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When strategies that have always worked in the past, are not working, it’s frustrating! In fact, sometimes our responses even seem to make the situation worse. What’s going on? When we learn to identify brain and body states it facilitates using the right strategy at the right time, including understanding why something might work in one moment and not another. When students aren’t in the higher regions of their brains, some strategies meant to support them, actually create escalation. Learn critical classroom strategies that work with students during varying states of arousal, expanding windows of tolerance and getting students back to places of learning. Strengthen your ability to help students grow their capacity for dealing with stress and challenges in and out of the classroom as you support creating new options for behavior. -
It can be frustrating when we teach students certain skills, and they don't seem to use them. This is especially true when it comes to behavior, and it's easy to assume that students are intentionally being defiant. However, what if we told you that much of the social-emotional learning programming and teaching lacks important components? These missing pieces make it difficult for students to use strategies independently. The good news is that we can incorporate these vital elements by making only small shifts to daily routines! Learn a framework for using whole-brain approaches that includes teaching specific skills and developing capacities that result in students being able to determine and apply strategies that work for them. We can provide students with the tools they need to succeed both academically and socially, by scaffolding the development of the skills they need to take responsibility for their own behaviors. -
Discover the true importance of regulation and how it's often misunderstood. Don't let regulation be just another buzzword in your vocabulary. Join Judy to explore how regulation and dysregulation cycles affect students and adults throughout the day. Learn how finding moments of regulation in the midst of dysregulation can be a powerful tool in improving your well-being and shifting students’ behaviors. By gaining a deeper understanding of how dysregulation is a natural part of everyday life, we can recognize important clues for supporting students in becoming aware of their own activation and learning effective strategies through challenging moments. Apply this understanding to class-wide activation. Viewing the class as a collective nervous system gives you the ability to support entire groups of students at the same time, without burning out your own nervous system. Empower yourself and your students! -
Safety and belonging start with the brain! Creating a safe and welcoming environment is the foundation of classroom culture and community and is crucial for academic success and overall well-being. We spend so much time creating beautiful classrooms, however, providing students with a sense of security can be challenging if we don't understand how the brain perceives safety and threats. You cannot talk someone into feeling safe. Learn to use approaches that foster a sense of safety, nurture trust and belonging, and support students in approaching challenges with curiosity instead of fear as they learn that they can manage to do things that are difficult. -
Even highly skilled educators need help to be effective when students are not ready to learn. Stress and anxiety influence daily school life academically and behaviorally, as these impact processing capabilities in the brain, creating dysregulation… And, dysregulation is contagious, growing from one to two students to entire classrooms. You can see the problem if what we’ve been trained to do is ignore certain behaviors. Neuroscience can help us understand what is happening for educators and students in moments of dysregulation and help us learn to recognize when students are not in brain or body states conducive to learning. This is the first step in understanding how to prepare brains and bodies to learn by providing clues about what is needed and what support will move students back to a place of learning. -
This is a therapist-designed course that assists teachers, early-childhood educators, and caregivers in learning how to support the nurturing of social-emotional development in a group and classroom setting. Looking for a fresh explanation on why children feel and act the way they do? Curious about the relationship between brain development and perception? Want to know how the nervous system lives up to its name? Learn this and more! Scroll down for course details and objectives. -
LEARN A SOLID PLAY THERAPY THEORY THAT COMBINES THE POWER OF PLAY WITH INTERPERSONAL NEUROBIOLOGY!
**For program details and dates of when this program is offered, please visit the Synergetic Play Therapy Institute's website**
CLICK HERE FOR MORE PROGRAM DETAILS!!
Have you been searching for ways to create a deeper impact for your clients? Or perhaps you are wanting to improve or learn more about ...- Becoming an external regulator to support children with integration and repatterning the activation of their nervous system.
- Supporting healing at deeper levels through right brain to right brain attuned communication.
- Teaching children interoceptive (body) awareness (...the key ingredient for self-regulation and co-regulation).
- Creating a neuroception of safety for a child when emotional flooding happens.
- Setting boundaries with the brain in mind to not minimize, shame or shut down the child's play, but keep them engaged in their therapy process.
- Building collaborative relationships with caregivers to support their child's therapeutic process.
- Developing goals, tracking a child's therapeutic process, and translating what's happening during the child's therapy session to their caregiver(s) and others in the world.
- Helping children develop a secure attachment to themselves (...a foundation of resilience).
- Applying SPT concepts from a cultural lens for a more inclusive and culturally sensitive clinical orientation where a client's unique experiences and needs are honored.
