A conversation with Dr. Krisstal D. Clayton, SAGE author, clinical associate professor, director of Undergraduate Programs, and associate chair of academics for the Department of Psychology at the University of North Texas.
Co-author of Essentials of Psychology with Saul Kassin and Gregory J. Privitera.
Dr. Clayton discusses mental health trends, questions, and insights she has experienced with her Introduction to Psychology students, and shares strategies she has implemented in her classroom to promote mental wellness.
A conversation with Dr. Krisstal D. Clayton, SAGE author, clinical associate professor, director of Undergraduate Programs, and associate chair of academics for the Department of Psychology at the University of North Texas.
Co-author of Essentials of Psychology with Saul Kassin and Gregory J. Privitera.
Dr. Clayton discusses mental health trends, questions, and insights she has experienced with her Introduction to Psychology students, and shares strategies she has implemented in her classroom to promote mental wellness.
Hello, everyone. My name is Victoria Velasquez. I'm the Product Marketing Manager for psychology at SAGE Publishing. And today I'm excited to be speaking to Krystal Clayton. She is a clinical associate professor and director of undergraduate programs, and Associate Chair of academics with the Department of Psychology at the University of North Texas. She regularly teaches the intro psychology course and as a co author of the essentials of psychology published by SAGE. Welcome, Crystal, I'm so happy to speak to you today.
Krisstal Clayton, SAGE Author:Hi, Victoria.
Victoria Velasquez, Product Marketing Manager for Psychology at SAGE Publishing:I'd love to ask you a few questions on the topic of mental health and get your insights from your experience teaching hundreds of students in your intro psychology course.
Krisstal Clayton, SAGE Author:Thank you so much for providing this opportunity to discuss the important topic of mental health today.
Victoria Velasquez, Product Marketing Manager for Psychology at SAGE Publishing:Can you just start off by talking about your students and what you've noticed over the past few years in terms of how they're talking about mental health, how they're dealing with their mental health?
Krisstal Clayton, SAGE Author:Certainly, something I definitely noticed was this difference that was prior to COVID and post COVID. So prior to COVID, I typically have three students per about every 100 students share with me their struggles with mental health. Now post COVID, I typically have eight to 10 students per every 100 Share with me their struggles with mental health. And in addition, I have another role, which is the Associate Chair for My department. So several of my faculty and teaching fellows have reached out to me on a regular basis about what they're also dealing with in the classroom. So a lot of their students also have mental health struggles, they frequently email me meet with me to try to find ways that we can connect our students with resources. And that might be a number that my faculty and I are facing compared to other disciplines. Because a psychology educators, our classrooms are ripe with conversations about wellness, or of course, the lack thereof. So we have a lot of conversations in our classroom, that includes students who already want to share their own experiences, because that's one of the reasons why they're taking a psychology class. So what I try to do is to make sure that we have a lot of opportunity in assignments, and also during my office hours, as well as in the classroom to address these types of topics. And I do that by first creating a safe space where mental health is normalized. And normalizing mental health really seems to encourage students to embrace that topic and recognize that they are not alone. So I've observed a lot of vulnerability and desire to learn about symptoms and treatments, and also students who have demonstrated a lot of motivation to find others who are experiencing or who have experienced similar feelings, thoughts and behaviors.
Victoria Velasquez, Product Marketing Manager for Psychology at SAGE Publishing:Yeah, I think obviously, as you know, students, it's hard sometimes to talk to people right about this topic. And it's definitely been a big shift over the past few years. Can you talk about the advice that you give your students when you see them struggling with their mental health? Or if they do come to you with lots of questions about mental health?
