I’m grateful that we’re getting concrete teaching and collaborative strategies because I have known and felt that student behavior is not personal, I just haven’t known how to put everything into words for teachers. We have so many “behavior coaches” in our district that at times it can feel disheartening as a school-based mental health therapist because educators will say, “This is a behavior problem, not a mental health issue to be addressed.” Which I know doesn’t make sense, but it’s what they have truly believed. I view behaviors as a form of communication of an unmet or met need. Being able to show these handouts, talk about the neuroscience, and even allow educators to feel the difficulty of working through activation and stress is already feeling like a huge win.
