WMH Season 2 Ep 9: Changing Our Approach to School and Youth Mental Health

This is a transcript of Watching Mental Health Season 2, Episode 9 which you can watch and listen to here:

Katie Waechter: Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of Watching Mental Health. I'm really excited for this episode because this is a very timely episode and I think it's a really important one and I think it's time that we start talking about our youth's mental health. And so with that, I am really excited to bring on Dr. Stacie and Sandi Herrera, who are sisters and co-founders of Humanize EDU. It's dedicated to the mission of bringing the human back to the center of education, fostering psychologically safe working and learning environments through prevention and psychoeducation and really making a difference here in the school setting for our youth.

Stacie is the founder and CEO of Herrera psychology and a licensed school psychologist where she advocates for a systematic approach to addressing the youth mental health crisis that we are facing. And Sandi is the co-founder and CEO of Humanized EDU and the founder of Genius School US where she is learning to leading the movement to bring the human back to the center of education. And together they are changing the atmosphere of education, of learning, the way that we approach education and the way that we are approaching our youth mental health, which I think is so incredibly important and again, really timely. And so with that, let's bring on our guest Dr. Stacie and Sandi Herrera.

Thank you so much for being here. I'm so excited. This is actually my first time having a show with two guests, so you are a first for me. And like I mentioned, this is a very timely episode and I think so important because school has already started and we're already seeing violence, mental health problems and it's only been a few weeks. And so with that, before we jump into really what's going on, tell me a little bit more about yourselves in your own words and what humanized EDU really is all about.

Dr. Stacie Herrera : Wonderful. Well I'm going to take the lead and let Sandi take it from there. I really see myself as a champion for youth mental health and so as a psychologist I do work one-on-one with students and families, but for me it's about the stakeholders and how can we ensure that the stakeholders know exactly how to rally around our youth and provide that network of support that is so essential to really allowing them to thrive. So Sandi and I have been doing a lot of really cool things and have recently combined forces to create psychologically safe working and learning environments in our schools. So I'll let Sandi take it from there.

Sandi Herrera: Yeah, thanks days. So my background is I was doing corporate culture consulting with the former and late CEO of Zappos, Tony Shea. And through that work was able to start impacting schools and volunteering my time to share what we were teaching corporations about using happiness as a business model. And through that experience and Tony and Jen, the CEO of delivering happiness, their full blessing and nudge out of the nest, they said, go build it, your passionate about it. So in 2013, I left delivering happiness to solely focus on transforming the culture in our schools. And through Stacey and I working together at a couple of schools in Florida realizing that the holistic approach to focusing on youth mental wellbeing as well as adult mental wellbeing with the culture transformation work, we're able to see some really comprehensive sustainable results. And that's really what we're after at humanized EDU is being the proactive training solution to the mental health crisis that we're seeing in our schools.

And so in the spirit of today, unfortunately we have had another school shooting and these are the catastrophic incidences that really just are a sucker punch to so many of us. And I just want to set a huge big hug and many prayers to the families who have been impacted today and prior to this I know that it brings up old wounds for those who have been there as well. And it definitely is a time for us to have a conversation of we've got to go upstream. There's so many things that we can do that are important to do in response to the crisis and Stacie and I are really committed to a yes and approach and we've got to get upstream and really focus on the mental wellbeing not only of our students but also the adults who surround them every day. So Katie, thank you so much for having us on to speak to this today.

Katie: Of course. And thank you for taking the time. I think it's so important and I think something that a lot of people dunno what to do about, we all have been seeing our youth really struggle with mental health for a long time and I have followed you both for a long time. So I think that the timing of this is really important and is really perfect because people are continuing to struggle and really we don't know what to do. And so tell me more about why is it now that you two decided to bring your two passions together and make this the time to make humanize edu the moment to really make this happen?

Sandi: I think, sorry Stacie, go ahead. Go ahead.

Stacie: I was just going to say it's been compounding, right? It is just the crisis that of mental health that our youth are experiencing, the broken system of education, everything is just coming together in this perfect storm. We're coming out of the pandemic time, it's just a lot all at once. And now of course on top of that we've had the US surgeon General recognizing that parents are at an all time high with regards to

Sandi: Burnout.

Stacie: It's the time for all of us to have conversations about what we can do collectively and what we can do individually to ensure that we all have the tools and strategies to be able to thrive and to identify environments that are going to allow us to thrive.

