January 10, 2025 Read Time:
ConnectingMental HealthCounselorsCraig Harris
Nationwide, too many of our young people grapple with unthinkable crises, challenges, and loss each day. Even as I write this, wildfires continue to rage across Los Angeles, leaving a massive path of destruction. At least three LA Unified schools have already been destroyed, and more than 600,000 students don’t know when - or where - they will be able to return to class.
This type of tragedy and uncertainty hits students particularly hard both physically and psychologically. In LA, this will be especially true for the many young people who were already struggling with mental health challenges before the wildfires ever began.
Counselors like Craig Harris help youth navigate through crises big and small every day. The former Director of Counseling and SEL at the Swampscott Public Schools and long-time head of emotional disability support programs for students, Harris is currently a school consultant and counselor in Greater Boston. He recently created a framework for organizing mental health services in school after participating in ECLC’s Mental Health and Restorative Practices project last year. Harris details this framework in his new blog series, “Right Student, Right Service, Right Time.”
We will feature each post of his 7-part series over the next seven newsletters, with the introduction featured in today’s edition. To mark the launch of this series, Craig and I talked about some of the lessons he has learned. You can read some of the highlights from our conversation here.
The importance of community in every day life - and especially in times of crisis - cannot be overstated. In one of her first posts of 2025, education coach and author Elena Aguilar put it this way: “Communal learning meets our core human needs of connection, competence, and purpose. And having our needs met energizes and inspires us.”
Wishing you all a healthy, safe, and meaningful new year.
