We Are Worthy
“I open my eyes and he’s crying. He opens his eyes and I’m crying and now we are crying in a storage cupboard together and nothing feels tense anymore.”
It is said that a teacher makes more split second decisions than a surgeon, well I am sure this one is a very, very bad decision. I’ve just pulled an agitated fifteen-year-old behemoth of a student aside into a storage space and closed the door behind me. He just got out of juvenile detention for aggravated assault and is now standing directly over me, towering above my five-foot-something body, clenching his fists. Questioning my sanity, my career and my ability to diffuse this situation, I draw on all my teacher experience, theories about behaviour and specialised teacher knowledge to help me make another vital split second decision. Then…I go blank, I forget about what I know, I close my eyes, I place my hand on my heart and take a huge inhale and exhale. I place my other hand on his heart and feel him inhale too. Then I feel his unclenched fist sit heavy on my shoulder and his chest move up and down. I open my eyes and he’s crying. He opens his eyes and I’m crying and now we are crying in a storage cupboard together and nothing feels tense anymore.
That’s when I really knew what kind of teacher I wanted to be. Fifteen years into a career that defined me, I could no longer deny that my authentic contribution to young people was not teaching them about ‘Macbeth’, it was teaching them how to find the calm in the storm.
We Are Worthy Wellness was born to provide safe, fun, practical and holistic wellbeing tools for young people, schools, youth and community groups that improve lifelong mental and physical health for all. We run in-person workshops, immerisions and a term program at your location that integrate mental health and wellbeing knowledge from the Victorian and Australian Curriculum, yoga, breathwork, mindfulness and psychology. The sessions are tailored specifically for the needs of participants (aged 12-20) and focus on areas, such as resilience building, anxiety busting skills, mindful study skills, social media detox and finding our strengths and purpose. Teenagers come away with evidence-based tools and strategies that they carry into their daily lives. Importantly, my expertise as a secondary school teacher and a 200 hour qualified yoga instructor means that every young person benefits from the sessions, which combine gentle movement, fun activities and safe discussion in order to truly engage this challenging audience. In all, the offerings are a culmination of everything I’ve learned so far about how to guide young people consciously and subconsciously into a calmer and more fulfilling life. And the impact is leading to a world full of young people who know their worth and can weather the storms with calmness and clarity.
The We Are Worthy sessions offer a holistic solution to the growing mental health crisis that is well documented in our young people and increasing, partly due to the after effects of COVID. Schools, youth workers, teachers, parents and guiders of young people know the severity, urgency and impact of growing rates of anxiety, depression, low self esteem and social media addiction. They know the solution to mental and physical unrest comes from building resilient youth, who have real world skills and knowledge inbuilt and that the institutions that support young people need to prioritise teaching tools and strategies to achieve this. I know this too, as an educator and a mother, so I set out to deliver an experience that is fun, safe and can actively teach the secrets to achieving lifelong wellbeing to this incredible and unique demographic.
I don't know what happened to my student in the storage cupboard. For a time, he would seek me out on yard duty to have deep philosophical conversations about life or for advice on how to deal with his turbulent life. Slumped in the corner of my English class, he would shush students that gave me lip, threatening to ‘punch their faces in’. But, shortly after that seminal moment, I moved on to pursue this passion, starting me on the journey, leading to the creation of We Are Worthy Wellness. However, I do know that for a brief time we connected deeply and found a moment of peace together. I know that he and countless other teenagers I have worked with are my inspiration for creating these special offerings and I know that he is, as all these young people are, completely and utterly, inherently and undeniably, Worthy.