Wildcat Health & Mental Wellness parent group invited Simply Bee, along with a panel of former LHS athletes and the Athletic Director to speak to the student athletes and parents of Libertyville High School on the importance of mental health and resilience.

Audrey Grunst, LCSW & CEO kicked off this presentation with an inspirational speech sharing perspective to help athletes move through the ambiguity and uncertainty of life with a growth mindset. Eric Stevenson, LPC then shared skills from Step 1 of our five-step Growth & Resiliency Model^©: Become Aware.

The goal of this presentation was to provide insight into why awareness is so critical as an athlete. Sports performance is tied very closely with the player's mental health and their inner voice during practices and games. By becoming more aware of what we call The Big 4 (thoughts, emotions, physical sensations and urges to act), athletes can gain the ability to move from a reactor to a responder both on and off the court/field.

The goal of this PD workshop is to focus on mental and emotional skills to respond to burnout, uncertainty, and crisis. We will provide practical, efficient and generalizable skills from mental health experts who know first-hand what it means to be in a high stakes position.

Becoming Aware Of The Big 4 provides educators (students and parents too!) an opportunity to develop their knowledge about the relationships between thoughts, emotions, physical sensations and urges.

This allows educators to gain skills that they can infuse into their own personal wellness, alongside of providing borrowed regulation with students struggling with stress and overwhelm. The strategies shared are meant to supplement SEL curriculum with a goal to increase educators' toolboxes of coping skills while inspiring them to simply bee-come the best versions of themselves inside and outside of the classroom.