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Counseling Fostering Wellbeing
Fostering Wellbeing
The Counseling and Wellness team leads the Castilleja community with open dialogue, communication, and reflection.
By Alexa Libbey ’21
“We are living through an incredibly challenging time in our nation’s history,” Jenna Borrelli, Castilleja’s Director of Counseling and Wellness, admitted as she looked directly into the camera on her laptop on January 6, 2021. She was delivering a video message to students at the end of a long day that began with virtual Global Week speakers talking about the impacts and implications of the coronavirus and ended with Zoom drop-in sessions for the school community to process the news from Washington, DC.
OPEN COMMUNICATION Drop-in sessions and video outreach are just two of the new strategies Ms. Borrelli and her team—Wendy Salazar Cruz, Kate McCracken ’04, and Terese Brennan-Marquez—have begun to implement during this unpredictable year. More than ever, faculty across all grade levels are turning to the counselors as resources when students face challenges that are heightened by the pandemic—such as depression, anxiety, and isolation. In addition, the counselors are meeting more frequently with parents and guardians to keep lines of communication open as students spend less time on campus. There are also regular drop-in support meetings for employees to help them navigate ongoing concerns. Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) has become core to the program at Castilleja in recent years, but since March of last year, the counselors' insight and input has been even more important to our entire community.
PAUSE AND REFLECT In her message in response to the violence at the Capitol, Ms. Borrelli continued by saying, “To all Castilleja students, I want to validate that your generation has witnessed so much during your adolescence, and I would encourage you to pause, think about your worry and the unknown that you are carrying.” She acknowledged that some losses people were experiencing were specific to this moment in history while others were universal to the human condition, and she urged students to take time to reflect.
LASTING WELLBEING Many in the Castilleja community will nod knowingly as they think about Ms. Borrelli’s advice. After all, as the school’s commitment to SEL has deepened in recent years, reflection has become part of all aspects of daily life at Castilleja—from group projects in 6th grade to the college application process for seniors. Throughout this difficult year, though, the counselors have worked to help students and faculty understand that taking time to reflect is not just a means to support our own learning and leading, but also a path toward lasting wellbeing and social justice. Ms. Borrelli closed her video by saying, “We all have a responsibility to process our pain and confront systems that cause harm, not just to make change but to demand change. You are demanding a new reality, and that will be the work, maybe, of your lifetime, but it’s the work of how we have a better tomorrow.”
Supporting Mindfulness
Megan Jones Bell ’00 found a new way to give back to Castilleja this year. As the Chief Strategy and Science Officer at Headspace, a widely respected and popular meditation app, she leveraged her company’s outreach to non-profits to offer free membership to all Castilleja Upper School students and employees.
To current students, she added this advice, “You are surrounded by help and you can be a helper. Awareness and compassion are the core pillars of mindfulness. Awareness is empowering as a source of insight, and compassion helps you understand how you can be of service to others.” Reflecting on her own path personally and professionally, she added, “I aspire to be outspoken, but I am very shy, which makes me a good observer. Luckily, leadership is not an individual sport, so there is room for all personalities and styles. Be patient with yourself. You don’t have to change if you learn to channel your strengths.”
Learn more about the essentials of meditation and mindfulness at headspace.com.