- How to feel a little more like YOU in the therapy process (...because we know inauthenticity is the fastest way to burnout and compassion fatigue).
Come discover what showing up in the playroom truly means and explore what is happening in the play therapy process, how change occurs, and ultimately what it takes to help children heal at profound levels. And the best part is, you get to be you on the journey!
Check out what past students had to say about their experiences in the course!
"SPT is the missing piece in play therapy. I gained an understanding of who I am in the playroom - a humanness that wasn't there before." -Frances Donohue
Join the growing number of mental health professionals, those in related roles (Child Life Specialists, School Counselors, Occupational Therapists, Coaches, etc.) and parents/caregivers who are learning SPT!
*For program details and objectives, see below.
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This Free Webinar was recorded on August 10th, 2022 and is for educators or anyone that works in schools. Stress and anxiety are impacting everyone, making teaching and learning very challenging. To support a healthy learning environment for all of us, we must address our own stress and anxiety first. None of us can be effective when our brains and bodies are overwhelmed. Neuroscience can help us understand what is happening in moments of dysregulation. More importantly, it can guide us in moving through the stress and keeping ourselves healthy. Why does this matter? When we make choices instead of simply reacting, we decrease the likelihood of behaviors escalating for both us and our students! Scroll below for details. -
This Free Webinar was recorded on May 10th, 2023 and is for all professionals working with students! As professionals working with students, it's been a long year. Many of us have spent much of it trying to make sense of students' behaviors Maybe even feeling helpless, or angry, not knowing exactly what to do next. We understand your dilemma and don't want you to spend the summer and next year, asking the same questions. Register for this free webinar to explore how behaviors, even those we don't love, can provide a roadmap explaining what's going on AND what we can do about it. If you're asking, “but what if the behavior is disrupting learning for other students?” Great question! We’ll chat about that too. Scroll below for details. -
Educators and school professionals this free webinar is for you!
Did you used to believe that being a teacher would be easy and that you’d get lots of time off? 🤣 Working in schools has become even more challenging. Daily stressors, big and small, impact your nervous systems. It’s easy to lose yourself in these moments. When this happens, you carry this heightened state to your next interaction, compounding the stress. By the end of the day, you’re exhausted, and your nervous system is ready to explode or shut down! Then, couple this with our expectations versus the realities of working in schools, and we have the perfect storm fostering feelings of overwhelm, helplessness, and frustration. Explore these and other dynamics impacting your daily functioning and behaviors. Walk away with an understanding that will move you from reacting in the moment, to responding in ways that support your well-being, so you can reclaim our inspiration for teaching.How is this content different?
Our work at the Synergetic Education Institute is about empowering students AND adults. It shouldn’t be a zero sum game. The well-being of your students doesn’t have to be at your expense. *This Free Webinar was recorded on October 16th 2024. -
This Free Webinar was recorded on August 10th, 2023 and is for all educators and professionals working with students! Providing students with a sense of security can be challenging without understanding how the brain perceives safety and threat ...- Have you spent hours trying to create a warm environment, yet still find your students wanting to leave the classroom?
- Do you have good relationships with your students, yet still have some responding to you negatively?
- Have you had students seemingly "lose it" over what appear to be small issues?
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Educators and school professionals this free webinar is for you!
You’re committed to teaching SEL, but are you noticing that students are not applying what they learn? It’s not just you—this is a common challenge that educators face. The good news? There are specific, actionable changes you can make to ensure your SEL lessons lead to lasting behavioral change in your students. Enjoy this free webinar and discover what your current SEL program might be missing and how to fix it. Explore how to integrate these vital pieces into what you’re already doing. During this webinar, you’ll learn:- The missing pieces in most SEL programs
- How to help students internalize and use SEL skills independently
- Simple strategies you can incorporate into your existing curriculum
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Whether you are working with schools or consulting on behalf of your clients, this free webinar is for you!
What to expect: Explore a Developmental Framework: Learn how to meet educators where they are, paving the way for meaningful connections! Keys to Impactful Collaborating: Implement essential strategies such as talking about stress rather than trauma, focusing on whole classrooms rather than individuals, and much more!Don't miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights that can transform your work with schools and educators!
