Ko'u: Hello and welcome to today's episode on Community Voices. I have very special guests with me today and one of them is a parental unit of mine, my mom and also her very good friend Roseanne. And so, Jenica, could you please introduce yourself and kind of tell us about the organization that you're with today?
Jenica:
First I'd like to say I'm delighted to be here today to share the mission of the Schultz Foundation for Advancing Counseling. We are a nonprofit organization that is committed to advancing counseling resources throughout all of Illinois. We've been very fortunate to award over a half $1,000,000 throughout central Illinois and that's a profound accomplishment considering that our organization is only 20 years old and we're very grateful for that opportunity. We are also very fortunate to be able to have underwritten the My Friend Myla program through Roseanne Oppman.
Ko'u:
And Roseanne, could you please introduce yourself?
Roseanne:
My name is Roseanne Oppmann and I'm a retired special ed teacher and school counselor. I currently work at a private practice, in my private practice as a mental health counselor. I'm an author of two children's books. I Took My Mommy's Heart to School and In My Heart First Day of School. And my dog Myla has her own program, the My Friend Myla program, and she accompanies me or I accompany her, whichever you'd like to think. And the beauty of the My Friend Mila program is we go to many communities and we just spread ourselves as far across Illinois as we possibly can and other states as well at times.
Ko'u:
Thank you so much for both of you being here today. I know our listeners are very excited. And I know that with school being back in session, especially before school, they talk about back to school anxiety. But sometimes the anxiety they don't come out until later. Because now real life is setting in, the assignments are piling up, the homework you have to do every night. And I know for little kids, they don't have the tools yet to be able to navigate those anxieties. And Roseanne, I know that you help a lot with younger children and with parents as well helping their kids. Can you kind of talk about how Myla can help with that?
Roseanne:
Yes, Myla, the beauty of the My Friend Myla program is Myla can either physically help children in the counseling setting or the school setting. or wherever we go in the community. But my law also does, we do videos that are geared towards anxiety or activities that will help children to feel more confident and to help build resiliency. And so anxiety is a normal human emotion. And We're all going to experience some form of identity at some time in our life. But sometimes children can be overwhelmed and it can help them or prevent them from wanting to go to school. It can interfere with school and friendships and family life and sleeping and even eating sometimes. But on a positive note, there's a lot of helpful things that we can do to help children so that they can manage their anxiety.
And we also have to remember, and what I see a lot of myself is that even though the children are anxious, the parents are having their own anxiety along with the the children because they're worried about their children and they wanna make sure they're okay. So then they have their own anxiety as well. In children, sometimes the anxiety looks like bad behavior when really it's just, they're just having big emotions. They may say that they're worried, but they're also complaining about a stomach ache and a headache. Or they might be irritable or clingy or withdrawn. Over the years, I've seen a lot of that kind of behavior where children will not want their parent to leave, they don't want their parent to leave or they don't want to leave their parent. They can have nightmares. They can avoid even parties. They can be afraid of making a mistake because they're worried of what someone might think about them or what they're actually thinking about themselves.
They can have an upset with routines. They can also have a racing heart, sweating, shaking, nausea, just like any other person with anxiety. Or they can have trouble concentrating. There's a lot of things that they will exhibit. They're saying, I'm scared and I don't know how to handle this feeling, but their behaviors are not really congruent with sometimes what they're trying to express. If we think about anxiety as a cycle, the first thing that in the cycle would be they feel or they're perceiving a threat. They feel like something is causing them a threat, and they're just reacting to that. But there's some things that you can do. First of all, if we help the children to name that they are anxious, instead of saying, don't worry, there's nothing to be afraid of, you could say, I see that you're feeling worried. Can you tell me more about that? And if you give the anxiety a name, it makes it less overwhelming.
And it also helps the kids to feel that it's a real thing. And you're not just, fluffing it off as, oh, you're just, it's okay, it's okay. And if we say things when their behavior is getting a little bit, overabundant, we could say, I can tell that your body is feeling a little anxious. So that will help too. We can also name the worry as the worry monster or, oh, your brain is a little bit anxious right now or just call it a name so that makes it a little bit, it's not to make fun, of the anxiety, but it is to help them to understand in their language and their terms. Another thing we can do is calm the body, help them to calm their body. When a child's feeling really anxious, telling them to think positively is not gonna work. Their body might be in fight or flight. So what we wanna do is help them to learn breathing techniques.
And I've seen that to work really well with kids, where they just learn how to breathe or do an exercise or something physical that can help them to relieve the immediate worry. Let's see, another thing that they can do is to challenge the worry. Once they're calm, of course, you could ask, like, What do you think is going to happen? And they might say- and I just had a child say this recently- what if everybody laughs at me? Or, what if nobody likes me? And so I said, Well, what makes you think that? And then the child said, Well, I don't know because they might. And I said, Okay, so has it ever happened before? And they said, No. And I said, Okay. Or if they would say yes, I would say, what happened the last time that did happen? Or what can you tell yourself if you start to feel worried? Or who can you go to if you feel worried to talk about this? Kids can also create a worry box.
