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Wellness Fair Helps Students Gain Skills to Cope with Stress

According to Tarik Sloussi, a licensed clinical Mental Health Counselor at Southeast Psych and regular speaker in our parent education programming, episodes of anxiety and depression have tripled in the past 19 months since we’ve all been managing life with COVID-19.

Middle School Counselor Janani Buford has seen this increase in our own community and has been working with our students to help them process their anxiety, worries, fear, and stressors. Last week, she took her efforts further by organizing a Wellness Fair for our 7th and 8th graders on November 4.

“Kids are dealing with so much that I wanted to find a way to be proactive instead of reactive,” she explained. “My goal was to put together a program to show students in tangible ways the various coping skills they can use to help manage and deal with stress.”

“Before COVID-19 officially entered into our mindset in March of 2020, Country Day was already discussing emotional wellness,” said Head of Middle School Warren Sepkowitz. “Janani spent many hours organizing a wonderful Wellness Day for our 7th and 8th graders, and our hope is that some of our students will be healthier for it.”

All students rotated through four sessions, delivered by 16 different wellness professionals. The topics and strategies covered included mindfulness, coping skills, art therapy, yoga, self-care, exercise, nutrition, and balance. After the sessions concluded, all students, including 5th and 6th graders, had a chance to pet baby llamas, cows, pigs, goats, and bunnies during recess. It was a great way to conclude an uplifting day.

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Thank you to all the health professionals who delivered a great program for our students.

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