Episode 22: Time, Tasks, & Trauma: Troubleshooting Common Teacher Stressors with Amanda Murtaugh, LMHP

Teaching can be an incredibly stressful profession. Balancing work/home life, consistently and fairly managing your classroom, and creating engaging lesson plans only scratch the surface of the multitude of stressful situations that teachers must navigate daily. Teachers are problem solvers, and as a result, many of us have devised some coping mechanisms to help us deal with the stress that we regularly encounter. Getting the insight of a mental health professional, however, can help us.

Danielle’s long-time friend Amanda Murtaugh is a Licensed Mental Health Practitioner specializing in the intersection of psychology and education. Amanda has worked with both the K-12 population as well as in high ed, assisting both students and faculty handle sources of strain and pressure. In today’s episode, Amanda outlines the most common sources of stress for teachers that she has observed from working with clients. For each of the top 3, Amanda provides several different techniques for how to tackle the issues at hand, giving teachers an invaluable set of tools to draw upon for when stress inevitably pops up in our lives and classrooms.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

-How a lack of boundaries causes burdens on our time and emotions

-How the sheer number of voices from students with diverse identities and beliefs can lead to uncomfortable classroom situations

-How those in helping fields are susceptible to vicarious trauma

-Action steps for creating appropriate boundaries (even in small spaces)

-Tips for making classrooms that are inclusive and reflective spaces

-Evaluations to assess yourself and the resources you may not even know are at your disposal

Links mentioned:

https://socialwork.buffalo.edu/content/dam/socialwork/home/self-care-kit/self-care-assessment.pdf