Stress is not bad. Life involves stress, and working from a brain-based or trauma-sensitive lens does not mean removing all stressors. In fact, our stress response gives us the cortisol and adrenaline we need for navigating daily life. The little bit of oomph provided by those get-stuff-done chemicals is much-needed! Living with chronic or toxic […]

A Parent’s Guide to Tiger Moments Angry outbursts can do serious harm. Hitting, breaking a sibling’s toy, yelling at the teacher…these behaviors do more than just hurt people in the moment. Explosive behavior can cause lasting damage in relationships and perpetuate even more feelings of anger (and shame). So it makes sense that parents, teachers, […]

Students learn better when their brains are not clouded by worries. Our minds can’t attend to very many things at once. When kids are preoccupied by tough stuff happening outside of school, friend struggles, or other worries, there’s not much room for math facts and grammar lessons. That’s a topic I explore in the first […]

How learning about sensory processing changed… everything. My brilliant little 4-year-old son was asked to draw a house at preschool and burst into tears. Bursting into tears was a common occurrence for him, as was picky eating, complaining about jeans and shirt tags, banging into things, difficulty transitioning from one task to the next, slouching […]