*This Free Webinar was recorded on May 8, 2024. -
This Free Webinar was recorded on January 12th, 2023 and is for educators and school professionals! Without the ability to self-regulate, students can't apply other SEL skills or shift their behaviors. Explicit teaching isn't enough. Students need bottom up co-regulatory experiences to learn to self-regulate. Doing this effectively isn't easy and takes practice This free 1 hour webinar will teach you the process for helping students borrow your regulatory capacity as they develop their own. Learn tools that support you in embodying regulation as you teach students and classrooms to regulate through challenges. And the best part is, what you learn can be applied one-on-one, in groups, or with the whole classroom. Scroll below for details. -
This Free Webinar was recorded on April 18th, 2024 and is for all educators and professionals working with students! Are you tired of feeling like you're constantly hitting a wall when it comes to behavior change? ... You're not alone. Many of us who work in schools find ourselves in a cycle of frustration, trying to stop student behaviors without seeing any real progress. But what if there's a different approach? In this free upcoming webinar, we'll explore a perspective that challenges traditional methods of behavior change and offers a path to real growth and transformation. During the webinar, you'll learn:- The surprising reason why focusing solely on stopping behaviors can backfire
- The key components missing from traditional approaches to behavior change
- Practical tips and techniques for creating lasting change and fostering positive growth
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Discover the missing pieces in working with daily challenges in teaching and learning with our unique approach!
Registration Deadline is February 2, 2025, 12pm Mountain Time (Denver)
Are you finding that some students remain stuck in challenging behaviors despite your best efforts? Or perhaps you’re dedicated to fostering a classroom where every student can thrive but finding that traditional methods aren’t delivering the results you hoped for …. Then join us for the Evolution of a Synergetic Educator program - it’s more than just a set of new tools! It’s about empowering you with a deep understanding of what’s occurring with your students and in your classrooms. Insight into the root causes and underlying dynamics inform our easy-to-use practical strategies for addressing today’s challenges. We'll empower you to step into being the educator you set out to be before the realities of teaching got in the way. By filling in the missing pieces that traditional approaches often overlook, you’ll be prepared to create lasting positive change in your classroom and your students’ lives, in ways that feel authentic and congruent for you. We'll guide you through the process, with science, practice, and application support; YOU choose what fits you and your students! Here’s What Sets Us Apart:- Addressing Root Causes, Not Just Symptoms: Traditional approaches to student behavior often miss the mark, sometimes even escalating situations. Our program teaches you how to recognize brain and body states that influence student behavior, allowing you to intervene with the right strategy at the right time.
- Creating Felt Safety and Belonging: Safety and belonging aren’t just about a welcoming environment—they start in the brain. Our program teaches you how to foster an atmosphere where you can help your students develop a felt sense of safety and belonging, leading to better self-regulation and a readiness to learn.
- Empower Students Through Regulation: Regulation is most effective when it’s integrated throughout the day, not just during scheduled brain breaks. We teach you how to guide students in understanding their own activation and behavior, helping them take responsibility for their behavior and regulation.
- Shifting Resistance into Readiness: Collaborating with colleagues can be challenging, especially when resistance to change is high. Our revolutionary Developmental Mindsets Paradigm™ offers strategies to shift resistance into readiness, creating a ripple effect that transforms school culture into one that prioritizes regulation, safety, and belonging for all.
- Bridging Gaps in Social-Emotional Learning (SEL): Traditional SEL programs often overlook critical elements like interoceptive awareness and the ability to adapt strategies to different environments. We teach you how to integrate these missing pieces, helping students use SEL skills independently and effectively.
- Transforming Student-Adult Relationships: Power struggles and miscommunication can derail student-adult interactions. Our program equips you with tools to navigate these complex dynamics, fostering trust, respect, and mutual understanding that lead to positive changes in your classroom and students’ lives.
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Discover the missing pieces in working with daily challenges in teaching and learning with our unique approach!
Registration Deadline is February 2, 2025, 12pm Mountain Time (Denver)
Are you finding that some students remain stuck in challenging behaviors despite your best efforts? Or perhaps you’re dedicated to fostering a classroom where every student can thrive but finding that traditional methods aren’t delivering the results you hoped for …. Then join us for the Evolution of a Synergetic Educator program - it’s more than just a set of new tools! It’s about empowering you with a deep understanding of what’s occurring with your students and in your classrooms. Insight into the root causes and underlying dynamics inform our easy-to-use practical strategies for addressing today’s challenges. We'll empower you to step into being the educator you set out to be before the realities of teaching got in the way. By filling in the missing pieces that traditional approaches often overlook, you’ll be prepared to create lasting positive change in your classroom and your students’ lives, in ways that feel authentic and congruent for you. We'll guide you through the process, with science, practice, and application support; YOU choose what fits you and your students! Here’s What Sets Us Apart:- Addressing Root Causes, Not Just Symptoms: Traditional approaches to student behavior often miss the mark, sometimes even escalating situations. Our program teaches you how to recognize brain and body states that influence student behavior, allowing you to intervene with the right strategy at the right time.
