Working in education can indeed be incredibly fulfilling, yet it often comes with significant emotional and psychological challenges. The pressures of funding cuts, increased scrutiny, academic testing, and growing demands on staff can leave educators feeling overwhelmed, criticised, and undervalued.
In schools, educators bear the responsibility of supporting not only the academic growth of their students but also their emotional wellbeing. Much like other caregivers, educators often absorb the emotional struggles and stress of their students, sometimes without even realising it. These challenges become more intense when pupils have special educational needs or come from environments of neglect, deprivation, abuse, or extreme poverty.
Educators often internalise these difficulties, resulting in feelings of stress, anxiety, and even physical illness. Because these emotions are often carried unconsciously, they may affect one’s ability to communicate effectively, collaborate with colleagues, and maintain a healthy worklife balance. In such a high stress environment, it can be difficult to separate your emotions from professional responsibilities. This makes emotional awareness and self care vital for long term wellbeing.
Further Education
In further education, the pressures faced by adolescents transitioning to adulthood, can create significant challenges, not only for students but also for staff working in colleges and universities. During this period, students are often vulnerable, grappling with issues around identity, relationships, and their overall sense of safety. These difficulties are further compounded by the increasing financial burdens many students face, such as tuition fees, living expenses, and the uncertainty of future employment.
As a result, there has been a noticeable rise in mental health problems within the student population, including serious issues like anxiety, depression, panic attacks, and psychosis. Mental health support services, already stretched thin, are now struggling to keep up with the demand. This situation places enormous pressure on the staff who work directly with students; especially for those who are on the front lines, trying to support students in distress while also managing their own workload and wellbeing.
The growing mental health crisis in further education highlights the need for increased mental health resources, better support systems for both students and staff, and a broader cultural shift towards addressing mental wellbeing as a priority in educational settings.
How HealthyMinds@Work Can Help
We have extensive experience of working with trusts, schools and universities to help staff better understand and manage the psychological impact and emotional demands of their work. This can increase resilience, wellbeing and productivity as well as enabling staff to better support the students emotionally and practically.
Our Solutions
- Leadership coaching and reflective supervision for head teachers and senior leaders to increase wellbeing, resilience, and performance – we use a psychodynamic approach to understand our emotional responses to our work and relationships
- Group and individual supervision for safeguarders, SENDCos, pastoral and behaviour leads to support teams with emotionally difficult cases or situations
- Psychoeducation to provide staff with tools and techniques to better manage their resilience including their emotional and mental health
- Psychoeducation on the psychological and emotional development of children and adolescents
- Mediation services and training for individuals and teams to resolve conflict, disagreements and differences