Join Ginger and Julie as they talk to Mathew Portell. Mathew has dedicated a decade and a half to education in his role as a teacher, instructional coach, teacher mentor, and school administrator before joining PACES Connection as the director of communities in March 2022. He spent seven years as principal of Fall-Hamilton Elementary, an internationally recognized innovative model school for trauma-informed practices in Metro Nashville Public Schools. Mathew is now back in the building as a principal and has written a book along with Ingrid Cockrhen, Julie Kirtz, Julie Nicholson, and Tyesha Noise entitled Reducing Stress in Schools.

Check out Mathew’s book: Reducing Stress in Schools: Restoring Connection and Community

Mathew gives the following advice: Don’t get caught up in the job and forget about the work. Get back to the basics and listen for what the fundamental truths are in trauma-informed educational environments.

Mathew tells us that “Kids can’t achieve academics if their social and emotional health needs aren’t met.”

He also says, “We have to base all our decisions on what we say and who we say we are. If we say we are student-focused and adult-supported, then the decision we make has to mirror that. It’s huge when developing a school culture that is looking to reduce stress. You gotta know who you are first, establish your identity as an individual school then document it. Create your core values and then as you make decisions align them with who you say you are.”

Be sure to view the "Every student Known" video.

In this episode Ginger and Julie talk to Dafna Lender who is an international trainer, EMDR therapist, and supervisor for practitioners who work with children and families. She is a certified trainer and supervisor/consultant in Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy and Theraplay. Dafna’s expertise is drawn from 25 years working with families with attachment issues in many settings. She is a leader in family therapy from an attachment perspective and is passionate about her work and regularly co-trains with Bessel van der Kolk, Peter Levine, Ed Tronick, and Dan Hughes. She is the author of Integrative Attachment Family Therapy and Theraplay: The Practitioner’s Guide.

https://www.dafnalender.com/

Listen in as Julie and Ginger talk with Dafna about therapeutic parenting, attachment, and more!

Listen in as Julie and Ginger talk to Ginger Lewman about Bullying.

Ginger Lewman is a national consultant & keynote speaker with ESSDACK, a non-profit education service center based in Hutchinson Kansas. She holds a Master of Science in Psychology and Special Education and Gifted Education, With 30 years in education, she inspires and helps all levels of educators figure out the hard hurdles for innovative teaching and learning.

Why do people bully? There are many reasons but Ginger boils it down to the messages we hear as kids and feeling a lack of safety, dignity and/or belonging.

Ginger encourages us to get upstream and gives great strategies and tools and states that these and other tools are best utilized in an environment steeped daily in the foundation of the science of trauma and resilience-building and utilizing restorative practices whenever conflict arises anywhere.

“Once we become unafraid of our own stories, we all become safer.” ~ Steve Halley

Resources:

www.stopbullying.gov

https://www.essdack.org/

Peaceful Schools and Families: https://www.essdack.org/psf

Favorite takeaways:

It is difficult work for someone who is hurt, for someone who has hurt other people to move toward conflict. They’ve got to listen to them and they can only do that if I feel safe.

When we’re talking about bringing people into circle toward conflict this is an opportunity for each person to examine what their role has been. It’s not just “you did it”, it’s “we are experiencing this and this is not good for any of us in our community, this isn’t about you just cleaning up what you did wrong”. It’s all of us.

In Episode 82, Ginger & Julie dig into Oxytocin. Oxytocin is often called the “love” or “cuddle” hormone.

High levels of oxytocin correlate with the speed of wound healing. Research is documenting the positive effects of oxytocin in treating many conditions including heart disease, schizophrenia, diabetes, and certain kinds of cancer.

For children who have experienced early adversities with attachment disorders and trauma-based impacts, increasing their oxytocin levels holds the promise of helping them emotionally, socially, relationally, and physically.

