This training provides practical information for K-12 teachers about trauma, the brain, and social emotional learning.


Young people learn when they feel safe and cared for, but perhaps the kind of supportive relationships you dreamed of when you entered the profession as an educator, inspired by the idea of shaping and molding young lives, seems a far-off reality given the degree of trauma – childhood, intergenerational and community – that your students bring to the classroom.

In this course, we will look at the impact of toxic stress and trauma on both the teacher and the student. Did you know that trauma or trauma reminders cause the higher – thinking and emotional – brain to be hijacked by our fear-driven survival brain? Learning and memory go out the window. Emotional connection between educator and child evaporates in frustration and is often replaced with anger or withdrawal.

This easy-to-follow, 6-part interactive course includes modules on on how to recognize trauma responses, how to model emotional regulation skills, and classroom strategies for creating an emotionally safe environment in which to learn. It’s not about whether you should develop a trauma-informed practice but how you could navigate our current world without it.