- Creating Felt Safety and Belonging: Safety and belonging aren’t just about a welcoming environment—they start in the brain. Our program teaches you how to foster an atmosphere where you can help your students develop a felt sense of safety and belonging, leading to better self-regulation and a readiness to learn.
- Empower Students Through Regulation: Regulation is most effective when it’s integrated throughout the day, not just during scheduled brain breaks. We teach you how to guide students in understanding their own activation and behavior, helping them take responsibility for their behavior and regulation.
- Shifting Resistance into Readiness: Collaborating with colleagues can be challenging, especially when resistance to change is high. Our revolutionary Developmental Mindsets Paradigm™ offers strategies to shift resistance into readiness, creating a ripple effect that transforms school culture into one that prioritizes regulation, safety, and belonging for all.
- Bridging Gaps in Social-Emotional Learning (SEL): Traditional SEL programs often overlook critical elements like interoceptive awareness and the ability to adapt strategies to different environments. We teach you how to integrate these missing pieces, helping students use SEL skills independently and effectively.
- Transforming Student-Adult Relationships: Power struggles and miscommunication can derail student-adult interactions. Our program equips you with tools to navigate these complex dynamics, fostering trust, respect, and mutual understanding that lead to positive changes in your classroom and students’ lives.
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Empowering Educators and Students: Strategies for Navigating the Realities and Thriving in Today’s Schools is a 5-part video series. You can watch them all (already selected, just add to cart for your discount) or CLICK HERE to explore and purchase them individually. Should you want to watch the entire series, we recommend viewing them in this order:- The Neurobiology of Preparing Brains and Bodies to Learn in the Classroom
- Creating a Felt Sense of Safety and Belonging in School Starts with the Brain
- The Classroom is a Nervous System: Working with Daily Regulation and Dysregulation Cycles
- The Process of Developing Self-regulation: Understanding the Missing Pieces
- Brain-aligned Strategies for Re-wiring Brains and Re-patterning Nervous Systems
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This 18-hour foundational course dives deeply into understanding the context in which learning is taking place. Neuroscience can help us understand what is happening for educators and students in moments of dysregulation, so teachers can learn how to support regulation for students and classrooms. You’ll learn to use brain and body state awareness to guide you in applying strategies and learn how to talk to others about the science behind the strategies you’re using. Exploring an embodied approach, we’ll focus on safety and belonging, along with promoting reflective self-awareness, all vital pieces in creating new options for behavior. Welcome, we are excited to share this journey with you. -
Use Early Bird Coupon Code “2024EarlyBird50” for $50 USD off until September 24th! Registration Deadline is November 4, 2024, 12pm MST
Are you a school-based mental health professional questioning how to truly support students struggling with challenging behaviors? Or maybe, you’re finding yourself stuck between educational demands and the real needs of your students? Or perhaps you’re trained in Synergetic Play Therapy and looking for ways to bring your SPT skills into schools or educational settings to make a deeper impact? A Synergetic Approach to Education is here to bridge that gap, offering you practical, neuroscience-backed strategies that are not just “another thing on your or others’ plates,” but tools to transform your approach to classroom regulation and student engagement. How Is This Different from Other Programs? Unlike traditional educational programs that often overlook the link between mental health and classroom dynamics, our approach integrates decades of experience working at the intersection of education and mental health. This isn’t just about adding new techniques—it’s about fundamentally reshaping how you understand and respond to student behaviors. You’ll learn to implement small but powerful shifts in daily routines that prepare brains and bodies to learn, helping educators see beyond surface-level behaviors to the neurophysiological states driving them. What Does This Have to Do with SPT? Rooted in Synergetic Play Therapy principles, this program extends the insights of SPT into the classroom, giving you what you need to empower educators to become external regulators who support students in real time. You’ll discover how to translate the SPT model’s emphasis on regulation, curiosity, and connection into practical strategies that fit naturally into classroom settings. Our unique lens helps educators see their own roles in student dynamics, fostering environments of safety, belonging, and co-regulation that elevate everyone. What Will You Learn That Makes Us Different?- Identify Missing Pieces in School Programs: Discover critical components often absent from current school approaches that keep students stuck in challenging behaviors and learn how to explicitly teach educators how to prepare brains and bodies to learn with “top-down” and “bottom-up” approaches.
- Model Classroom-Wide Regulation: Learn how to demonstrate regulation strategies that benefit all students and teachers, without adding extra workload.
- Understand Underlying Issues: Help educators recognize the deeper dynamics affecting classroom behaviors in ways that make sense to them, making their interventions more effective and sustainable.
