How to actively listen: teenage mental health’s secret weapon
Watch our webinar on “Active listening: Using the 'LATER' framework for better student mental health”
Knowing how to actively listen is more powerful than we might think. When it comes to mental health, there is a lot of noise about how we should talk. Yet what happens if we talk, but it falls on deaf ears?
Hear Professor Sue Roffey and Head of PSHE Rachel Hart in our second free CPD webinar in the BrainWaves series for education professionals. They will introduce the concept of ‘active listening’ as a tool for promoting better student health in secondary schools.
Why is it important to know how to actively listen?
We are facing a youth mental health crisis. Climate change, the economic crisis and the pressure from social media impact teenagers every day. The last few years have thrown hurdles at today’s youth that haven’t been seen for generations.
So, for those who teach, supporting students with struggles and challenges related to mental health is just as integral to a teacher’s role as delivering lessons.
Making time to talk, and letting students know there is someone they can talk to is so important. Knowing how to actively listen is one of the most effective ways to aid someone expressing a mental health concern.
How to actively listen as a teacher
Teachers now have a growing responsibility to support students with their mental health. It can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be.
In short, lending an ear is how you can lend a hand: showing compassion and empathy to your students.
This webinar was recorded live, but is available for you to watch now.
Our featured speaker Sue Roffey, is a psychologist, academic, speaker, and author on student wellbeing, relationships, behaviour and social and emotional learning. She is joined by Rachel Hart, Head of PSHE at The Lady Eleanor Holles School.
Find out more about this really useful approach to develop positive approaches to teenage mental health in your school:
- The main principles of ‘active listening’
- How ‘active listening’ has been used in secondary schools
- How to use the LATER framework to support active listening
- Ways you can use this strategy in your own school
Discover more about BrainWaves as an initiative designed in direct response to the growing mental health crisis amongst young people. Find out how it is fuelled by new research centred around the teenage brain.
there are other helpful webinars for education professionals in this series which have been recorded. Watch the first of them, hosted by Dr John Coleman, about the teenage brain, or read his blog here.
