I'm Not Your Therapist: Caring for Others When You Can Barely Care for Yourself

*Please note: In the middle of this recording participants chose to engage with a specific content specialist. This video contains the content prior to and after those breakout rooms.

Supporting yourself and those around you can be exhausting. The recent Omicron surge and events in Colleyville have caused us to experience and hold trauma both for ourselves and the constituents we serve. And this is in addition to the sustained pressure of two years of pivoting.  This workshop provided the opportunity to check in with ourselves and our needs while examining the roles we, as educators, assume in the face of our constituents’ overwhelming need for support. We explored practical strategies that will help us support ourselves while holding others. 

This workshop included the opportunity to explore one of the following strategies in depth:

     1. Setting Boundaries 

     2. Coping Skills for Yourself and Others

     3. Emotional Regulation

     4. Building Resilience

Mental Health Resources:

Setting Boundaries, Carly Coons:

Coping Skills for Yourself and Others, Rabbi David Burstein:

Building Resilience, Heather Miller:

Emotional Regulation, Eleanor Bramwell

Setting Boundaries in ECE Spaces, Lisa Samick

Keynote and Content Specialist:

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Eleanor Bramwell | Eleanor Bramwell, as seen on CBS, at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and published with Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma, is a somatic therapist, trauma specialist, nervous system expert, resiliency guide and mentor. Committed to systemic change and human potential she has founded several flourishing companies. She is committed to her own inner development and living a full, embodied life that is in alignment with her moral compass. A skillful facilitator, inspirational public speaker, and mentor - Eleanor is here to help the world thrive.

Content Specialists:

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Rabbi David Burstein |  Rabbi David Burstein serves as the Rabbi/Educator at Congregation Beth Adam in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he is the co-creator of Our Village, a unique and innovative learning experience. He has worked for the past 25 years as an experiential educator and was ordained as a rabbi from HUC-JIR Cincinnati in 2001. He was the director of Kulanu: The Cincinnati Reform Jewish High School from 2003-2018 and is a national expert in teen education. Rabbi David is known for his work in the field of spirituality and meditation and.has taught mindfulness meditation for over 20 years and led over 50 retreats for all ages. A recent graduate of the M2 Experiential Educator Cohort, he was a co-creator of the Cincinnati Teen Collective Grant. Trained at Harvard College in mediation and negotiation, he has traveled with peace negotiation missions to Israel, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and Northern Ireland. Rabbi David has played the hand-drum for more than 25 years and his greatest joy comes from being a dad to Emma, Coby and Nadia, and husband to Elizabeth.

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Carly Coons | Carly Coons is a Licensed Social Worker and a Youth Mental Health First Aid Instructor. She has a passion for working with children, youth, and families in the Jewish community helping to engage and empower them along their journey. Carly is currently serving as the Director of Mental Wellness and Special Programs at Temple Sinai in Denver, CO. In this role she is spearheading their mental wellness initiative, working to integrate mental wellness into all different facets of congregational life. She loves living in Colorado where she gets to explore the outdoors and spend time with her loved ones. 

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Heather Miller | Heather Miller is an educator and future rabbi who is passionate about creating embracing spaces in both the religious and secular parts of her life. As the President of her synagogue, she strives to build a community that is safe for all of the intersecting identities in her community. In response to the events in the Spring of 2020, Heather developed a Race Consciousness series for her own community. Along with her co-facilitator, Heather is privileged to help communities, across the country, on their journey towards becoming anti-racist upstanders. Heather was recently on the planning committee for (and served as co-facilitator) USCJ's Kol Tzedek Conference and she works with USCJ, UJA, and other organizations to help move racial justice work forward in Jewish spaces. At the end of 2020, Heather was awarded MTNY's Ernest L. Rothschild Leadership Award. Her favorite role of all, however, is as the mother of three amazing boys who are proudly descended from freed slaves and Holocaust survivors. 

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Lisa Samick | Lisa Samick is the Director of Early Childhood and Family Engagement at Temple Israel of the City of New York and the 1^st Vice-President of ECE-RJ.  Lisa has worked in early childhood spaces for more than 20 years focusing on family engagement and staff development.  In her more recent work with ECE-RJ, she has focused on raising the profile of Early Childhood educators and advocating for them to receive appropriate recognition and compensation.  Over the past 2 years of successfully running a preschool in a pandemic, Lisa has had to embrace an entirely new skill set around community building and supporting parents and teachers.  She has facilitated groups of educators to share resources and provide support, and consults with several congregations to help mentor new leadership in the field.  Lisa lives in NYC with her daughter, Jenna and guinea pig, Caramel.