge box - some sort of small reward that acts as a dangling carrot to motivate them to do the things that are a little outside of their comfort zone. The rewards in the challenge box don’t have to be toys or candy - you can get creative - rewards can be a family bike ride, game night, or going out for ice cream after school.

The bravery ladder is built by the child - the child decides which step to take and how long to be on that step. Each step gets progressively more challenging. Children can move up or down the ladder. There is no punishment or negative consequence for not completing a step. But children ay use the challenge box once they have completed a step.

More information about anxiety! This is the cognitive triangle. It shows how our thoughts are connected to our feelings and body sensations and those are connected to our actions.

In the first example about spiders - if you have anxious thoughts about a spider, you will likely have anxious and uncomfortable feelings and the actions you take will be based on those anxious feelings.

But if you can work on changing the thoughts that you have about spiders - your feelings and body sensations will change and you will be more likely to take a more effective action.

In the second example we get to see how our negative thoughts about ourselves can make us feel unhappy and lead us to have less friendly and less approachable body language. Which can send the message that we are not available to others.

But if we have some support in changing some of our negative self-talk to more positive language - we may feel more confident and less nervous. If we feel this way, we are likely to have body language that is more approachable, sending a message to others that we are interested in being friends.

One strategy in teaching children about negative and positive thoughts is to play games determining which thoughts they identify as red light (negative or untrue thoughts) and which thoughts they identify as green light (helpful or true).

Anxiety Tool Kit - for the next several days I’ll be sharing the anxiety tool kit. This first part contains some of the positive traits of anxiety, the anxiety iceberg, and some stats about mental health. Each day I’ll share additional information! Anxiety is common. Anxiety is treatable.

This is tremendous news for my team and all the students in our district! Way to go CVUSD!!!!!

This is tremendous news for CVUSD!!!!

BIG NEWS: CVUSD has been awarded an $11.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to enhance school-based mental health services. Supporting students' mental health and well-being is a top priority for the District. One of only 98 new grantees nationwide to receive this grant, this important funding will support the District's efforts in expanding and building upon the mental health services it provides to students across all of its CVUSD campuses, including:
⭐️ Recruitment of school-based licensed mental health providers and interns / hiring of diverse clinical team with the addition of 15 new positions
⭐️ Continue to create safe environments for students to access services
⭐️ Professional development and staff training
Learn more about how the grant will make an impact, in the official news release, here: https://www.conejousd.org/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=4&ModuleInstanceID=514&ViewID=6446EE88-D30C-497E-9316-3F8874B3E108&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=6485&PageID=1

More journaling prompts for teachers. Take a few minutes each day and answer one prompt. Briefly jot down your thoughts and ideas and see what happens. Maybe you could do this within your teaching team or as a group. Journaling has many positive benefits particularly for teachers who have some of the most challenging jobs.

Start your year off right by taking a few minutes to journal. You don’t need anything fancy - any paper and pen will do. Journaling can help you focus your attention where it matters most and can support in reducing feelings of burn out. Here are 5 prompts to get you started. There will be 5 more tomorrow.

You can keep your usual traditions or you can try something completely new. Which traditions have meaning to you? Which ones feel less meaningful or maybe even are a burden? There can be value in doing something totally new. Particularly if you experienced a loss recently and doing the usual traditions without someone will be painful - you can pause on those until you feel more ready.

Now that we are all used to zooming, you may be planning on having some visits with relatives or friends using the platform. Here are some tips and suggestions to make your zoom events more successful.

This simple,no cost activity can be a fun and meaningful way for your family to reflect each year. Simply place a jar or container out where everyone can place their receipts,ticket stubs, notes or other artifacts from the year. Then at the end of that year or in New Years Day review all of the things from the jar.

Use an ice cream cone and green frosting to make this yummy tree. Decorate it with m&m’s or other candies and use the color coded prompts to discuss these topics with your family. Or make up your own prompts. It’s a great way to connect over winter break!

The holidays are upon us. Where can you find joy? What could you miss out in that would increase your sense of peace, wellbeing or enjoyment? Try JOMO instead of FOMO.

Take it in. Savor it. Even for just a moment.

Enjoy the sights and sounds. Enjoy the connection with others.

We all have a window of tolerance - a level where we are functional and feel good. When we get outside that window we may become anxious, angry or out of control or perhaps we will become numbed out or frozen. What will you do or not do this holiday season to help keep yourself within your window of tolerance? What might support your kids to stay in theirs. What is something you could say no to? Or something you could add to your day? How will you take care of yourself this holiday season?



Tradition

Hang in there teachers!

Here are 4 more teacher self-care ideas!

Take care of yourselves teachers! Here are the first 4 of the 12 days of teacher self-care.

Here is the first 4 teacher self-care ideas in the 12 days of teacher self-care. Take care of yourself!

Give yourself the gift of time. Try some of these tips to give yourself and those you love more time.

Thanksgiving is almost here. Here are some tips to help your family have an emotionally healthy holiday!

Join us for Nachos and Margaritas! And to meet these fantastic candidates!

Please share and I hope to see you there!