Sandi: And I think that the piece of why us and why us together now is really adding on to that of just seeing the case studies that we kind of fell into having happened together as sisters. Stacie tells a beautiful story through her lens of when I was invited in to work with one of the charter schools that she was the school psychologist at and being able to, over the past seven, eight years now of working with them, really see these tremendous results. And I mean this staff, this community, these students at this school really had it handed to them over the years and it was not only the pandemic but Hurricane Ian and then they've had a lot of other personal tragedies happening within their community and it's the resilience that they've been able to exemplify has really been beautiful to watch and witness with our coaching and our guidance for them to, I mean we're the coaches on the sidelines, we're the people who are their champions. At the end of the day, culture is the collective capacity of who everyone shows up as. And within that collective capacity is really being able to own who you're showing up as. And so with that, Stacey and I really bringing together our two models and co-creating the me we school model that allows us to really flip the pyramid on its head. And Stacie, I'll let you speak a little bit more to that. For those that really follow youth mental health and advocating for their own children, they know what the tiers of support are.

Stacie: So within the school setting we often talk about the tiers of responsiveness, those multi-tiered system of support where we, at the base of the pyramid, we're going to have tier one where we're supporting everyone within the school setting. We all receive these services and then it moves up until the tier two and at the tier two level it's more of a small group intervention. Those individuals have been typically identified through some universal screener. And then at the tier three level then of course we're looking at those individuals who really need that one-on-one support within the school setting, recognizing that the multi-tiered system of support is a school dynamic. And then upon that becomes or upon that builds that community level support as well. So what we began to recognize is if we tip that pyramid on its head and we start with the individual, and if everyone's core values and everyone's unique strengths and weaknesses are seen, heard and valued, then they can work in small groups, then they can work as a whole school community and then we can move from there. So not to completely shake up how we're currently providing support, but really to look at it from a different perspective and begin to see us as individuals really putting again that human back to the center of education. If I know how I show up, then I know how I need to regulate and I know how to ask for help and who to seek out for help when I need it.

Katie: Definitely. I think that's beautiful that you're bringing your two systems together and seeing amazing results is what it sounds like. And you're taking a system that already exists and trying to just look at it from a different perspective versus bringing in a brand new system because I think that bringing in something brand new is hard for our schools. I know I live in southern Nevada with a very difficult school district and I know that school districts can be easier to work with than others across the country. And so I think that that's an amazing approach that you're trying to say, okay, this is the system. Let's just twist it a little bit. Let's just look at it from a different perspective. And so have you been able to get into schools and really see, or are you working on currently getting into school districts and really seeing how this system or this implementation can work across the board?

Sandi: So both. We have been working in schools. We do have schools that we are working with on retainer this school year, both with youth mental health as well as culture transformation. We also are providing professional development in partnership with different organizations. We're building out different curriculum. We have our Culture and wellbeing coach certification. That first cohort is happening right now. It's a year long training that we are certifying those in schools, whether it's counselors, teacher leaders, assistant principals, to really be the culture and wellbeing coach on campus. So we're taking our entire curriculum and equipping them with the tools and strategies to be able to be that go-to person on campus and make sure that there is that ripple of impact on a daily basis versus us just coming in once or twice a month and really create that continuity. So we're launching tomorrow actually our principal circle, which is a mastermind group for principals only, where they can have that safe space to really speak up for what's true and alive for them. And then we also have a 10 week principal's culture and wellbeing endorsement. On top of the leadership training that principals already go through is to give them that endorsement really focused on culture and wellbeing, being at the forefront of their leadership style and how they show up. So we have lots of different programs that we're developing and bringing together and really combining to create that unified effort and making sure that every member of the school community is truly seen, heard and valued and it's not. That's

Katie: Fabulous. I love that you're giving a voice to the principal, the teachers, the staff and the students. And I don't feel like we get to hear any of their voices very often when it comes to talking about these larger issues and really what's happening. So I think that that's really beautiful. You're bringing in, it seems like everyone in the school to get help, to get support, to be able to say what they need to have their voices heard. And have you been seeing positive results from that of being able to just implement, it sounds like all of this is relatively new, but you've already been really seeing some amazing things happen.

Stacie: Well, the combination of our services is fairly new through Humanize EDU, but individually, I've been working with a number of schools here in Sarasota County, Florida. Sandi's been working with a number of schools there in Las Vegas, Nevada that were really just allowing for all of the services to transcend both of those locations. We're now adding schools up in Minnesota, so we're really excited about the work that we're doing and being that proactive training solution so that all school leaders can have the tools for a strategic mental health plan for a strategic culture plan so they can live their mission, vision and values and really infuse it into everything that they do. Again, creating those psychologically safe working and learning environments. We know that when students feel like their teachers are there and with them, they learn more. Right and

Katie: Safe. Exactly. Exactly. Absolutely. So let's get down to some specifics. So you mentioned Nevada, Florida, Minnesota. Is this available, this program available countrywide or are you going after specific areas until you really become more national?

