Connecting and collaborating with compassionate people doing meaningful work and making a difference in the lives of others is always inspiring. I am grateful for my recent opportunity to be interviewed by Kelly from Kelly in Crisis as part of her exploration around trauma-informed living. In the interview, Kelly invited me to share what it means to me to be trauma-informed in the context of college teaching and learning. You can check out the interview and learn more about Kelly at kellyincrisis.com   I’m also curious what it means to others to be trauma-informed. Let me know your though ..read more

Save the date: April 26, 2023! Trauma & Resilience in Higher Education: Naming the Urgency, Envisioning Change, Sharing Tools This is the conference on trauma and resilience in higher education that many of us have been wishing and waiting for!   I’m so grateful for the time, energy, and love that Dr. Jeanie Tietjen and the folks at Institute for Trauma, Adversity, & Resilience in Higher Education at MassBay Community College have put into organizing and hosting this conference. I am also honored to be participating as one of the conference speakers. Check out the short video on ..read more

I am thrilled to announce that Trauma-Informed Pedagogies: A Guide for Responding to Crisis and Inequality in Higher Education has been published! Trauma-Informed Pedagogies is the second book Phyllis Thompson and I co-edited together, and it extends the conversation started in our previous book, Lessons from the Pandemic: Trauma-Informed Approaches to College, Crisis, Change. I encourage you to check out the book’s Front Matter which includes the table of contents, contributor bios, and a thoughtful and thought-provoking foreword by Dr. Laura Quiros. A collection of examples of evidence-based ..read more

My co-editor Phyllis Thompson and I received so many compelling responses to our call for submissions that our book project turned into two books. The first book, Lessons from the Pandemic: Trauma-Informed Approaches to College, Crisis, Change, is now available. The second book, Trauma-Informed Pedagogies: A Guide for Responding to Crisis and Inequality in Higher Education, will be available in 2022. So grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with so many passionate and compassionate educators.   Lessons from the Pandemic abstract: This collection presents strategies for trauma-inform ..read more

Just a quick blog post to point out the TITL Annotated Syllabus I’ve added to the Resources page. Since the covid pandemic, I’ve been thinking about additional changes I might make. In particular, I’ve been wondering about moving to unlimited late days. So far, limiting the late days has been working very well and tends to help students stay motivated and not fall further behind. I am wondering, though, if it’s the limited number of days or the requirement to email me in advance to let me know that is most motivating for students. I was also thinking I would ask students for their input on the ..read more

Thrilled to make an online presentation today with colleagues Matthea Marquart and Johanna Creswell Báez for the Arizona Department of Education! The presentation is titled “Essential Trauma-Informed Online Teaching Tools.” You can use the link below to download to view or download a pdf of our slide deck. arizona-doe-presentation_marquart_baez_carello_10_2020Download ..read more

Call for Submissions Lessons from the Pandemic: Trauma-Informed Approaches to College, Crisis, Change Co-Editors: Phyllis Thompson, East Tennessee State University Janice Carello, Edinboro University We are seeking contributions from researchers, teaching faculty, administrators, activists, counselors, and theorists for a collection of essays on trauma-informed teaching and learning in higher education after COVID/during crisis. While studies abound on trauma-informed approaches for mental health service providers, law enforcement, nurses, and K-12 educators, strategies geared to college facul ..read more

Due to the covid-19 crisis, I have been getting more inquiries about trauma-informed teaching in higher education. So I created a video presentation to provide both a general overview of trauma-informed teaching as well as some specific tips and strategies that can be adapted by college educators now and in the future. In the video, I address the questions listed below. Next to each question is the time stamp for when I cover it in the video in order to help make it easy to locate or return to specific sections. What does it mean to be trauma-informed (TI)? 0:01:00 Why does being TI matter to ..read more

The reminders and tips below are meant to help reduce both instructors’ and students’ stress. These strategies should also help instructors save time and reduce conflict with students. I encourage you to share your tips and reminders in the comments. Be well. Keep communications brief. Students are also being inundated with information. If you are not already posting weekly announcements and/or module overviews or summaries, now may be a good time to start. This can help cut down on the number of emails sent, create a routine, provide clarification, and foster a sense of connection. Reassure ..read more

So what do you do with trauma-informed teaching and learning principles? What do they look like in practice? How do we operationalize them? These are common questions I hear from educators who are interested in becoming more trauma-informed. The principles sound great in theory, but they don’t tell us what to do. The good news, and the bad news, is that there is no one right way to be trauma-informed. The extent to which teaching policies and practices are trauma-informed is something that educators must evaluate both individually and collectively. Context matters. Experience matters. Resource ..read more