Reducing stress and improving mental well being in summer camp counselors
The inspiration
For over half a decade I’ve had the privilege of working at a summer camp in the woods of New England. For that time my role has not been as a counselor but in the kitchen and for the past 4 years, part of the maintenance team. Despite having a different set of duties and levels of interactions with the campers, I have formed close personal and professional relationships with the counselors.
Like any job we bond over what excites us, bores us, and makes us stressed. Through that and in my time working there I’ve noticed that there is an entirely different set of stressors for the counselors, that doesn’t change regardless of their age, gender, years at camp or overall camp experience. As I have found it entails a heavy workload where you are always surrounded by children, leaving very little time for self care and stress management. Not to say that there are no current systems in place to help counselors manage their stress, but it is something that can always be improved upon. As every camp is unique in its own way so are its stressors; making the need for a custom approach to mitigating these stressors all the more necessary.
The final product
In my years working there I’ve seen it affecting my friends and colleagues in a negative way. So when asked to create a project that would show what I’ve learned throughout my time at Champlain college, I thought back to what I was passionate and motivated by. Not only did I have a personal stake and firsthand knowledge but more importantly a one of a kind opportunity to try to address this.
I went in with the goal of gathering strategies that were simple, took little time and cost no money yet were effective. This was intentional, as making drastic changes to the schedule or way of doing things is unfeasible. Rather I wanted something practical that people could use to supplement existing stress management systems; that still took into account the camp’s unique quirks. While gathering information from friends and colleagues it became apparent that I would need to find strategies that could work within the 15–20 minute range. While challenging it played to the interdisciplinary aspect of Capstone, which required looking at other fields such as physiology. This proved invaluable as I was able to really build upon the input of friends and colleagues; taking into account what they had/wanted and input from the directors.
From all this input and information I’ve created a guidebook aimed at reducing stress and improving mental health for summer camp counselors. Using mine and others first hand knowledge it provides an array of stress management options that have been selected specifically for this camp. It takes into account factors such as scheduling as well as the resources available. Some of these you may be familiar with, like listening to music or my personal favorite petting the assorted dogs and animals at camp. Others you may not, such as progressive muscle relaxation or relaxation response training.
It is the goal that with the creation of this guidebook; it will provide counselors with fast and effective means for stress management. Not only will this be of benefit to counselors but hopefully the children.