Sandi: It's really available nationwide and actually internationally, we have some global connections that we're talking to right now about supporting them and the conversation is similar around the world and everyone really wants to do what's best for kids no matter what. And recognizing that sometimes what's best for kids is focusing on the adults first and then also focusing on the youth. So with all of that, the reason Nevada is I was living in Las Vegas for 25 years. The reason Florida Stacie's been there for 25 years and Minnesota is through relationships that Stacie has from her college days. Now that I'm living in Maine, I have relationships that I'm developing in Maine, in New Hampshire, in Massachusetts. And so we're expanding based upon just the network and the ripple of impact from who we're showing up as and who our team is showing up as and how we're collectively coming together. We've got an amazing team behind us that really helps us to do this work on a daily basis in a meaningful way. And we've got some amazing clinicians as well as coaches that are able to continue amplifying this impact so that it's not just Stacie and I where it started 15 years ago. Exactly,

Katie: Exactly. So is this available or is this program that you would want to put in K through 12, is that where it would work or it would be for younger or older students

Stacie: Think that focus right now is definitely K 12. We have submitted proposals for some smaller postsecondary organizations, but at this time really focusing on that, I think the post-secondary or college and university piece for us is going to be working with soon to be educators allowing them to gain these tools ahead of that internship, ahead of their first year of teaching, knowing that those first three years of teaching are so important to a new teacher.

Sandi: And along with that is I have done work with universities in their college ed team and so coaching their team for their culture, which then allows us to then be able to work proactively with their student population. And then Stacie, I've also spoken at early learning conferences and are definitely open to looking at the working and learning environments of our early learning centers across the nation as well.

Katie: Wow, that's beautiful. Big amazing dreams I think for this organization that we really need here in this country. So let's say I'm a school that's struggling. I'm a principal, I'm a leader of a charter school maybe, and I'm struggling and I know that my students are struggling. What should I do? What should I expect if I reach to you and say, I don't know what to do, can you help?

Sandi: Yeah. One of the first things is is that we offer a free one hour strategy session. Let's have a conversation. I want to learn about what's going on within your school. Stacie and I attend these meetings and really just understand what's working, what's not working, how can we support, how can we give you tools immediately within that hour that you can integrate that are accustomed to the problems that you're uniquely facing. And then if we want to continue working together, then we'll that roadmap of what that looks like based upon your budget and your needs and the team resources that you have. So it really is a customized approach. The other pieces that we have, if someone is looking for just a mastermind as a principal, come join the principal mastermind. It's a hundred dollars a month or a thousand dollars for the whole year to join that conversation where you're just going to be connected with the principals from across the nation and getting the opportunity to really share in a safe container as the leader of the school where you need support and having that cultivated sacred environment. And then we have our trainings as well, if that's what you're interested in, but starting with that one hour strategic planning session, just again, it's an opportunity for us. It's how can we share the most value with you and really get you feeling like you're empowered as a leader to lead from your position of strength and do what you intuitively know needs to be done within your school community. And we've got your back. That's

Stacie: Amazing. It's so valuable for principals right now. We actually have a team member, Dr. Megan Sylvestri, who completed her dissertation this last spring or defended it. And her research around the emotional intelligence of principals and the ripple of impact that that has is eyeopening. We know it intuitively. You know that when we have a leader who is actively seeing, hearing and valuing the team members, everyone feels like they can show up and be their best selves within an organization. Given that really our focus is on that, providing those principles with as many tools as they would like. If they would just like to do a mastermind and hear about other perspectives and be in a moment of like, okay, somebody gets it right. Or to take the 10 week, the culture and wellbeing endorsement that really will give them the tools to just start a little bit here and a little bit there, thinking about it if they want to come and really go big or go home and work with us and we can come in and provide all of the consultation that they need to really work with them and pull all of that beautiful culture from within each individual and create this unified vision.

Katie: Right, absolutely. And just to give them a voice is so powerful. I think we really miss out on our principals and what you're saying here is so accurate. It just reminds me actually of my principal in high school, I had an amazing principal and I mean his name was Mr. Ronald Montoya, I still remember his name. Every morning we would walk into the building and he would be standing there at the front doors saying, you are the best. That's what he would say to us, you are the best. Every single one, he'd look you in the eye say you are the best and that it makes such an impact that you just don't realize. And just hearing you reiterate, that just reminds me of how amazing that principal was and the power that he gave us students and his staff by telling us that all the time and by being there for us. So to have a program like this that's there for the principals, that's there for the staff, that's there for these schools, I think it's just so important, especially right now. We really need assistance, I think, with our youth mental health crisis. And I think that you two are just doing amazing things by actually taking action here.

