Mental health series, part 5

CPCO Associates and their experience with Starling Minds

By Andrew Miki

In late 2015, CPCO and Starling Minds’ founder and CEO Dr. Andrew Miki launched an online mental health initiative supporting our Practising Associates. Starling is an online program available to all CPCO members. The program includes an example of an administrator named Virginia to help explain mental health concepts and how to increase resiliency to stress. To learn more about Starling Minds, please read our earlier blog posts.

The Starling program was developed by Dr. Andrew Miki. Andrew is a registered psychologist with over 10 years of experience working with patients to treat depression, anxiety and other mental health issues using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

This is the fifth of several posts Andrew is contributing to our blog.

It has already been one year since CPCO and Starling Minds began working together! I would like to thank the 100+ Practicing Associates who have become Starling members and CPCO for their progressive commitment to mental health. We believe that healthier and more resilient educators will lead to a better education for all.

Over the past year, your feedback has been invaluable. We have learned that Virginia’s stressors have resonated with CPCO Associates and helped many of them feel that they are not alone. Also, personal testimonials and data analyses have proven that the Starling program has improved the quality of many CPCO Associates’ lives. For example, Practicing Associates who have used Starling, have experienced statistically significant improvements in their anxiety and depression symptoms by 10-15%. Similar improvements were found in their everyday lives including work productivity, relationships and participation in hobbies.

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Mental health series, part 4

Building resilient families

By Andrew Miki

In late 2015, CPCO and Starling Minds’ founder and CEO Dr. Andrew Miki launched an online mental health initiative supporting our Practicing Associates. Starling is an online program available to all CPCO members. The program includes an example of an administrator named Virginia to help explain mental health concepts and how to increase resiliency to stress. To learn more about Starling Minds, please read our earlier blog posts.

The Starling program was developed by Dr. Andrew Miki. Andrew is a registered psychologist with over 10 years of experience working with patients to treat depression, anxiety and other mental health issues using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

This is the fourth of several posts Andrew is contributing to our blog.

Think back to the time in your life when you decided to become an administrator. Did it feel like a natural extension of your career?

The most frequent reasons that I hear are an intrinsic desire to serve, lead and increase one’s scope of influence. These reasons likely outweighed the significant increase in responsibility, commitment and stress that are inherent to an administrator’s position. Back then, how could you have known that you would need to manage so many “balls in the air”, such as pressures from your board, unpredictable demands from so many parents, budget cutbacks, safety issues, staff politics, potential investigations and students’ behaviours? It’s only by working as an administrator that you learn the job can be so fulfilling yet, at the same time, be such an all-encompassing part of your life. You probably didn’t realize that you were at risk of developing a co-dependent relationship with your smartphone!

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Mental health series, part 3

David’s story

By Andrew Miki

Earlier in the school year, CPCO and Starling Minds’ founder and CEO Dr. Andrew Miki launched an online mental health initiative supporting our Practising Associates. Starling is an online program available to all CPCO members. The program includes an example of an administrator called David to explain mental health concepts and how to increase resiliency to stress. To learn more about Starling Minds, please read our earlier blog posts.

The Starling program was developed by Dr. Andrew Miki. Andrew is a registered psychologist with over 10 years of experience working with patients to treat depression, anxiety and other mental health issues using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

This is the third of several posts Andrew is contributing to our blog.

Treating educators, who are off work due to anxiety and/or depression, is a large part of my practice. In my previous blogs, I described my early experiences with David, a 58-year-old Principal. His daughter’s recent diagnosis of OCD had taken a toll on him. Watching his own child suffer with so much emotional pain was simply unbearable for him. Until David had visited my office, he had not spoken to anyone about what he was going through.

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Mental health series, part 2

The continuum of mental health

By Andrew Miki

Earlier in the school year, CPCO and Starling Minds’ founder and CEO, Dr. Andrew Miki, launched an online mental health initiative supporting our Practising Associates. Starling is an online program available to all CPCO members. It presents an example of an administrator such as David to explain mental health concepts and how to increase resiliency to stress. To learn more about Starling Minds, please read our earlier blog post.

The Starling program was developed by Dr. Andrew Miki. Andrew is a registered psychologist with over 10 years of experience working with patients to treat depression, anxiety and other mental health issues using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

  Full post

Mental health series, part 1

Photo credit: starlingminds.com

Know thyself

By: Andrew Miki

Earlier in the school year, CPCO and Starling Minds’ founder and CEO Dr. Andrew Miki, launched an online mental health initiative supporting our Practising Associates. To learn more about Starling Minds, please read our earlier blog post.

The Starling program was developed by Dr. Andrew Miki. Andrew is a registered psychologist with over 10 years of experience working with patients to treat depression, anxiety and other mental health issues using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

  Full post