Sonny

In my role with the Wellbeing Team at Elisabeth Murdoch College, I spend lots of time with the students, staff and wider College community.  Through my ongoing therapy dog training with K9 Support, I have been thoroughly temperament tested and exposed to a range of experiences.

My role as ‘Chief Happiness Officer’ is to provide support in the following areas:

• Confidence and independence
• Empathy to new situations
• Emotional understanding
• Social relationships
• Tactile perception
• Reduce stress and anxiety
• Environmental understanding
• Self esteem
• Increase social interactions and motivations
• Improve mood
• Reduce aggression
• Support engagement

Put simply, I have a natural ability to refocus students who may be feeling upset for a variety of reasons.  My role is to try to help calm students down and have a positive impact on their emotions. Sometimes, just my presence can divert attention away from what is causing the stress and/or anxiety for a student (Leaser 2005).  This contributes to the opportunity for better educational outcomes, as I can help lower individual stress levels, as well as overall stress levels in classrooms, to promote to an enhanced learning experience. 

My desk is in the Wellbeing Office, and they’re a really busy team, because the health and wellbeing of EMC students is their priority.  Plus, the Wellbeing Team are the best at making sure I'm being looked after too.  Sometimes that means I’m working hard with them, out in the yard making friends, greeting everyone as they arrive for school, helping on bus duty after school; or sometimes in assemblies, classrooms or working one on one with students in diverse ways.  They also make sure I get rest breaks, because this job can be demanding.  At any time though, you can keep up to date with what I’m doing by following me on social media (I’m on Instagram: @sonny_emc).