The Empathetic Classroom: How a Mental Health Mindset Supports Your Students--And You - Paperback

by Maria Munro-Schuster (Author)

Develop a mental-health mindset and rediscover the inspiration that brought you to teaching.

In The Empathetic Classroom, educator and licensed therapist Maria Munro-Schuster helps K-12 teachers navigate emotional stress, combat exhaustion, connect with students, and avoid burning out. She also gives tools for better teaching, for teaching that feels better, and for classrooms where emotional intelligence, safety, and empathy are embedded as a part of practice.

This book goes beyond typical books on teacher burnout, focusing on holistic mindsets and strategies that support your mental health and that of your students. Full of tools and strategies to incorporate into the classroom, this approachable book combines teaching best practices with research-backed techniques from the field of counseling psychology. You'll find sound advice on maintaining boundaries, confronting intrusive thoughts, responding to trauma, incorporating play into classrooms, and many other methods of remaining connected to themselves and their students. Learn how to:

• Create a safe space for students--and educators--to learn and grow
• Understand how your past and your triggers influence your teaching--and recognize trauma in students
• Validate emotions to curb disruptive behaviors

By situating mental health concepts and techniques within established teaching best practices, The Empathetic Classroom helps you adapt your approach, your environment, and your interactions with students. And by focusing on self-regulation, boundaries, and connection, you can rediscover your inspiration. Find emotionally safer and more energizing ways of doing what you love while protecting your own mental health.

Author Biography

Maria Munro-Schuster, M.A., M.S., LCPC, is the author of The Empathetic Classroom: How a Mental Health Mindset Supports Your Students--and You and a Montana therapist and educator who has always been interested in the connection between the two fields. She wrote her first master's thesis on how student grief plays out in the college writing classroom. She previously taught middle-school English with a mental health focus, and she was selected as a Hatch North America honoree for teaching. She now works as a community therapist in Bozeman, Montana.