Summary

• Introduction to Dr. Asian Lions. 0:09

  • Welcome to the thoughtful counselor podcast, a podcast dedicated to demystifying mental health through conversations with a wide range of counseling professional powerhouses.

  • Dr Asia Lyons is originally from Detroit, moved to Denver in 2006, and has a consulting firm and a podcast for black educators.

  • Today is a joyous day. The sun is out and there is air conditioning. Asian knows more than anyone that he had a rough winter.

  • He was a teacher for 12 years in a local school district and experienced a lot of racism-related stress in the last couple of years.

• Racial Battle Fatigue. 5:12

  • There are six different types of racism-related stress, physiological, emotional, and behavioral responses that people of color have to racism-related stress.

  • Black educators may be more susceptible to racial battle fatigue.

  • Racial battle fatigue is happening in education a lot, which is why there is such a hard time with the retention of black educators.

  • The double pandemic of racism.

  • Black educators have to do more of the heavy lifting of mental intelligence and self-preservation. There is a lot of time and space to process.

  • There are even fewer black educators in the space, and the ones that are left are experiencing more students coming in.

• Generational trauma and generational inertia. 11:06

  • Generational trauma is a big part of the conversation, even if one is new to the space, they feel the momentum of all the black people who came before them.

  • Every single country in the world is having a racial conversation even if they are not as in it.

  • It is almost impossible to change the narrative of how black and brown folks are supported in these spaces. The institutions will always have this attachment to the downfall of black and Brown professionals.

  • The exodus of black educators is a long-term exodus.

• How much hope do we have for the future? 17:08

  • The invisibility and downplaying of the trauma happening in the space, create a positive narrative of what happened in the story.

  • The intentionality of leaving a space that is not healthy for you, or is not fulfilling you in those ways.

  • You only see an outside view. You are not actually experiencing the role or the late nights or the same faculty meetings. You have a limited time and space where you are having these great experiences with me.

  • Dr smith talks about racial battle fatigue on his podcast.

• The power of awareness and picking your battles. 22:36

  • Dr smith talks about the power of awareness and how it can be a catalyst for a mindset shift for others.

  • Dr Smith shares his thoughts on microaggressions and how they are an integral part of his experience, but not his whole experience.

  • Pick your battles. Make your home a place of refuge from racial battle fatigue. Leave traditional education spaces for spaces that are more black-centered.

  • Health and wellness stipend.

  • In the beginning, people want to fight to the end, like racial identity development, where they're going to keep on going and burn out.

  • Recruitment and retention of black educators.

• How do you know when to quit your job? 29:05

  • A black woman on TikTok is talking about how she never gives two-week notice to a company that doesn't give her the same two week's notice.

  • A millennial is 40.

  • Gen Z is giving millennials some more empowerment to quit. Gen Z has taught us to just quit that job.

  • Gen Z has given older generations more courage to do the same.

• The impact on mental health and mental health on Black Educators . 32:12

  • Sophie talks about the impact that the pandemic has had on her mental health, especially around racial battle fatigue and stress.

  • How to help clients see the long-term end goal of their career.

  • How to lay out a plan every year, even if it's a one-year plan or a three-year plan, to make quitting more of an option for you.

  • The Asia in 2018 is very different than the person now, and that's a big piece of it.

• Racial battle fatigue. 36:54

  • Don't let your current circumstance steal your beliefs and excitement for your future. Don't let current circumstance keep you from your actual meant-to-be future.

  • One of the most detrimental things about racism, especially racial battle fatigue, is that people treat you a certain way for so long.

  • Don't let current trauma follow you into a new experience of opportunity. Don't talk yourself out of being a potential for this new opportunity because of what people in your current position are telling you about who you are.

  • Sometimes people in their space prevent us from applying for different places.

• You are worthy. 42:24

  • K-12 has his own breed of teachers who cannot imagine that an organization would want to work with them outside of teaching. The system communicates to educators that they need to be in a silo.

  • Boys and girls club and other organizations that support and value educators.

  • There is an undervaluing of what people can offer. There is a reason you're in this work, there's a reason it brought you to this.

  • Being raised by boomers, what you're talking about is so foreign to them, and they're raised to be different.

• The power of being discreet on social media. 47:45

  • Black women are talking about not posting anything about their lives on social media, and the power of being discreet.

  • Don't tell your dreams to people who can't see your future. Don't tell something to someone who is not going to see it the way you see it.

  • Social media can be dangerous for people who are trying to make moves like this, because that is not reality for most people. Most people have had a side hustle or had something working in the past.

  • Some people take pause when they think about leaving toxic workspaces.

• The power of grief and loss. 53:19

  • Mentorship from Dr Joe White, mentees are supposed to outshine the mentor. Mentorship is a moment of realization.

  • Loss of relationships, mourning and the loss of everything one knew, and the need to face that change that has to happen in order to move forward.

  • The grieving process keeps people stuck in a magical world of how things could be when things have not been that way for a very long time.

  • When she was teaching and started experiencing racial battle fatigue, she experienced grief because the relationship she thought she had was not there.

• Grief and personal identity. 57:46

  • The grief and reevaluating of self, and how personal identity is on the line.

  • How to move out of the space of trauma bonding into better opportunities.

  • The black educator wellness cohort that she co-facilitates to support black educators and youth serving organizations.

  • In the cohort, they talk about healing from trauma, strategies, talking to families about it, and holding space. They listen to people's stories and what is their plan going forward.

• The importance of making a decision about your future beyond being a educator. 1:02:13

  • Taking 30 minutes to fully process all the things that are most angry about, and then taking a deep breath and asking, what are you going to do about it now that you've had?

  • The onus is now on the educator to make a decision.

• Why are you giving your power away? 1:04:37

  • The humbling reminder that if one is not careful, they will give their autonomy to someone else.

  • The same person is giving their power away, consciously or unconsciously.

  • Last semester and one of her classes, she felt like she had no control over her own humanity. She told her mentor that she would quit her job.

  • She also thinks of how racial battle fatigue shows up when she is fighting back and setting boundaries.

  • The importance of being willing to leave immediately and being transparent about the fact that not everyone has the same hustle or the same decision.

  • The permanence of racism.

• How do counselors support black educators? 1:10:38

  • The thoughtful counselor podcast is having a conversation about racial battle fatigue in educators.

  • How counselors, school counselors, therapists and mental health providers support black educators through these experiences. The first thing is to believe them right and to support them.

  • The second question is a call to action. Dr smith shares what is important to him for students to know about racial battle fatigue.

  • Dr smith has a few youtube videos, not a lot, but do some reading on racism-related stress and when having conversations with people.