Besides physical touch and affection other things that increase oxytocin:

• Exercise
• Healthy Diet
• Vitamin D
• Music

The following additional resources were mentioned

Dr. Stephen Porges https://www.stephenporges.com/

Amelia and Emily Nagoski https://www.burnoutbook.net/about-the-authors

Dr. Louis Cozolino https://www.drloucozolino.com/

Drs. Dan Hughes and Jon Baylin -Brain-Based Parenting book- https://a.co/d/gUWRjQF

In this episode Julie and Ginger interview ATN’s dear friend, Dr. Melissa Sadin. Melissa teaches us about Hope Theory based on the work of Gwinn and Hellman and their book Hope Rising. You can check out Dr. Sadin’s books and work here: http://www.traumasensitive.com/, https://a.co/d/9x4lPtk.

What is the definition of hope? Hope is setting a goal that you desire, creating a pathway toward the goal, and utilizing the willpower necessary to achieve the goal through connection to another person.

Dr. Sadin further states that Hope Builds Resilience and Resilience Builds Hope. She tells us that through the following three-step process we can build hope and resilience in our children at home and students at school:

1. Set an achievable goal

2. Set the pathway -the WAYPOWER

3. Get a cheerleader- the WILLPOWER, who will help revise and check-in

Melissa teaches us that:

- Hope builds executive functioning capacity

- Students with high hope have better attendance than students with low hope

- Students with high hope have better academic outcomes than students with low hope- despite cognitive ability

- Students with hope are more likely to find success in career or college sooner than students with low hope

Listen in and join us in building hope!

In this Episode Julie and Ginger teach about the PolyVagal Theory and introduce us to Our PolyVagal World a new book by Dr. Stephen Porges and his son Seth Porges.

Link to the book: https://www.amazon.com/Our-Polyvagal-World-Safety-Trauma/dp/1324030259

How safe we feel is crucial to our physical and mental health and happiness.

When we feel safe our nervous system and entire body undergo a massive physiological shift that primes us to be healthier, happier, and smarter, to be better learners and problem solvers: to have more fun; to heal fast, and generally to feel more alive. It is in this safe state that we can learn.

When we feel safe we feel a sense of connection to ourselves and others. We are born wired to connect but when trauma enters the picture it rewires us and we feel disconnected from people, society, and our own bodies. The impact of trauma stretches through our brain and nervous system through every part of our body changing our physical and mental health.

Link to the video on our Autonomic Nervous System and how we are impacted by trauma:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdIQRxwT1I0&t=15s

In this Episode Julie and Ginger talk to Dr. Rick Cain. Rick specializes in the neuroscience of stress and well-being. He helps us explore how wellness practices in the biological domain of self-regulation, such as healthy eating, restorative sleep, and regular exercise, aid in our ability to regulate our nervous system and are pivotal for optimizing cognitive function, forming habits, and managing emotions.

Rick teaches us about the concept of the "body budget," as coined by Lisa Feldman Barrett, PhD -https://lisafeldmanbarrett.com - and he ends with talking about how we can use mindfulness to help us avoid functioning on autopilot.

Autopilot is a state of mind in which one acts without conscious intention or awareness of present-moment sensory perception. It's common for us to go through our days on autopilot, just trying to get through them. It's a normal part of the human experience, and it's okay sometimes to lose track of the present moment.

It's important to recognize that when we're constantly on autopilot, we risk missing out on the small moments that make up our lives. The choice between operating on autopilot and cultivating a state of awareness is within our control.

In today’s episode, Ginger and Julie talk to Dr. Amy Fast. Dr. Amy is currently a superintendent in Oregon. She is an author, and education commentator, former HS principal and elementary school teacher…and she is a mom! Her book, It’s the Mission, Not the Mandates can found at https://a.co/d/4ZtW5Kg .

Listen in for these great takeaways:

“Where I find kids thrive and are the most well, is when there is the magic balance of being pushed hard and loved hard. You can't have one without the other because if you have the love without that developmental push, that just right push, so that they are just enough outside their comfort zone where they're growing but not falling off the edge of the cliff then kids do become entitled or enabled, but if you have the opposite where you are always pushing them with no support, or love or affection then you have kids with suicidal ideation or poor self-concept.”

“The work doesn't feel good when it's easy, it feels good when it matters and that's part of why so many educators are suffering. There is a lack of congruence between what we are asking and mandating and telling them to do and what they know in their guts actually matter for kids.”