Reframing Mental Health to Emphasize Mastery: A Compatibility Match with Schools
Presenter: Anne Gearity, Ph.D.
Likely a lingering effect of COVID, although the trend was already evident, students are reporting increased experiences of depression and anxiety – and social stressors because of these mental health maladies. In this closing keynote address, we will reconsider the idea of mastery – helping students feel able to have agency in their lives – as an antidote to these out-of control feelings. “Learning can make you feel better” is expanded upon; with more awareness of individual learning styles and shifting emphasis on critical thinking (vs. knowledge acquisition). Mastery becomes an essential tool to stay active, engaged, and self-confident, and changes the way adults can engage with students.

Anne Gearity, PhD, has joyfully collaborated with educators for decades, hoping to bridge learning and well-being for students and staff. She is a mental health provider, working with children, adolescents, adults and families. In addition, she has consulted to numerous school districts and mental health agencies, focusing primarily on development, stress and trauma, and changing intervention models to support positive experiences. She is currently a faculty member in the UMN Department of Psychiatry, teaching new child psychiatrists. In collaboration with Washburn Center for Children, she authored Developmental Repair, a manual for intervention with highly stressed young children that has been adopted and applied in many settings.