Meet the Wellness Team: Fostering Social-Emotional Growth

SCH has taken another significant step in prioritizing student well-being with the launch of its new McCausland Social Emotional Wellness Center in the Lower School this past fall. This center, run by an incredible three-member team, offers a range of support services designed to nurture students' social-emotional growth alongside their academic development. 

We caught up with the wellness team—Dr. Sue Clements (SC), Lower School psychologist; Holly Harris (HH), Lower School counselor; and Laura Duffany (LD), student support specialist—to talk about the philosophy behind the Center, the resources it provides, and how it's becoming an integral part of the SCH community. From individual counseling and small group work to classroom integration and parent education, the Wellness Center is fostering a culture of support and empowering students to thrive. Listen in!

Tell us a little about the “wellness team” and how you work together.

HH: Our Wellness Team is evolving! We welcomed a new member this year, and it’s been an exciting year as we learn about one another’s strengths and dream and plan together for the future. Sue and I joined SCH last year, and Laura came on board in the fall. Each of us brings unique strengths and expertise, and we work collaboratively to support student social-emotional and learning needs. We have a shared vision of providing holistic, systematic, and responsive support for every lower school student. Feels like a Dream Team to me! 

SC: We have a great team approach. Laura brings a wealth of educational experiences to our work, providing teachers with research-based tools and strategies that help teachers feel confident that they can help children work through stressors and big emotions. She is also a wonderful presence for our students and teachers as she will model lessons for teachers, and she works so well with our students. In my role as the school psychologist, I provide guidance to the team from a theoretical framework of child development, brain development, and how children learn to help identify the best approach to supporting our students. Holly is our star school counselor and has many practical applications of our social/emotional supports. She works individually with students, creating opportunities for students to build critical skills related to self-awareness, self-management, and relationship skills. She helps students build their self-concept and resilience. 

Tell us about the Wellness Center.

HH: I have the privilege of calling The Wellness Center my home base, where I meet with students individually and in small groups on a daily basis. It’s a space for school counseling and project-based work. I describe my role as being responsive to students' needs that arise throughout the day and providing planned and targeted support for individuals or small groups.

This space provides students with privacy, particularly when they’re working through feelings of overwhelm, stress, or big emotions. The needs of students vary across grade levels, but the Wellness Center remains a safe, calming, and nurturing environment where children can take time to recover from intense emotions and receive personal support. Students also use the space regularly for supported conflict resolution. Additionally, I run small groups here almost daily, focusing on developing a range of social-emotional skills.

I have a student self-referral system in place for students in grades 2-4. Outside of the Wellness Center, there are blank "Let's Talk" forms that students can complete when they’d like to meet with me. Once filled out, they place the forms in my "mailbox," and my goal is to meet with students within 48 hours of receiving a request. If a student marks their concern as a "Tornado Problem," I make it a priority to meet with them the same day. This system allows students to request time with me while maintaining privacy and autonomy.

In the fall, I ran a group called Mindful Moments outside in our Naturescape, which was centered around developing students’ self-awareness and emotional self-regulation capacity. Topics included feelings identification, appropriate expression of feelings, developing coping skills, maintaining a positive attitude, developing responsibility for self and actions, and decision-making. I'm passionate about social and emotional well-being and teaching mindsets and behaviors through nature. With the group meeting in the Naturescape, I could incorporate natural elements into group activities. Activities included mindfulness practices such as pebble meditation, nature meditations, physical connection with nature, nature journaling, nature-based role-play, nature-based obstacle course, and pumpkin painting.

This winter, I’m facilitating a daily social skills group. We typically begin our Social Stars/Social Squad sessions with a feelings check-in, followed by direct teaching of a specific skill. After that, we use the entire Wellness Center for skill practice! Students engage in role-playing, skits, puppet shows, games, crafting, and more. The kids interact with the space creatively; for example, they use the couch as a cozy spot for group discussions or as a playscape for a puppet show where they act out social scenes.

SC: The Wellness Center is a space that students pass by and visit every day, and I think it is a reminder for our students and families that we are committed to focusing on making mental health an important focus in our SCH community. It is an inviting and comfortable environment that provides students with the opportunity to build their self-awareness, practice coping skills, and make personal connections, all of which enhance what our fabulous teachers are doing in the classroom. I think this Center will help our team have a profound positive impact and help our students be the best versions of themselves. 

Beyond the physical space, how do you work to support our students and their social-emotional well-being?

LD: The “center” exists outside these four walls—it's more than just this space and more than just us! We have a building filled with amazing teachers and faculty members who care greatly about each of our students. One of our goals is to build systems to ensure that teachers have the tools they need to support their students in being the best versions of themselves. 

SC: It’s an exciting time because we are really thinking about our diverse school community and diving into the variety of needs that emerge, both academically as well as the needs related to social-emotional development. At the Lower School, we are embracing the WIN of each student, or “What I Need,” so we are collaborating daily to share ideas on different resources and strategies to support a child’s WIN. With that, we are also trying to ensure that teachers feel confident and supported by us to implement the resources and strategies that align with what each student needs.

The Wellness Center’s focus aligns with SCH’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. Our school is such a fabulous learning environment, and with our focus on student social/emotional wellness, we’re always thinking about how students view themselves. We want them to know that their voices are heard. 

How do you collaborate with our SCH families?

HH: I collaborate regularly with the families of students I support. I also support parents with questions about their children’s development and well-being. When a student has social-emotional concerns, I am part of the student’s team, which includes parents, teachers, and the other members of the Wellness Team as we work together to develop support strategies for the student.

LD: In our first year together, our goal was to partner alongside families as we navigate and support students through different phases of their development. Now we are starting to set goals for the future. 

SC: One of our goals is, in the future, to branch out and include even more resource sessions for parents to attend that address a variety of topics related to child and social-emotional development. We have informative parent coffee talks that happen throughout the year, but I would love to help parents have a greater connection to our social-emotional curriculum and model the discussions and activities that our students benefit from in our SEL curriculum. It takes a village. Our success stories are a result of the support from different parts of the community, as well as supporting each other. I also envision the Wellness Center as an educational space for parents, teachers, and students themselves to meet and share ideas, resources, and strategies.