Stillpoint for Schools
Stillpoint psychology can provide dynamic presentations for students. Each presentation is designed to maximise involvement, learning and relevance to the students lived experience.
Students today often feel unprepared to deal with the challenges of education and the stress that comes with it. The rate of mental health problems is high amongst today's student population. Schools and education providers are becoming more aware that they can play a pivotal role in creating a climate of support for young people. Providing presentations that speak directly to the needs of the student body can have the affect of changing the overall climate in which the students study. With this in mind, Stillpoint psychology is available to provide presentations on the following:
- Mental health awareness
- Suicide prevention
- Stress
- Study skills
- Managing motivation
- Dealing with challenges
- Study mastery: unlocking your potential for excellence
- Managing grief (following the death of a student or teacher)
- Mindfulness: finding your flow
- Meditation
- Reducing Bullying
- Dealing with test anxiety
The presentations can be expanded or truncated as required depending on the time available. Please send any requests for presentations to appointments@stillpointpsychology.com.au . Costs for presentations will be determined in consultation with the provider and will be based on competitive rates.
Resources for Schools
Stillpoint Psychology has created a unique resource for students and teachers. Below is the outline of the Study Mastery workbook contents page. A link to the free E-book is provided here.
Stillpoint Psychology: Study Mastery program
The Study Mastery Program is a unique targeted program that aims to directly apply psychological techniques to the problems of study.
Students face a variety of pressures that impact on their educational attainment and the combination of stressors can have the affect of disabling their potential. This program aims to identify each of the main stressors that students face and apply a psychological technique to either bypass, resolve or mitigate that stressor. The underlying philosophy of this approach is that being forewarned is forearmed, and students who learn these techniques will have additional tools to manage the stresses of study.
The approach to the problems of study is based on Aristotle’s system of causation. Aristotle identifies four main factors that combine to create the cause of anything. He identified that causation operates at four levels: material (the essential substance), efficient (the processes that comprise the thing, formal (the shape and pattern that the thing takes, and lastly final (the end for which the thing created was made. By using this ancient approach the whole problem of studying can be broken down into its constituent parts, with small or major improvement made to each. As each factor is in symbioses with the other factors, small incremental improvements across many areas can combine to have a major effect.
Applying Aristotle’s system of causation to study this program aims to improve a students’ performance in the following ways:
Material Causation: learning about the physiological processes that comprise good mental and physical health. In addition students learn about ergonomics, posture, breathing and managing their physical environment
Efficient Causation: learning about the processes that comprise effective study. This involves learning how to manage time, attention and motivation. Students learn how to identify energy drains in their life and take steps to eliminate or mitigate them. By preserving energy and becoming more efficient in terms of the processes employed the overall level of effort employed to maximum effect
Formal Causation: this involves learning how to imitate the patterns of success so that they become part of the students own nature. Understanding what ideal studying would look like and using this as a yardstick by which to measure one’s own behaviour can assist students to develop more effective attitudes by which to apply themselves. The relationship between attitude, motivation and behaviour is explored and students can learn how to adjust their outlook to be in concord with their behaviour.
Final Causation: The incorporation of teleological reasoning into this program helps students to define the overall purpose behind what they are doing. Without a meaningful goal it is hard for students to channel their energies towards specific outcomes. Students who have a reason for what they are doing will search for and utilise means. Understanding how goals define context and shape experience is a powerful lesson in how to achieve anything.
Contents
Self-managing your study
The components of effective performance
Anxiety before tests
Anxiety during tests
Managing motivation
Organisation
Dealing with setbacks
Self-Care
Mental Health
Managing stress
The mindful student
Process and outcome
Study Techniques