Spotted Zebra education consulting
Academic Strategies for Mental Health Symptoms
About
Spotted Zebra Education Consulting specialises in teaching, tutoring and coaching teens who are facing school performance difficulties due to Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD), Generalised Anxiety (GAD) disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Major Depressive Disorder, Bi-polar Depression disorder or Substance abuse disorders.
Though we are not clinicians, nor certified in therapeutic modalities, we do use modified strength based DBT & CBT approaches. It’s important to note that Spotted Zebra Consulting focuses solely on academic approaches and we do not provide psychiatric care.
How are you different from a tutoring service?
Our signature ASMHC approach is highly specialised. We target specific problematic mental health symptoms that limit or impede a teen’s academic learning or performance. Responding to the symptoms of mental health in relation to academic performance is very precise, nuanced and complex. It also requires coaches who deeply understand, and can be responsive to, the complexities of a youth who has a mental health disorder. Conventional tutoring services only assist with general learning skills and curriculum needs.
How are you different from a psychotherapy service?
We focus only on learning skills and school performance. We work with real-life classroom or homework scenarios. While we are inspired by the same therapeutic modalities psychotherapists might use, we are not focused on the ‘whole’ individual or their clinical diagnosis. Instead, we are targeting the distinct symptoms of mental health disorders that interfere with school performance. These symptoms can include many things including anxiety, avoidance, procrastination, perfectionism, inattention, cognitive distortions, or executive functioning difficulties. Our lens is not therapeutic. We concentrate on actions and results; and our reflections take place from a present or future-oriented focus.
Services offered
ONLINE MODULES / ACADEMIC SKILLS TRAINING
(coming soon)
The modules focus on academic strategies that target specific symptoms of mental health disorders that can seriously impact a youth’s learning experience and school performance. All modules involve a trauma-informed, strengths-based approach that adapts key techniques used in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behaviour therapy (DBT), mindfulness and meditation, breathing exercises, and exposure therapy (test anxiety).
While these are NOT therapeutic sessions, they are DBT & CBT-informed academic strategies that use some methods or structure of DBT or CBT.
THE EXCLUSIVE LEARNING INTENSIVE PROGRAM
(currently being offered)
This is a 1:1 intensive tutoring & skill development elite package for teens (in-person only). We provide In-the-moment strategy building during subject-specific tutoring sessions, catered to your youth’s particular mental health-academic struggles. The package includes:
* 12-16 weeks, 90 minute sessions, in your home (Toronto downtown only)
* Initial consultation / assessment 50 minute session
* Weekly email summary for parents, with resources.
* 1 hour Advocacy session with youth at the end of the 12-16 week period
** School Advocacy Consulting Package Extension: This consulting package includes demystifying psycho-educational assessments and IEP’s, working closely with parents to help them understand their child’s learning needs, meeting the school & co-creating a school plan for success that involves accommodations and modifications that your child is entitled to.HOMEWORK HUB
This is an "add-on" service
(currently being offered)
The Homework Hub is an add-on to the 1:1 consulting/tutoring service. All students who received, or who are receiving, 1:1 tutoring can attend this session for an additional fee. The students attend three of four Homework sessions every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday from 7:30-8:00 PM.
The Homework Hub takes place on-line, in a small group of up to 8 students who can use 'avatars' if they desire anonymity. Its purpose is to assist youth with establishing a pattern of consistent homework times and processes (Ie: getting started, ADHD paralysis, strategies to reduce overwhelm, etc). The Homework Hub upholds the effective strategy of “body doubling” (The body double’s job is to help anchor the person with ADHD to the present moment and task, reducing the risk of distraction). Each session will entail 1:1 break-out rooms for the purpose of academic calendar organisation & scaffolding.TEST ANXIETY BOOTCAMP
(coming soon)
Our 5-week Test Anxiety Bootcamp is facilitated LIVE by Lesley in a small group (up to 4 students) format similar to a class. Students meet for 1 hour, one time per week. The sessions target specific skills that will help the teen improve their test-taking performance. The Bootcamp includes the creation of a self-advocacy plan, empowering the youth to communicate and advocate for their learning needs at school. The sessions are structured by Spotted Zebra's unique Look, Know, Learn, Wonder & Respond™ template. Enrichment tasks, tracking sheets and PDF workbooks are provided for students to practise in between sessions. The purpose of the Bootcamp is to help students introduce effective and practical test-taking strategies that will mitigate the impact of their mental health symptoms on their academic performance.
* all modules 1:1 extension availablePOST-SECONDARY PLANNING
Have you faced challenges in making the transition from secondary school to post-secondary education? Or are you a mature student who does not have your high school diploma but you would like to know about your options that will allow you to still attend a post-secondary program? This is a two to six week session package that assists a client in exploring creative pathways to post-secondary options. Unlike other guidance consulting sessions, we believe that the youth needs to be involved in the process in order to fully buy into their academic planning. Depending on the individual’s needs, the sessions might include fostering a growth mindset to be open to creative solutions, setting realistic expectations, letting go of past beliefs of what it means to be successful (individual beliefs and possibly, family beliefs) and assistance in ‘taking action’ to contact schools (tours, student special services connections, etc.). If clients are experiencing significant anxiety, they might benefit from strategies related to exposure therapy (fear ladder) whereby we conduct our sessions at an academic institution in order to create a sense of routine, safety, readiness and belonging.
How do I know if I'm the right fit?
We target the symptoms of mental health challenges as they directly impact school performance. Can your teen relate to any of the following?
“My teachers don’t understand me: I don’t fit in to this education system,”
“I avoid (or procrastinate) writing tests or handing in big assignments.”
“When I write a test, my mind goes blank.”
"I have a negative voice in my head" or "I can't get out of my head."
“If homework is confusing, my mind starts spiralling into negative thoughts and it’s so stressful that I give up.”
“If I can’t make it perfect – then there’s no point in starting.”
“I got a 98% on my test. But I wanted 100%.”
“Sometimes I zone out in class, and I’m not aware of time passing.”
“Sometimes I feel like I’m living outside of my body. Like I can look down and see myself from above and it all feels like a dream.”
"As soon as something gets difficult and I'm feeling like I'm not understanding it, I start to panic. I can't breathe right. And then I can't think straight. And then I start to freak out."
"I know I should care. But I just don't care."
About
Lesley Cowan is the owner of Spotted Zebra, an Educational Coaching and Consulting company dedicated to Academic Strategies for teens with Mental Health Disorders.
For almost 3 decades, Lesley has taught hundreds of students facing academic challenges due to their mental health symptoms. That’s over 17,000 hours of direct instruction to youth in a 1:1 or small group capacity.
As a teacher with the Toronto District School Board, she’s collaborated on five multidisciplinary care teams consisting of teachers, adolescent medicine physicians and nurses, psychiatrists, child & youth counsellors and social workers to provide complex therapeutic and educational care to teenagers. This work included 10 years at The Hospital for Sick Kids, which is ranked the top paediatric hospital in the world by Newsweek in 2021. She is currently in her 6th year at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Canada's largest mental health and addiction teaching hospital. Here, she teaches youth affiliated with The Youth Addiction and Concurrent Disorders Service (YACDS), which services young people who have substance use challenges/concerns, with concurrent mental health concerns.
Lesley is also the author of 2 literary fiction novels, published by Penguin Books.
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