Trauma-Informed and Health-Sensitive Education
Beyond the Diagnosis: Seeing the Learner, Not the Label
Challenges educators to go beyond medical charts and behavioral profiles to see the whole child. Advocates for personalized learning that honors dignity, identity, and possibility over pathology. Frames empathy as a foundational pedagogical skill.
The Silent Classroom: Recognizing the Hidden Signs of Trauma
Equips teachers to detect subtle, non-verbal indicators of trauma—withdrawal, perfectionism, aggression, or dissociation. Emphasizes observation, curiosity, and trust-building over discipline or diagnosis. Helps educators listen to what isn’t said.
Not Lazy, Just Tired: Understanding Fatigue, Brain Fog, and Chronic Pain in Students
Unpacks how invisible conditions like autoimmune diseases or long COVID affect energy, memory, and focus. Offers flexible pacing, multiple formats, and alternative assessments to support participation. Reframes "effort" through a lens of health.
Healing-Centered Education: Beyond Trauma Response to Strength Building
Introduces a strength-based approach to trauma education that focuses not just on harm, but also on recovery, joy, and resilience. Emphasizes student agency, cultural healing, and holistic growth.
When Grief Comes to Class: Educating Through Loss
Provides tools for supporting students dealing with the death of a loved one, divorce, or major life transition. Encourages grief-sensitive routines, peer support, and optional sharing. Reminds schools to be havens for heartache, not just homework.
Regulate Before You Educate: The Neuroscience of Safety in Learning
Explores how trauma disrupts brain function and what it takes to restore focus, curiosity, and memory. Advocates for co-regulation techniques, calming environments, and predictable rhythms. Frames learning as biologically impossible without emotional safety.
Flexible Rigor: How to Set High Standards Without Re-Traumatizing Students
Argues that trauma-informed education doesn’t mean lowering expectations. Offers models for maintaining academic challenge while offering choice, voice, and support. Encourages empowerment over pressure.
Mental Health First Aid for Educators
Outlines basic skills every teacher should know to recognize, respond to, and refer students in emotional distress. Covers suicide prevention, anxiety de-escalation, and stigma-free conversations. Advocates for training as standard—not optional.
School as Sanctuary: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms
Shares practical strategies for building spaces of calm, trust, and containment. Includes morning circles, sensory zones, mindfulness routines, and trauma-sensitive language. Frames safety as a shared classroom contract.
Chronic Illness Is Not Inconsistency
Challenges assumptions about students with irregular attendance or unpredictable symptoms. Encourages understanding, scaffolding, and maintaining connection. Reminds educators that resilience can coexist with medical fragility.
The Power of Predictability: Routines That Soothe
Explores how consistent structures—classroom layout, daily rituals, teacher responses—help trauma-affected learners relax enough to engage. Offers practical models and checklists for building rhythm and reliability.
Teacher, Not Therapist—But Also Not Bystander
Clarifies the educator's role in trauma support: not to diagnose or counsel, but to care, refer, and humanize. Explores healthy boundaries, team partnerships, and when to involve professionals. Reminds teachers they are part of a larger circle of care.
Post-Traumatic Growth: Learning Through Recovery
Highlights stories of students who used learning as a path to reclaim power, meaning, and hope after trauma. Encourages narrative practices, creative expression, and agency as healing tools. Frames education as a site of rebirth.
Creating Calm Corners and Regulation Zones
Offers step-by-step guidance for building quiet spaces where students can self-regulate, pause, or reset. Includes design ideas, behavior agreements, and monitoring techniques. Normalizes emotional rest as part of learning.
Invisible Wounds: Supporting Students with Medical PTSD
Examines trauma responses in students who’ve undergone surgeries, treatments, or extended hospitalizations. Provides insight into medical anxiety, distrust of authority, and academic gaps. Encourages reentry plans rooted in compassion.
Illness, Shame, and Stigma: Breaking the Silence in Schools
Addresses the isolation and embarrassment students may feel about chronic conditions, mental health, or medication. Promotes open dialogue, role models, and destigmatization strategies. Creates culture change through honesty.
Rewriting the Report Card: Assessing Progress in Health-Affected Learners
Challenges traditional grading systems that punish absence, mood shifts, or unfinished work due to health issues. Proposes portfolio-based, narrative, and mastery assessment alternatives. Re-centers evaluation on growth, not gaps.
Educating While Healing: Supporting Students in Recovery Programs
Explores how to accommodate students in substance abuse or psychiatric recovery. Discusses confidentiality, reintegration, and balancing trust with accountability. Offers hope-centered education for complex healing journeys.
From Panic to Participation: Supporting Students with Anxiety Disorders
Demystifies classroom anxiety triggers and how to defuse them. Offers practices like private cues, opt-in participation, alternative deadlines, and sensory accommodations. Creates a culture of safety without avoidance.
Collaborating with Caregivers: A Circle of Support
Highlights the importance of including families, doctors, and therapists in creating education plans. Provides communication tips, shared goal-setting, and coordinated care models. Treats learning as a shared mission, not a solo job.
Trauma Is a Community Issue: Why Whole-School Training Matters
Argues that trauma-sensitive education cannot rest on a few empathetic teachers. Advocates for system-wide understanding, policy revision, and shared language. Positions trauma-informed education as a culture, not a strategy.