Krisstal Clayton, SAGE Author:Oh, definitely, I have a lot of students who come to me about their mental health, that's either talking to me after class, or they mentioned it during a class discussion. Or I also get a lot of emails from my students, just letting me know that they're struggling. And maybe they could definitely benefit from an extended deadline, or if I have anything that I can connect them with. So I find myself very lucky that students are so open with me. And to make sure that we have this kind of a caring space. I always express empathy and gratitude for their presence in my course, because you have to be pretty vulnerable to take a lot of our psychology courses. And in expressing that empathy and gratitude, I always let my students know and I'm very candid about this, that I'm a person who has my own history of trauma. I've had hours of therapy, right all which have been very beneficial. And so I connect with my students by letting them know that I am also vulnerable. And I regularly participate in self care, because my students need to understand that even though I'm a psychology professor, right, I appear to be someone who's very successful and has it all together. I'm constantly working on my own mental wellness, it is always going to be a work in progress for me. Something else I'd like to do is to just let them talk about their own participation in self care. So I try to frequently asked my students what does our society value because we have a lot of those conversations in our psychology courses, because what our society Add values very much demonstrates who we are and who we're supposed to aspire to be. So my students often share that our society values overwork, it values, the hustle, people often brag about how they're not getting enough sleep. And there's also this big fear of missing out. And so we have a lot of pressure that's been placed on our students to live the lives that they see in social media. But unfortunately, we don't celebrate the journeys that people had to take to get to where they are now, because a lot of those journeys involve mistakes and really hard lessons. We don't see that in social media. So I advise them to really define their own values. So what does success look like to them? What do they want for themselves that isn't monetary, or something that they can simply own. And so that often gets us into media, which can often be troubling, or heartbreaking, and it's content. And to be honest, we have a lot of heartbreaking and troubling content in psychology, right? Because we talk about things like discrimination, racism, assault, aggression. So when you have the negativity coming from the media, and then you will talk about it in a classroom environment, you have to understand that well, that's a lot of negativity coming at our students. So to combat that, I try to suggest that students think about everyday little acts of kindness that they see in their life, everyday little considerations that humans around them are expressing even if it's a stranger. So for example, I asked my students, how many times did a person open the door for you today? How often are you able to safely occupy a crosswalk and not panic, right? That someone's going to hit the gate and do something to injure you. And what kind of care are people expressing and practicing just when you're using the stairs or the escalators, right or walking down a crowded sidewalk, people aren't just randomly pushing you and harming you. Often people really are trying to be considerate. And then in class, especially after we have these really hard topics that we have to discuss, I practice a five minute tell me something good break during class. And I open up the discussion to anybody who wants to quickly share something that is good, something positive that happens to them, or something that they've experienced or are planning to experience that they're looking forward to. And we even celebrate little accomplishments like getting a 10 out of 10 on the reading quiz. So I have students who share everything from I'm getting married to I did a really great job on this reading quiz. And I just got a new job and the entire class applauds them. And we just have this nice little break where we focus on the good that is happening to us. Before we dive back into the hard topics.
Victoria Velasquez, Product Marketing Manager for Psychology at SAGE Publishing:I really love that taking time to just really appreciate the positivity in everyday life, right everyday little things. That's so great.
Krisstal Clayton, SAGE Author:It's a game changer. Because yeah, I mean, we even have the term Doom scrolling, right? Where we just sit in front of our phones, and we're just going through all of the bad all of the bad constantly. And I think we frequently forget to take important breaks to think about what isn't negative. What are the good things that have happened to me today? So yeah,
Victoria Velasquez, Product Marketing Manager for Psychology at SAGE Publishing:yeah, very hard to let especially social media kind of take over sometimes, right?
Krisstal Clayton, SAGE Author:Yeah, you get caught in that trap. And you're reading the most, you know, if it bleeds, it leads story after another. Right, right. Those are the things that really grab our attention. And it'd be nice if we can kind of start working on rewiring our brains so that the good things start to grab our attention.
Victoria Velasquez, Product Marketing Manager for Psychology at SAGE Publishing:Yeah, that's great. And do you have any resources or assignments that you've implemented in your intro psychology course to help address some of these issues?
