Award-winning podcast Teaching through Emotions is marking World Mental Health Day today with a series of special releases.
These specials highlight the mental health challenges facing teachers and students. Created by psychotherapist and teacher educator Betsy Burris, the show, which won the 2025 Women Who Podcast Award, explores the emotional realities of education through an honest and human lens.
Today, 10 October, Burris is publishing a free Substack post examining the post-COVID classroom and the emotional strain on both educators and pupils.
Written from a psychodynamic perspective, the piece looks at how difficult feelings can be understood as meaningful and valuable, rather than problems to be suppressed.
“Teachers’ mental health is often treated as invisible, secondary to student wellbeing,” says Burris. “But the truth is, the two can’t be separated. When teachers are supported, students thrive. On World Mental Health Day, we want to honour both sides of that relationship.”
Alongside the Substack essay, a bonus podcast episode will be available to paid subscribers, featuring a teacher named Stella who shares a powerful personal account of how poor school management can impact mental health.
Co-host Joe Johnson said: “World Mental Health Day is about community. For us, that means giving teachers a voice, a place to be honest about their struggles, and a way to recharge.”
Listeners are also encouraged to gift subscriptions to Teaching through Emotions on Substack, offering access to over 150 reflective posts, exclusive bonus episodes, and discounts on Burris’s book The Feeling of Teaching.
The podcast is available on all major platforms, with premium content at www.teachingthroughemotions.com/subscribe.
