My Son’s Brain in School
A neuropsychologist said of my oldest son: “His brain is not organized the way the world wants it to be, so he has problems functioning. But he doesn’t have behavior problems. His brain doesn’t do those.” My youngest son also has a brain that doesn’t fit the world he lives in, but his brain does […]
Child Trafficking: How Teachers Can Help
Child trafficking: from victim to advocate In 2019, I found myself in front of an auditorium full of school staff members from 70 Colorado school districts, speaking at a training on how to identify child trafficking. Several years earlier, my therapist had told me, “One day, you will be addressing the systems that failed you. […]
Boys in School
A word about gender Before I talk about boys in school, let me start by acknowledging that gender is complicated. We learn more every day about its many complexities and intricacies. We know, for example, that gender exists on a continuum. Even if we oversimplify and separate people into “boys” and “girls” and the qualities […]
AAA Students–A Paradigm Shift
Don’t you mean an A student? Nope. My child is not an A student. My child is an AAA student: Amygdala Always in Action. If you are a parent reading this, I bet you have an AAA child too. And if you happen to be a teacher, you almost certainly have AAA students in your […]
Trauma-Informed Educators: Julie’s Reading List
As teachers and students head back to school, a flurry of inquiries has come into ATN about the “best” materials to help our schools create more trauma-informed educators. The Trauma-Sensitive School movement is still young, so in previous years I had a hard time answering that question, as no one had yet written most of […]
Protected: 2019 Back to School Webinar
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CTSS2019: A Packed House!
ATN’s Creating Trauma-Sensitive Schools Conference 2019 exceeded expectations in so many ways The program grew from just over 500 attendees last year to over 1200 educators this year from every state in the US and several countries around the world. Over 70 workshops were full (sometimes too full) and conference-goers could take advantage of 11 […]
2019 Touching Trauma at Its Heart Awards
Each year, ATN honors some of the best in trauma-informed care and awareness with our Touching Trauma at Its Heart Awards. The awards are given in three categories: School Award, Parent Award and Educator Award. This year’s Educator Award went to Dr. Mona Johnson who oversees the behavioral health of all students at all the […]
Live from #CTSS2019!
I don’t think this the most beautifully written post I’ve ever created. I do think it might be one of the most important. Here’s why. I am the most exhausted and energized I have been in a very long time! Exhausted because… I flew into Washington, DC, then spent nearly 2 hours getting from Dulles […]
ATN: The Power of Community
[N]ext week, I will speak for the second time at the Creating Trauma Sensitive Schools Conference, where my topic will be “Behavior through the Lens of Attachment, Trauma, and Dissociation.”