The video-conferencing platform Zoom has all but replaced in-person presentations and talks. From classes to concerts, Zoom reigns king. Now, mental health advice has gone digital. Over the past two weeks, students, parents, and faculty had an opportunity to join Zoom presentations given by Lynn Lyons, Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW), psychotherapist, and author.

On May 19 and May 20, Lyons spoke to an audience of nearly 70 people via a Zoom call from her home in New Hampshire. Her talk, titled, “Parenting Through a Pandemic: The Do’s and Don’ts of Being Stuck in the House,” focused on what parents can do to support their children during the current pandemic and general parenting best practices. Three after-school time slots were also offered to faculty to hear Lyons speak.

Lyons’ May 19 event was for the parents of Lower School students, and the May 20 event was targeted at parents of Middle and Upper School students.On May 18 Lyons hosted an additional talk called “Senior Sadness: When FOMO [fear of missing out] turned to MO [missing out],” open to seniors and their families. All of Lyons’ events were also recorded to be shared with those unable to attend Lyons’ live presentation. 

Senior Jared Saef attended Lyons’ senior event. Saef said that he enjoyed Lyons’ talk and appreciated the information she had to share. “One thing I took away was to be adaptive. She spoke about how it’s a certainty right now that we’re not going to fulfill our senior events and whatnot. And I’ve come to terms with that,” Saef said. 

Saef said that Lyons’ talk also inspired him to be more productive during his time at home. “Another important takeaway I got from her talk was making the best out of our current situation,” Saef said. “So she said to us, if you were to look back in 40 years at your time during this quarantine, could you think of three things that you accomplished? You know, could you come out of that knowing that you bettered yourself and were productive? And so that encouraged me.”

According to Saef, there were only about 25 people on the Zoom call, most of which were parents — the vast majority of the senior class did not attend. Saef attributes this to inattention to communications. “Seniors are so burnt out that so many of us are just ignoring our emails,” Saef said. “They just skipped over it, but I’m sure if it was more mandatory, more seniors would have been there.”

Parker parent Sasha Earle, who has children in Middle and Upper School, attended both of Lyons’ events with her husband. Earle decided to attend Lyons’ Zoom event after enjoying Lyons’ talk at Parker in January. Earle felt that the Zoom format, while unfamiliar, felt “oddly intimate for the situation,” she said. “I just chose to look at her screen, I wasn’t looking at the gallery of other viewers, but I appreciated knowing that we were all there together. I felt like it was a good format.”

Earle said that the Zoom presentation was “maybe geared towards older kids,” though she was still able to take away information that pertained to her child in Middle School. “I think most of the questions seemed to come from maybe families with older kids. So maybe that guided the conversation,” Earle said. “A lot of what she said is something to apply to middle schoolers, but I felt like it was sort of more of an older-kid presentation.”

Lower and Intermediate School Counselor and Middle School parent Dr. Kaela Rowe was one of the Parker faculty that joined Lyons’ talks. Rowe says that she has known Lyons for a number of years, even before Lyons visited Parker, and has been using information from her frequently. “Maybe it’s because I’m a school counselor, but I’m very interested in solutions and coping … The reason that I really like Lynne is that she is on that same page,” Rowe said. “No matter what issues come up, her advice is practical.”

Rowe also appreciates the connection Parker has with Lyons, and feels that she has the experience and knowledge to inform and connect with the community. “She’s so straightforward. And she’s not wishy-washy,” Rowe said. “She doesn’t use a lot of psychologist-speak. She doesn’t try to show off how smart she is. She just has solid ideas that I think make a lot of sense to people.”

In the past two years Lyons has visited Parker in-person multiple times. Previously, Lyons spoke at events to a variety of audiences, including to faculty and staff, seniors and their families, lower school parents, and at a joint event with middle and upper school parents.

Lyons first came to Parker in June of last year to work with the administration. Upper School Head Justin Brandon says that the Parker administration heard Lyons speak at an independent schools conference, and felt that she had information and knowledge to offer to Parker. The idea to have Lyons speak to the Parker community virtually came up during an administration team-meeting shortly after the beginning of remote learning in March.

Brandon said that the administration felt it would be beneficial to have Lyons speak to the Parker community during remote learning. “We’re in this unprecedented pandemic, we felt it was important to bring Dr. Lyons back to the community,” Brandon said. “We know that there was a really warm reception for her from faculty and parents. We thought given her expertise, and talking about anxiety, that this definitely was something that we could do to support faculty and parents and students during this very challenging time.”

Brandon says that while there are currently no plans for Lyons to speak directly to students, it may happen in the future. “That’s the one group that really hasn’t seen her fully. I think we can probably create a space for that,” Brandon said.