Alarming statistics in recent years indicate that mental health problems like depression and anxiety have been skyrocketing among youth. While major stakeholders argue over whether we need greater compassion or whether so-called “coddling” might in fact be driving up rates of mental health problems and we should instead introduce more challenge, psychologist and professor Sarah Rose Cavanagh presents extensive evidence to argue that this is a false duality. Instead, she proposes that first we need to create learning and living environments characterized by compassion, and then we need to guide our youth into practices that encourage challenge.
We have selected for our Fall 2024 book club Sarah Rose Cavanagh’s Mind Over Monsters: Supporting Youth Mental Health with Compassionate Challenge. Dr. Cavanagh is a psychologist, professor of the practice, and Senior Associate Director for Teaching and Learning at Simmons University where she researches the intersections of emotion, motivation, and learning. You can learn more about her work and extensive publications here.
While exploring Dr. Cavanagh’s approach to student mental health and “compassionate challenge,” we are also excited to expand the conversation to wellness and mental health for the whole campus, faculty and staff as well as students. As Sarah has aptly extended her argument in recent essays in the Chronicle: “They Need Us to Be Well” and “After a Tough Year for Classroom Innovation, It’s time for a Reset.” For this expanded, campus-centered conversation, we have organized with numerous campus partners discussions of the book in relation to key themes that are addressed: embodied mental health (including lessons from coaching and athletics); beliefs and motivation (including lessons from Academic Skills and Resources, Student Success and Advising, Counseling); improvisation and play (including lessons from Student Engagement and Peer Mentors). We’ll conclude in early December with a live discussion with the author. Please join us in this semester-long, multi-threaded conversation open to all faculty, staff, and students.
In keeping with our “no-fuss book club” approach, you can read the book at your own pace, read the book afterwards, read selected chapters related to the discussion, or not read it at all and just come for the good conversation. Free copies of the book are available–you can pick one up at the first session or send us an email to get one in advance.
For the lunch sessions in Hodson, no rsvp is required: at the check-in counter say you are here for Cromwell CTL discussion and we’ll pick up the tab. Get your food and join us in the upper level loft (stairs located near windows facing Washington Ave.) You are welcome to arrive late and leave early to fit with your schedule.
Schedule of Book Club and Discussions:
- The Landscape of Mental Health and Wellness on Campus: Introduction to Mind Over Monsters
- Wednesday, September 4, 11:30 am – 12:45 pm: drop-in lunch discussion in Hodson Dining Hall. At check-in say you are here for the CTL event and we will pay for lunch. After you get food, meet us in the upstairs loft area (staircases are on the east side of the hall).
- Thursday, September 5, 4 – 5 pm: discussion on Zoom [registration link here]
- Suggested reading: Chapter 1: “Crisis and Complexities” and Chapter 2: “Our Youth Need Compassionate Challenge”
- Embodied Mental Health (lessons from coaching)
- Wednesday, September 25, 11:30 am – 12:45 pm: drop-in lunch discussion in Hodson Dining Hall. At check-in say you are here for the CTL event and we will pay for lunch. After you get food, meet us in the upstairs loft area (staircases are on the east side of the hall).
- Additional conversation with coaches on mental fitness (TBD)
- Suggested reading: Chapter 3: “Infused with Eros—Embodied Mental Health” and Chapter 4: “Unruly Bodies in an Unpredictable World”
- Beliefs and Motivation (lessons from academic resources, advising, and student success)
- Tuesday, October 15, 11:30 am – 12:45 pm: drop-in lunch discussion in Hodson Dining Hall. At check-in say you are here for the CTL event and we will pay for lunch. After you get food, meet us in the upstairs loft area (staircases are on the east side of the hall).
- Suggested reading: Chapter 5: “Seeking Oneself—Energy and Value” and Chapter 6: “Determining Oneself—Direction and Expectancy”
- Behaviors: Improvisation and Play
- Thursday, November 7, 11:30 am – 12:45 pm: drop-in lunch discussion in Hodson Dining Hall. At check-in say you are here for the CTL event and we will pay for lunch. After you get food, meet us in the upstairs loft area (staircases are on the east side of the hall).
- Workshop on improvisational learning (TBD)
- Suggested reading: Chapter 7: “Arousal, Action, and Uncertainty” and Chapter 8: “Play and Improvisational Learning”
- What a Self Could Be: Poetry and Mental Health
- Monday, November 18, 6 pm Zoom [registration info here]
- Workshop and Reading with the poet Diane Suess hosted by the O’Neill Literary House.
- Conversation with the Author: Dr. Sarah Rose Cavanagh
- Tuesday, December 3, 4 – 5:30 pm on Zoom (registration link here)
- Suggested reading: “Conclusion: The Monster at the End of this Book”
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