Krisstal Clayton, SAGE Author:Oh, yeah. I'm almost kind of how do I put this I am. I've done so much work, I would have to say on myself to try to make sure that I focus on the positive that that has definitely leaked into the way that I teach my classes, especially in one course, in particular, which is called psychology of the offender. And we talk about really, really hard stuff. So that has had a really big impact on how I teach all of my other courses, because it's made me recognize there's a lot of bad that can happen. But for every one bad thing, 1000s of good things are happening. And we can't really recognize what we're focusing on our internal dialogue unless we draw attention to it. So I take several steps to draw their attention to these types of ways that they might talk to themselves, as well as do they have someone that they can talk to? So the easiest thing I'm going to start with those resources is that when a Students reaches out to me, the first thing I do is see if I can personally connect them with any of our university resources. For example, I'm at University of North Texas, and we have a care team who will step in and review each student's needs on a case by case basis. So for example, I had one student reached out to me very early this semester, and he wanted to let me know that his brother had passed away this summer. And because he was just, you know, just very heartbroken, he was having a hard time staying organized, and then jumping into classes. So it was really wonderful is that I celebrated his ability to reach out to me and let me know. And I immediately asked him for permission to contact or take care team on his behalf. What I've recognized with my students is sometimes putting that responsibility in their lap is just a little too much for them to bear because they have to figure out how to navigate it on their own. So I always ask for to navigate those things for them, I want to make sure that my students know that I know how to do this, and I'm happy to take care of it for you, I just need your permission and certain pieces of information. And 999 times out of 100, they will give me their information and ask that I do this for them. And what I've also learned is students have so much they're juggling with school, and maybe as caregiver and employment and commuting, that they forget all the resources that we talked to them about during orientation, right, it's just so much to keep track of. So letting them know, these are the things that we have that can help you is just always something I try to do either in my learning management system, or in my syllabus. And then after we have hard conversations, I'll post this information in my presentation. So students can see, hey, if this was really hard on you, it's all right, it's supposed to be hard. Here are some resources that can help you. For other assignments that I have, I really like to think about focusing on that inner dialogue. And so I try to make sure that students can look at their own self care and apply it to psychological concepts by working on a bullet journal. So the great thing about bullet journals is they're much shorter, they're not something you're going to write extensively like a diary. And you can also do certain little symbols or emojis so that you can just have a quick image to reference something if students don't want to share everything that's happening in their day. So they can have their own their own code. And so in this bullet journal, I really ask students that they track what they do throughout their day, who they spend time with how those events and interactions make them feel. And to definitely write down how they talk to themselves. And I really focus on the how do you talk to yourself, because that really wires what you're going to accept how you see yourself. And I know that I never realized the way that I talked to myself until I was asked to create this journal for my own growth. And I'm telling you, if a friend of mine spoke to me that way, we would not be friends and or when I sat and read my own inner dialogue, I was very shocked, I was taken aback. And in that moment, I decided I'm not going to talk to myself like this anymore. So how many of my students can benefit from that? So I also include that they track what they eat, drink, right, make sure they're hydrating, when they get outdoor activity, how much sleep are they getting. And then I have them take a break every day at
11:11am to list five things that they're grateful for. And so each gratitude list has to be unique, they can't keep listing the same thing over and over. And so they do this for two weeks. And once their bullet journal is complete, I have them reflect on these entries, and then write an essay that connects psychological theories, terminology, and then psychological concepts to their journal content. And what I find as much of that revolves around wellness, stress, emotions, and relationships, they start to recognize what relationships bring them joy. What interactions with other people cause them anxiety, how beneficial it is to study and that they really have their attention now drawn to what did I do to take care of myself today, which brings me a lot of happiness as I read these journals. And then of course, I often have students who share or might overshare in these bullet journals. So that means I also need in my Hopper a lot of outside resources that aren't part of the university. I'm sure that there are other professors instructors that know their counseling centers have a long waitlist, so we can't often get our students in when we need to. So I share with my students that if they're on there caregivers insurance, I can help them understand how to connect with their insurance providers so that that insurance provider can connect them with a therapist, right that is in network so they can get on that list as soon as possible. And for those who don't have that, or they do, but they need help pretty quickly, I also connect them with things such as the black Mental Health Alliance, National Alliance on Mental Illness, Mental Health America. And then I always have a list of local nonprofits that offer a free group and individual therapy, local advocacy centers, local support groups, and then I also connect them with national chat lines, and also the happiness podcast and case, I have students who kind of want to start teaching themselves how to practice more of that gratitude and focus on the things that you know, bring them joy. So those are some of the basic things that I tried to do. Definitely for my Intro to Psychology course.
