Teachers = lifelong role models

We all know that teachers play a key role in our lives.

And the last academic year – one of the most testing in recent history – has served to strengthen that stance by highlighting, quite rightly, that teachers are frontline heroes.

But as the school year draws to close, mental health counsellor Sheila McMahon has gone one step further to put teachers in the spotlight as not only heroes, but important role models who turn lives around in school and leave a lasting legacy through adulthood.

Staffordshire’s Sheila McMahon, who is the CEO of Mind Management For You, has revealed that in her private practice in Lichfield she regularly sees the reality of this.

Teachers make a difference by believing and investing in pupils.

Sheila said: “We all know that anybody can make a difference, but I don’t think that teachers realise the immense and positive impact that they have on so many lives.

“I give a lot of talks in schools, and I share with the teachers in those schools a common thing that happens in my private practice.

“I will often ask adults: ‘Who were your role models when you were younger?’ and many say that it was a teacher.

“It was that teacher that saw past their disruptive behaviour. It was that teacher that took the time to listen to them and believed in them.”

“One of the best gifts is to listen to somebody who might just need to be heard,” – mental health counsellor Sheila McMahon.

Sheila, who is also a comedienne and her mental health comedy shows are always a sell-out, added:

“For me it was actually the lollipop man, I remember going to school and he was so pleased to see me. He had a big smile on his face, and he took the time to talk to me and listen. I will never forget that, and I’ll be forever grateful.

“One of the best gifts we can give is our time and to give it someone unconditionally, and to listen to somebody who might just need to be heard.

“So, I thought it would be a fitting tribute to highlight to teachers – who like anyone can feel they’re underappreciated, that they shouldn’t underestimate the power that they have to make a difference and to be that positive, lifelong role model – and most certainly do year in year out.”