Sandi: Yeah, Katie, thank you for that. It's so important to look at each school community as unique and one of the most powerful pieces of our curriculum is helping an entire school community articulate their core values and what is that unifying common language between all of them? How are they the same? Where do they meet in conscious conversations with one another? And we do that through teaching. What is a core value? How is it at play every day, whether you're paying attention to it or not, how do you articulate your own core values? How do you know when you're living in alignment with those core values? And when you teach this at every level of the school community, not only for the students but for the staff, for the support professionals, for the community partners, for the families, now you really get everyone speaking in core values, language and understanding that this is what unifies us.

If we all value trust, what does that look like in practice? How do we define that? How do we actually embody that? Now once we get that common language articulated and we can have some fun with it and we can market it and we can create awards that go alongside of it, but it allows for everyone to know what to expect and what's expected of them. And it just creates this synergy and the unifying language and unifying vision of are we on the right track? Are we living in alignment with our core values collectively as the entire school community? And it just changes the conversation, especially in what, what's sometimes called the dean's office or the student success office where the student comes in and has had a behavior that was not working in the classroom, and they come in and the dean or the student success officer can have a conversation and say, which poor value wasn't working in that situation. You can have a values-based conversation versus what can sometimes come across as you're a bad person conversation

Katie: And

Sandi: Now it can be a teachable moment that really lends itself to, okay, who do I want to show up as? And back to that me piece of our me we school model is giving the students the tools and the strategies to own who they show up as. Take radical ownership of that. It's really a beautiful piece of our curriculum that allows for that uniqueness within each school community.

Katie: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for explaining that. I think it's so valuable. So I'm going to ask another question here. I like to ask all of my professionals this, but I think I know the answer, but I want to hear it from your perspective, especially when it comes to youth, because I haven't had a youth mental health conversation and the conversation is this, or the question is, do you think that a mental health challenge is, or a diagnosis is something that we can overcome or something that we should accept as who we are and just go along with that? Is it something that we should be working on every day or something that we can just be like, oh, okay, we did it. We figured it out. Let's move on. And I want you to answer this question in perspective to youth mental health within our schools. Can you go in and just fix the school once or does it need continuous work and massaging and it's that bad if it does? So I'd like both of you to kind of answer that very broad question.

Stacie: Well, we are dynamic human beings, and so we often need a lot of daily practice to learn new things to change and evolve and grow. And that's what we're meant to do is change and evolve and grow. And so a diagnosis is meant to guide treatment. It's a shorthand way so that I as a professional can say, you have this particular identifiable diagnosis and then you as a professional know exactly what kind of treatment would allow for the support of that diagnosis. But we also know that within diagnoses, there is a spectrum of how the symptoms are showing up. And so in my mind, it's not necessarily overcoming a diagnosis as much as it is addressing the symptoms that are getting in our way of allowing us to thrive and function. And there are times in our lives when we have to have a serious intense way of addressing those symptoms.

And there are times in our life when we just need a little pause, a little reframe and a little move forward. And it's really about each individual to identify and understand who they are, what comes up for them, and how to navigate and manage it. And giving youth the tools to do that is going to allow them to be successful no matter what. If they know how to ask for help, if they know how they show up and who exactly can teach them new tools to manage and navigate any symptoms that come up, they're going to be successful and thrive.

Sandi: And in terms of the overall school culture, it's not a one and done. We can do assemblies, we can actually tap into the rockstar style of happiness, and that's valuable. It's fun. We all love a good concert, right? It's amazing. And when we're talking about comprehensive sustainability and ensuring that every individual is equipped with the tools and resources that they need to navigate what they personally are navigating, we all show up with different stories, we all show up with different experiences, and there is no arrival. It's truly about the journey. And sometimes we need a coach along the side and sometimes we're like, no, I'm ready to fly on my own. I've had schools that I've worked with for years and then they're like, okay, I'm good on my own. And then a year or two years later, they're like, Sandi, we need a tuneup.

