The psychologist as a trainer to promote teachers wellbeing at school: the MEforYOU experience in the Tuscany Region (Italy)

The evidence-based program “MEforYOU: Taking care of ME to take care of YOU. The well-being of the teacher to promote the well-being at school", proposed in the Tuscany Region, provides a training course structured as an “emotional and relational gym” for teachers, working on their social/emotional competencies. The training course is organized with short moments of theorical knowledge (“pills”) and, mainly, with practical laboratories and experiences of attention and care to others, focusing on the teacher both as a professional and as a person. The program has three progressive levels of training for in-service mixed group of teachers from different grades of school. The psychologist encourages teachers to work both individually and in groups and offers individual or team psychological supervision meetings. 550 teachers participated as an experimental group (in the three levels) and 250 as a control group to evaluate the effectiveness of MEforYOU program, over 2200 students were involved to evaluate the indirect effects of the program. The results show that in the teachers of the experimental group, personal well-being, personal emotional self-efficacy, selfefficacy as an emotional socializer, and the use of a coaching style towards students' emotions increased. The results allow us to reflect on the role of the psychologist as a trainer who works to the support and care of teachers, encouraging the promotion of relational well-being in the educational context.