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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. -
Discover the missing pieces in working with daily challenges in teaching and learning with our unique approach!
Early bird registration is now open! Use code “2026EarlyBird” to save $40 USD when you register by December 15th.
Registration Deadline is February 1, 2026, 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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It is time to integrate the valuable insights and trauma-informed, community responsive approaches with the laws and mandates governing behavioral health. First, we will clarify the alphabet soup of educational acronyms as we examine the hierarchy of laws and rights that guide our work in implementing behavioral health in education while ensuring compliance with special education regulations. Next, we will discuss the importance of federal rights and how they are applied specifically in the state of Colorado, including a comparison of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and Section 504 plans to highlight educators' responsibilities in each case. We will also explore pathways to support and success by learning about the Child Find process, with a focus on the obligations of educators. Additionally, we will explore the intersection of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) and special education identification, as well as some criteria that determine a student’s eligibility for special education services. Join us to learn how to stay compliant without losing the heart of education! -
Time to move from skill-building to cultivating environments that promote individual and collective growth, so each student has the space to flourish. By utilizing trauma and community responsive approaches coupled with neurotype-responsive practices, we will explore how the design of classroom spaces, daily routines, and relationships can actively promote success for every learner. Participants will engage with frameworks that encourage intentional decision-making, reduce power struggles, and enhance emotional safety. Together, we will explore class wide frameworks that help students access "doses of regulation" throughout the day, anchoring their learning in self-awareness and self-advocacy. We will explore the question, “What does a regulatory environment look like?” to understand how such an environment feels, functions, and transforms interactions. Join this deep dive into really understanding what regulation is and isn't! -
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. -
Join us for this 2-hour course as we explore how Safety and Belonging Start with the Brain! A felt sense of safety and belonging isn’t just nice to have—it’s essential for learning. While educators pour energy into creating welcoming spaces, students’ brains don’t always interpret experiences in those environments as safe. Fear-based behaviors can emerge even in classrooms that look warm and inviting. As school-based or clinical mental health professionals, we have a unique opportunity to bridge that gap. By helping educators understand how the brain perceives safety and threat, we can shift their approach and profoundly impact students' sense of security and connection. This course offers practical insights grounded in brain science to support student mental health and help every learner feel seen, safe, and ready to engage. What You'll Learn: ✔️How to create emotionally safe brain-aligned spaces that help students move through dysregulation and back to connection. ✔️Strategies to build trust and belonging within classrooms and across school communities, creating a foundation for thriving relationships. ✔️Tools to shift mindsets – empowering students and educators to approach challenges with curiosity instead of fear, promoting resilience and growth. Who Should Attend? This training is designed for school-based and clinical mental health professionals who support educators and students. Whether you work directly in schools or in private practice, you’ll leave with insights and tools you can use immediately to help educators bridge the gap between creating welcoming environments and cultivating felt safety and a sense of belonging. 💡 Join us and learn how to foster felt safety and belonging for both students and educators. -
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.
