[cindy weis]

in reply to: Section 1 Post Due 9/12/22 #1244

Hi, I am an elementary school counselor with students in Preschool to 5th grade. I started my path in learning about the brain state/stress response only just about 5 years ago and am still amazed that I did not have any classes on any of this in graduate school. I am also amazed that teachers are not having at least a guest speaker come into one of their classes in college to talk about this.

As a school district, we started our journey on trauma-informed practices about 6 months before COVID hit. We were all struggling with behaviors in school and some teachers were better than others at handling the behaviors. We started researching and turned our attention to the research on being trauma-informed. It all made sense at least to me. I started reading and listening to everything I could get my hands on and then when COVID hit and we shut down we found some free online training that everyone could do (Star Commonwealth) and we had ALOT of staff say “WE NEED TO KNOW MORE”. We also had teachers just take the training and skim through it and not take it seriously also. As elementary schools, we implemented Morning Circles every day and we also put Calm Corners/Zen Dens in every class to help students connect and regulate when they came back.

I believe that those of us that look at behaviors through the brain state/stress response lens have more compassion and do not take the behaviors personally. It is still hard though to not go back to thinking that this kid just needs to be disciplined and learn how to behave. I know personally, that it has helped me be calmer and look at how I can help this student more and how to help the teacher see that the connection is needed. I have had to learn new ways to explain this to some teachers because like Janet, some teachers look at me and think that I am just that hippie-counselor that just wants to give every kid a hug. Some teachers just need to vent and say what they think and what they think should be done. Again, that is their stress response and we have to be compassionate with all of our staff because what they are doing is extremely hard and when you add a few students in each classroom having behaviors, they are dysregulated as well.

[cindy weis]

in reply to: Section 1 Post Due 9/12/22 #1243

Janet, wow you have a lot of relationships to manage. I love that you have to remind yourself to stay in a non-judgemental state because I find myself doing that a lot also. It is so hard to watch a student struggle with an adult who can’t see the connection that the student is so desperately wanted but just doesn’t know how to achieve and uses those maladaptive behaviors to seek that connection. You are doing awesome work and just keep making those small roads in a little at a time.

[cindy weis]

in reply to: Introduction #1242

Hi, I am Cindy Weis and I am an elementary school counselor. I work with preschool-age to 5th-grade students. This is my 14th year as a school counselor. Before that, I worked with Head Start as a Family Resource Coordinator for 5 years. I have my SB-RPT credentials and I am currently working on my LPC. I love working with students and being a school counselor, I have the advantage of working with students for up to six years and I get the pleasure of seeing them grow up and I get to know their parents throughout their years. I have taken a few trainings in Trauma-Informed Practices and I conduct a book study for our school district over the Book “Help for Billy” which helps teachers to start using the lens of trauma-informed practices that help them in their classrooms and their students.

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