On September 12, Riverside Brookfield High School held their first ever meeting of the new Mindful Chatter gatherings. Mindful Chatter will be meeting once a month in the Alumni Lounge at RB for students to discuss mental health in a safe space.
Students from different RB clubs including Girl Up, AST, GSA, Erika’s Lighthouse, and Peer Mediation have come together along with some RB staff to start Mindful Chatter. One of the school psychologists, Pushpa Winbush, had the initial idea for these meetings.
“I have been working here around eight years, and I know there are a lot of good groups that function independently and address these issues,” Winbush said. “I have always thought of why we do this separately. Why don’t we combine and have something during the school day where students can come and go as they want and feel comfortable enough to attend and be a part of?”
This space is specifically designed to be not only a safe and comfortable place, but also convenient. Everyone is welcome, and it is purposely during lunch periods so that people do not have to work around prior commitments.
“Anybody who wants to come can come. It doesn’t have to be after school or before school, but instead, during school. We can have a space where students feel comfortable enough to come. They don’t even have to say much. If we have certain topics we want to bring up, then we can have a space to discuss it,” Winbush said.
Another contributor to Mindful Chatter is school psychologist McKenzie Sopoci. She hopes to lessen the discomfort of talking about mental health through these monthly meetings. Sopoci believes that the tension formed when discussing these issues is unnecessary.
“There has always been that stigma; the goal is to reduce that,” Sopoci said. “We just want people to be more involved in their mental health journey. Everyone has a journey with their mental health, and it is important that we give them tools to process those things.”
Not only is Mindful Chatter working to stop the stigma around mental health, they also are providing more awareness for it. Winbush shared that not many RB students even realize the support provided at RB already.
“The hope is that if more students attend, they will be more comfortable talking about it and accessing the support that we have here,” Winbush said. “We have a really good support system. We have three full-time psychologists and three full-time social workers, but not many students even know that we are here. So, it is to make them become more aware of what support we have here.”
Staff from The Loft in Brookfield came to share a bit about their program and what they offer. The Loft was established six months ago and serves as a place for teens to discuss mental health as well as receive the resources they need.
“We had people from the Loft at Eight Corners come and speak about the support and services they offer. They provide a lot of neat services,” Winbush said. “Hopefully, students will take advantage of that if they need it.”
The organizers of Mindful Chatter are pushing to make the club for everyone and accessible to anyone.
“Having it during the school day is one of the biggest things we have been trying to do because many students will not want to stay after school, or they have a sport to go to,” Sopoci said. “We are trying to make it geared towards what students may prefer, and I think that’s a perfect opportunity. During your lunches, you can come as you please. You don’t have to speak if you don’t want to. It’s just a place that you know you can go to with people there to support you.”