- Tailor Supports to Educators' Realities: Establish practical approaches that account for differing student needs while ensuring educators can implement them seamlessly in their classrooms.
- Address Barriers with Curiosity: Tackle common challenges educators face and empower them to engage with these difficulties using a mindset of curiosity rather than resistance.
- Prepare Brains and Bodies to Learn: Gain tools to articulate the connection between neurophysiological states and behaviors, equipping educators to support students more effectively.
- Practical, Scalable Strategies: Implement classroom-wide regulation that supports every student and doesn’t feel like “one more thing.”
- Deeper Understanding of Behavior Dynamics: Uncover the root causes of challenging student behaviors and learn how to guide educators in addressing them.
- Empowerment to Transform Classrooms: Use the principles of SPT to create regulatory environments that allow for dynamic, individualized support.
- Collaboration and Connection: Model how to balance support and challenge, cultivating resilience in educators and students alike.
Program Prerequisites: This program requires that you have taken a Level 1 Introduction to Synergetic Play Therapy® program. This includes the completion of one of the following:- Online or In-Person Introduction to Synergetic Play Therapy® program
- Six-Day Synergetic Play Therapy® Intensive Training (no longer offered)
- Synergetic Play Therapy® Supplemental Course (no longer offered)
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Registration Deadline is November 4, 2024, 12pm MST
Are you a school-based mental health professional questioning how to truly support students struggling with challenging behaviors? Or maybe, you’re finding yourself stuck between educational demands and the real needs of your students? Or perhaps you’re trained in Synergetic Play Therapy and looking for ways to bring your SPT skills into schools or educational settings to make a deeper impact? A Synergetic Approach to Education is here to bridge that gap, offering you practical, neuroscience-backed strategies that are not just “another thing on your or others’ plates,” but tools to transform your approach to classroom regulation and student engagement. How Is This Different from Other Programs? Unlike traditional educational programs that often overlook the link between mental health and classroom dynamics, our approach integrates decades of experience working at the intersection of education and mental health. This isn’t just about adding new techniques—it’s about fundamentally reshaping how you understand and respond to student behaviors. You’ll learn to implement small but powerful shifts in daily routines that prepare brains and bodies to learn, helping educators see beyond surface-level behaviors to the neurophysiological states driving them. What Does This Have to Do with SPT? Rooted in Synergetic Play Therapy principles, this program extends the insights of SPT into the classroom, giving you what you need to empower educators to become external regulators who support students in real time. You’ll discover how to translate the SPT model’s emphasis on regulation, curiosity, and connection into practical strategies that fit naturally into classroom settings. Our unique lens helps educators see their own roles in student dynamics, fostering environments of safety, belonging, and co-regulation that elevate everyone. What Will You Learn That Makes Us Different?- Identify Missing Pieces in School Programs: Discover critical components often absent from current school approaches that keep students stuck in challenging behaviors and learn how to explicitly teach educators how to prepare brains and bodies to learn with “top-down” and “bottom-up” approaches.
- Model Classroom-Wide Regulation: Learn how to demonstrate regulation strategies that benefit all students and teachers, without adding extra workload.
- Understand Underlying Issues: Help educators recognize the deeper dynamics affecting classroom behaviors in ways that make sense to them, making their interventions more effective and sustainable.
- Tailor Supports to Educators' Realities: Establish practical approaches that account for differing student needs while ensuring educators can implement them seamlessly in their classrooms.
- Address Barriers with Curiosity: Tackle common challenges educators face and empower them to engage with these difficulties using a mindset of curiosity rather than resistance.
- Prepare Brains and Bodies to Learn: Gain tools to articulate the connection between neurophysiological states and behaviors, equipping educators to support students more effectively.
- Practical, Scalable Strategies: Implement classroom-wide regulation that supports every student and doesn’t feel like “one more thing.”
- Deeper Understanding of Behavior Dynamics: Uncover the root causes of challenging student behaviors and learn how to guide educators in addressing them.
- Empowerment to Transform Classrooms: Use the principles of SPT to create regulatory environments that allow for dynamic, individualized support.
- Collaboration and Connection: Model how to balance support and challenge, cultivating resilience in educators and students alike.
Program Prerequisites: This program requires that you have taken a Level 1 Introduction to Synergetic Play Therapy® program. This includes the completion of one of the following:- Online or In-Person Introduction to Synergetic Play Therapy® program
- Six-Day Synergetic Play Therapy® Intensive Training (no longer offered)
- Synergetic Play Therapy® Supplemental Course (no longer offered)