Victoria Velasquez, Product Marketing Manager for Psychology at SAGE Publishing:That all sounds so great, you're doing a lot to support your students. And I love that it's always just focusing on that working on ourselves first, right? Like we're our own worst critics most of the time. So
Krisstal Clayton, SAGE Author:we are and I was wondering, where does that talk come from?
Victoria Velasquez, Product Marketing Manager for Psychology at SAGE Publishing:I know, it's, it's so hard. But yeah, we, we really need to talk to ourselves kindly. We're going to start there. So we can treat others with kindness. So great. So and of course, we're talking about students, which is very important, but professors are also dealing with a lot of these issues. Are there any tips or advice you want to give to professors to help them manage their own mental health?
Krisstal Clayton, SAGE Author:This is such a great question. I have kind of adopted the flight attendant motto that you must put your own oxygen mask on first, before you help others with fares. And so I constantly think about this over and over and over. Knowing that I'm going to have days where I have compassion fatigue, this happens a lot to me during COVID, because I'm supporting my department. In this quick shift to online learning. I had so many students that were pouring their hearts out to me, they were losing family members, I was losing people, right, it was a lot. So taking that step back and going okay, how do I get my oxygen mask on? Right? And what are the things that deliver the desperate amount of oxygen that I need? And so one big part, there are, there's more than one, but one piece of this is that okay, to secure my own oxygen mask, I have to plan ahead. And so I'm planning ahead for myself, I look at how can I weave flexibility into my course schedule and assignments, because I teach pretty large sections, and I know I'm gonna have a lot of students who are going to miss an assignment, something life is going to happen to them, right. Or they just might need a day for their own self care. Or maybe they slept through the exam, they forgot something was due because they're juggling so much. So having that flexibility that's pre planned, has been incredibly helpful not just to my students, but I can express how helpful it has been for me. And some of this flexibility, for example, is that I make sure students have every student regardless of the need, I don't ask for a reason. I just give every student one opportunity to submit an assignment 48 hours late. I've already had six students use that opportunity this semester, and they have been super grateful for it. And I've been grateful because I don't need you to provide me with a doctor's note, right, that can cause a lot of inequities. Not a lot of students have access to that. And it's not always my business, right? Why you missed an assignment. And I know that can put students on the spot and cause a lot of anxiety. So no questions asked, you can use that 48 hour opportunity. I also have an optional cumulative exam. So if there's any student who needs to make up an exam, whether that's for an absence or poor performance, everybody has that opportunity. So I'm not rescheduling right, all of these exams for students who have not been able to make it. And then I offer more assignments than I require, which allows me to drop the lowest assignment grade. Or if it's a quiz, I let them keep the extra quiz points. So if students really struggled early in the semester, they now already have a built in extra credit opportunity. And they also know I really like this exam or this assignment did not go well. What can I do my Hey, no worries, you have the option, no cumulative exam, or here's this other assignment floating around. And this greatly reduces their stress, which in turn greatly reduces my stress. Another part of my own oxygen mask is I have to set boundaries, right. And I found this really hard to do early on in my career. Because as professors as educators, we're here to serve, and that means we can often put ourselves last. And you can't really take care of yourself if you don't have those good boundaries. So a little tiny tip that I can offer is that first and foremost, I answer email Monday through Friday from 8am until 5pm. That's just how it goes. And I tell students up front, this is when I'm on my email, I also share that with my faculty and staff, but they know that they can expect a response from me within 24 hours unless it's on the weekends. So I don't get this panic, like I need to talk to you now. And I'm not going to lie and say I never touched my email on the weekends or at 10 o'clock