Join me at the Colorado Association of School Counselors in Keystone, CO.

Safety and belonging in school are vital. Many things can contribute to students experiencing school as unsafe and being easily triggered, creating confusion and frustration. It can be challenging to recognize how safety and belonging are impacting behaviors in the moment. Safety and belonging must be felt, it is an embodied experience. We can’t talk someone into feeling safe, they must feel a neuroception of safety in their bodies. Understanding and FEELING why environments might be activating, can be a catalyst for better understanding students, and ways you can support those who are struggling. We can learn to understand cues of safety and threat. Furthermore, when we learn to embody regulatory practices, then, we are able to co-regulate students even in the midst of feeling unsafe. This grows windows of tolerance, which shifts students’ perceptions about their ability to handle their experiences, while in the classroom.