And I've had kids do that before where I've given them a box with some paper and when a worry appears, they put it in the box. Or sometimes they'll write it on a piece of paper and throw it in the garbage if they're at a more advanced stage. And if they can't write, they can draw a picture. And that helps sometimes. Sometimes it's good to have them, if they're anxious about going to school, what I've suggested is before school starts to have the child go visit the school, go drive around the school, maybe even go meet the teacher before anybody else goes to school. But if they can't do that, if it's already a case where the kids are at school and they're having a lot of anxiety, I've had them go and sit in the office or the lobby for a few minutes before going to class and then talk to someone, maybe there's a counselor in the building or the nurse or the principal or even the teacher, they could just talk for a few minutes and take a minute to just decompress, go to the bathroom, maybe just breathe a minute, and then come back to class.
But the message should always be, even though I feel anxious, I can still do this. And that's what we have to tell the children. We can't just tell them that they're feeling anxious and if they keep begging to go home from school, say, you're not going to say, okay, you can go home from school. You can't. It's not a good practice to have them leave the building.
Ko'u:
Thank you so much, Roseanne, for your input and your insight. I know that's very valuable for all parents, especially those who are worried about their children. And Jenica, I know that you are working with the Schultz Foundation. You and my friend Mila are very close to each other and support one another. And I know that you've done some events in town or around Central Illinois. Could you kind of talk about that?
Jenica:
Most certainly. It's been a rewarding collaboration with the Schultz Foundation for Advancing Counseling, working alongside my friend Mila. As Roseanne had mentioned, we had visited area schools. We'd also gone into area businesses. Currently, one out of every 12 children in the state of Illinois is battling some sort of anxiety. And so this program really gives resources and tips to children and their families on how to combat those symptoms. It also allows counseling professionals to have a better reach into the classroom to help these students be more successful and especially help them reach their goals, which is so important.
Ko'u:
And I know with the My Friend Myla group, they also worked with local Girl Scouts.
Jenica:
That is correct. They worked closely with Troop 6195. They had visited area schools. They had visited area libraries. They had did enriching programs with those students. It was just an amazing program. My Friend Myla has also gone into nursing homes to kind of bridge between the younger children and seniors. It was a very enriching program for all involved.
Ko'u:
And I was going to say with the Schultz Foundation for Advancing Counseling that you guys work a lot with school counselors as well.
Jenica:
That is correct. For any school counselors that are wanting to apply for a grant with the Schultz Foundation, please do visit www.advancingcounseling.org. We'll be taking applications and proposals until April 1st. So you can apply for a transformative grant that you can implement in a classroom or in your school district. We also offer a variety of other professional grants. So if somebody is wanting to put in a social emphasis grant, we will award up to $15,000 for that specific grant. And we've had a lot of schools that have applied for various grants, not just the Tony R. Tolerwood School Counseling Grant, but we also have the Merlin W. Schultz Professional Development Grant or the Robert J. Najedlo Social Emphasis Grant.
Ko'u:
With all these grants, who is eligible to apply?
Jenica:
Any organization that has a licensed clinical professional counselor may apply for a grant with the Schultz Foundation and we do encourage, please check out those guidelines, those qualifications. They're easily accessible online. The grant proposal itself may only take 10 to 15 minutes to complete or as long as 30 minutes and it can truly enrich the lives of your clients or your organization. We're trying to reach out especially into rural areas that are struggling with finding mental health professionals to meet the needs of those clients. So please take a moment, look at those qualifications and apply for a grant today.
Ko'u:
And I know that our time is kind of winding down, but I know that our viewers are probably very curious about what the Schultz Foundation is. So I know you guys said that you're around 20 years old.
Jenica:
That is correct. We just celebrated our 20 year anniversary and we're very thankful because all the donations that are made to the Schultz Foundation are given out to counseling professionals and mental health providers throughout Illinois and we're very grateful for all those contributions and those gifts. It really does make a profound difference. Early intervention affords the best outcome. One in five adults is going to experience a mental health issue during their lifetime and early intervention affords the best outcome. How many tragedies could we prevent if we just had more qualified mental health providers? Within reach of those that are in need of services. And that's where the Schultz Foundation is. And we also wanted to share that our collaboration with my friend Myla, we're very grateful to Roseanne Oppmann, but she is doing a special promo this month that you can visit my friend Myla and be entered in for a drawing to win a free book. And we are just so grateful for that collaboration with my friend Myla and Roseanne. The work is profound. We're deeply grateful and it's making a huge huge impact in the lives of children and in classrooms across Illinois.
Ko'u:
Thank you so much, Roseanne, and thank you so much, Jenica, for your time today. And I just want to say one more time, could you say all of the links or where you could find the links or what websites that you're referring to for all of our listeners?
Jenica:
To learn more about the meaningful work of the Schultz Foundation for Advancing Counseling, you may visit us online at advancingcounseling.org or you can visit my friend Myla. She's also got a Facebook page, Instagram, and TikTok. So please reach out and view these valuable resources.
Ko'u:
Thank you so much, Jenica and Roseanne, for taking time out of your very busy schedules to be with us today. I know that many of our listeners are very excited to become part of your mission, either with donations, applying for grants, or simply parents listening and now knowing how to best help their children with some of these anxieties. I also wanted to add a special note that I know that today we talked about the tips and tricks for younger students. But I think going back to the basics for even older students, like high school or college age, it is very important that we remember and we take time for ourselves and kind of go back to the basics with dealing with anxieties because there's so many external factors. And I know that all students, we will get through this. And thank you again to all of our loyal listeners. And thank you again, Jenica and Roseanne. And I'm your host, Ko'u Hopkins.