Can you come back in? Absolutely. I got you. What do we need? How do we customize it to meet where you're at? And one of those schools that I've been working with is a high school, and I've been working with them on and off, more on than off since 2010. And where we're at now is the legacy planning for the principal and her administrative team, because they've done so much amazing work to cultivate the environment that they have now. They're looking at within the next two to three years, three of their administrators are going to be retiring, including the principal. So how do they equip the rest of the administrators with all of the experience as to why they've made some of the choices that they've made and how do they continue to kick it up a notch? So again, looking through that lens of the transformational culture that continues to grow and evolve because we're not static human beings and there is no rival. We get to play and dance along the way, and sometimes we get smacked with a R pan and other times we get to feel immense joy and everywhere in between. And so understanding that mental wellbeing is not a one and done. It truly is just a way of being and showing up in the world and taking ownership for who you're showing up as and then truly seeing, hearing and valuing those around you that you're connected with.

Katie: Yes, absolutely. I love that. I love that idea of a tuneup, right? And I love that idea that treatment is just a course or a diagnosis is just a course for treatment, and we don't need to take a diagnosis and make that our identity. We can use that in a strategic way to help manage those symptoms, but at the end of the day, you are so right. We are on a journey. There's no arrival. This is life, and sometimes life sucks and sometimes it's great, but it's life and we have to manage it along the way. So I just appreciate that we're at time, but I want to ask one final question because you two do amazing things. You're super women. So tell me, what do you do for self-care? How do you know when you're approaching burnout and when you need a step back?

Sandi: Stacie, you want to take that

Stacie: First? It's always changing and evolving for me. So most recently it is taking advantage of a good swim at the end of the day. So literally just coming home and fighting the urge to just sit on the sofa and just eat dinner and watch television and just be there in it and recognizing that for me, movement is really important and I love water. So whether it's being in the pool or going to the beach and looking at the water, that's my self-care moment. But I guess primary to all of that is our connection with other humans and really allowing and cultivating a group around each of us that allows us to say Things are super sucky today, and I just need a minute. And for somebody to hold space for us, because it doesn't always need to be fixed, but sometimes it just needs to be heard.

Katie: Thank you. Thank you for that.

Sandi: Yeah. For me, most recently has been honoring my sleep and recognizing that there is an opportunity for me really instead of feeling like I have to get up at 6:00 AM and work out and I have to do this and I have to fit in what some weeks I just get to give myself permission to be. And sometimes my sleep means that I'll just linger in bed for an extra hour and just instead of forcing myself to do what I would traditionally do, which is drive and hit the gym and do and make sure that I'm ready to go, and all of that is just let off the gas and give myself permission to be oftentimes women, but humans in general, we feel this need to be on all the time, and this needs to just be doing all the time. And yet finding this sacred space of beingness, I think is one of the reasons, and I didn't know it before I moved here, but that I moved to Maine, was to really give myself that energetic permission. Because for me, the frequency of energy that I feel when I'm in Nevada, in Las Vegas in particular feels very different than when I'm in Maine.

Stacie: And

Sandi: So checking in with that and recognizing that my nervous system needs both. I need the more masculine do and go and strive and enjoy, and equally my body needs the more feminine essence of just being and sitting and being quiet and connecting with nature and slowing down. And sometimes the best gift I can give myself when I can't figure it out is to just give myself permission to sleep, to go to bed at eight o'clock if that's what my body's craving and not judge, but it's only eight o'clock. I'm not 90 years old, yet years old. You can take the judgment out of it and recognize that it's okay to listen to your intuition and just give your body what it needs.

Katie: Absolutely, absolutely. Thank you so much for sharing, for being vulnerable, both of you. I am also a big fan of sleep, so I can definitely relate to that. And yeah, if I live by the ocean, I would always be there. But I just really appreciate your time. I appreciate all the amazing things that you are doing. Tell our folks, anyone who's listening, what is a good way to get a hold of you if they're wanting to reach out and really learn more about humanize edu and about your programs?

Sandi: Yeah, definitely go to humanize edu.com and you'll see a short little video on there. And then you can contact us through any of those channels, whether that's filling out the form on our website or emailing us@hellohumanizeedu.com.

Stacie: Wonderful. And on the website we also have assessment tools so that you can assess individually and as a school, where are you at as far as your culture is right now, and what could you be working on?

Sandi: And those are free assessments, so anyone that wants to take advantage of those, and then definitely find and follow us at humanize edu all over social media. And definitely you can find it and follow us individually as well.

Katie: Definitely. Yes. That's awesome. I love the free resources on the website. I think everyone should go check it out, and I just really appreciate you both being here and your time. And we are going to have this episode on my website @katierosewaechter.com. So anyone who is out there and wants to re-listen to the episode, check us out there. And in the meantime, we will see you every first and third Wednesday here at Watching Mental Health Live at 3:00 PM Pacific time, and then always on my website@katierosewecter.com. Thank you so much for being here, Dr. Stacie and Sandi, I just am so grateful for the two of you. You're doing amazing things!