Counselor eases virus’s effect on students, staff

By Demi Budd | Manor Ink

Livingston Manor, NY – The COVID-19 pandemic has created a lot of barriers that we have had to find ways to overcome. In just school settings alone, students and staff now have to stand six feet apart, speak through Plexiglas in the cafeteria, play sports and host events masked up – the list goes on.

One area that the effects of the pandemic have forced change is in guidance counseling. How do you effectively counsel, or be counseled, when you’re wearing a mask, six feet apart, or talking through a screen?

“COVID has certainly taken away a certain level of connection that would typically occur to form relationships with students,” said Meagan Edwards, a school intervention specialist at LMCS.

“Our non-verbal communication can speak volumes, so counseling becomes difficult when you cannot see half of your student’s face and are six feet away.”

Edwards is in her first year at LMCS. While it may not have been the ideal time to begin her work, she has made the best of the circumstances and lent a helping hand to both students and staff.

This past year has been so extremely difficult for both students and teachers. “Everyone is burnt out,” Edwards said. “Of course, no measures that I can implement can erase the burden of the pandemic. However, I have been lucky to have the opportunity to provide resources for teachers and staff to remind them that their mental health is so important and that they are appreciated and supported.”

And while neither counseling nor the school climate can be exactly the same as it was, new interventions have been added to support both students and staff.

Edwards herself has been trained in establishing trauma-informed schools, Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports, or PBIS, and therapy techniques that she can utilize to assist those who are struggling.

She also assists in developing classroom social/emotional curricula for Pre-K to 8th grade, as well as group and individual counseling for students.

The school’s staff is a priority, too. “We have organized COVID-safe social events for teachers and staff,” said Edwards. “We have had wellness days in which local community members such as Jane Mann, of Right Foot Yoga, Candace Rivela, an art therapist with Bethel Woods, and A Single Bite have so generously donated their time and resources to our team.”

So while the pandemic has forced change, it made way for new activities and interventions in the school. It has proven that people can adapt and create good from such drastic change.