at night, because I do. But when I respond to them, I do a scheduled send for the next business day at 8am. And what that demonstrates is, hey, I'm respecting your work day. And regardless of when you sent me the email, this is when you are going to get a response from me right during my regularly scheduled time that I'm going to be on email. And just doing that has really helped me not panic thinking I constantly have to be on on my email, what if I'm missing something important from a student. And then I can check out of work mode, which is a another part of my own oxygen mask is that at night, I can go to yoga to do some self care, I can cook for myself, I can spend time with my my husband and my dogs. And then every weekend, I plan one day that's dedicated to fun relaxation. I really struggled with doing this for several years, because I thought I have to work all the time to stay on top of it. But the more I worked, the less motivated I was when the when Monday came around, because I never took a break. So I've now discovered that when I step away from work, at least for one full day, on the weekend, doing those things that bring me joy, connecting with the people that I care about means I am super productive and pleasant. Usually, right. And I'm also very focused for the work week that comes ahead of me so I can get a lot more done. And I can practice more gratitude, right? When I've taken that time for myself over the weekend. So yeah, this took me a long time to really learn. And just to the point where I now schedule in my own wellness days, I schedule in something fun, I remind myself, okay, you walk away from the from email right now. And it's been a huge game changer in a very positive way. So just taking time for yourself, putting that oxygen mask on first so that you then have the ability to help others with their own oxygen mask is something that I will never stop participating in. Because it's definitely made my life much more enjoyable. And I have much less burnout in this career. Yeah, I had before.
Victoria Velasquez, Product Marketing Manager for Psychology at SAGE Publishing:Yeah, yeah. It's just so important to have that balance. I mean, you know, we're all ambitious. We want to get as far as we can in our careers, right. But at some point, you can't do it all. You got to Yeah, relax. And it will take time for yourself. Yeah, yeah.
Krisstal Clayton, SAGE Author:I mean, what is doing it? All right, why can't doing it all include? Yeah, if you need to binge Netflix, that's perfectly acceptable. You don't have to be up to all the time, likely, sometimes not being productive is the best way to, you know, be your best self in the future. So yeah, giving those little gifts to your future self are just so necessary. And I wish I had known that earlier. But I'm very grateful that I have learned it now. And I've seen the tremendous benefit. So
Victoria Velasquez, Product Marketing Manager for Psychology at SAGE Publishing:then you can model it, you can model it for your students. So important.
Krisstal Clayton, SAGE Author:Yeah, I let them know I have a life and I do fun things on the weekends. And I want you to as well. So you're not going to hear from me on the weekends, and they don't. So I like that. You're very good. That was such a great point that yeah, you do have to model wellness for the students in front of you because they need to know what it looks like. And they need to know that yes, you really are practicing the advice that you're preaching to them. Yeah.
Victoria Velasquez, Product Marketing Manager for Psychology at SAGE Publishing:Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today about this important topic. It's always so great to hear from our authors, the ones that are in the classroom talking to students every day. Do you have any just final thoughts or parting words that you want to revisit here before we sign off? Yeah, sure. Um,
Krisstal Clayton, SAGE Author:I guess overall, it's pretty much that if we're going to support the wellness of others and ourselves, we definitely have to reinforce and in turn normalize all these discs. Questions about mental health? I mean, we have such a wonderful opportunity to achieve that normalization in our courses. So if you know you don't know where to start, I think that that is an excellent first step to make a positive impact is just make it a normal conversation in our daily lives. So yeah, that's my that's my take away.
Victoria Velasquez, Product Marketing Manager for Psychology at SAGE Publishing:Okay. Well, thank you, Crystal. It was great talking to you.
Krisstal Clayton, SAGE Author:Thank you, Victoria. I enjoyed our time.