Jody Bender

LLRC FULL CIRCLE 2020 Denegodhe asie ghanitł’eth ha beghonit’a

mamāhtawimihtānihk ki-toskayāmināwahk

Empowering Our Youth

Land, Language, Relationships and Culture

Your Brain on Stress

And Taking Care of Your Own Personal Wellness

This session on self-care is being facilitated by the Student Wellness Team at Meadow Lake Tribal Council. We begin our session with a quick look at the history of trauma and how enduring trauma necessitates the need for relationship building between teachers and students. Compassion fatigue and burnout can often be products of these relationships, so after a snapshot of what happens to the brain when it undergoes stress, we delve into a variety of hands on and interactive activities linked to self-care.

Jody is the Student Services Coordinator for Meadow Lake Tribal Council. She was born in British Columbia, but has lived in Goodsoil, SK for almost 21 years. Jody has four daughters, with her first son on the way, and loves to spend her summers gardening, golfing, fishing, camping, and travelling! Her degree is in Indigenous Education and she has devoted her career thus far to serving Indigenous communities in Saskatchewan. During her 10 years of employment at Chief Napew Memorial School on Big Island Lake First Nation, and during her one year working as a counsellor for the Meadow Lake Sexual Assault Center, Jody realized her passion for the effects of intergenerational trauma and suicide prevention. She is a volunteer for several committees who aim to reduce the number of suicides in our communities and an advocate for trauma informed schools and social emotional learning environments. It is for these reasons that Jody is currently pursuing her Masters degree in Educational Psychology, and looks forward to implementing her learning into further supporting our MLFN schools.