Why is my body making that sound? One Sunday morning ten years ago I climbed out of bed to an unmistakable sloshing sound coming from my body. I was a couple of days past a two-part surgery series, with the most recent one involving medical implants as a part of a reconstructive procedure. I did not care that it was 7:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning, I called my surgeon in a panic. While he reassured me it was completely normal and would go away in a few days, I asked in surprise, “If this is so typical, why in the world isn’t it on your post-surgery instruction sheet? My guess is that you get a l ..read more

Requests for ways to respond to trauma impact in the classroom are increasing. I’ve had an uptick in requests for workshops or professional development to better understand and respond to trauma impact in the adult classroom.  Requests are coming from corrections educators, social service providers, and instructors in colleges in the US and Canada. I love hearing from folks and I try to respond to everyone who writes. I recently responded to such a request and decided it might make a useful blog post as a free, DIY, 90-minute professional development workshop for teachers of adult learner ..read more

I have been involved with a lot of behavior-change start up projects. This generally involves writing a curriculum for vulnerable, often trauma-impacted adult learners, then creating and delivering a training for the teachers or interventionists who will facilitate the new curriculum. I’ve done this for a prison parenting curriculum, a post-prison job search curriculum, an entrepreneurship curriculum for incarcerated women, and a one-on-one coaching curriculum for parents involved in the child welfare system, to name a few.   Experienced professionals unfamiliar with evidence-based teach ..read more

Are you looking for ways to increase interactivity and engagement in your online learning sessions for adults? In the last three months I’ve converted face-to-face learning to online sessions, and created from scratch and facilitated interactive online learning experiences for adults. This post shares some how-to’s for easy ways to include or adapt interactive activities for your next online session for adults, including facilitation tips and recommended teaching script in the slide notes. Download five easy, engaging, editable activity slides to get started incorporating more interactive acti ..read more

Has this ever happened to you? If it can happen in class, it has happened to me! I have walked in your shoes when it comes to navigating upset and resistance in teaching and training!  Watch this two-minute video for an introduction to my new DIY Training: Evidence-Based Strategies to Navigate Upset and Resistance in Teaching and Training as I outline a two-hour, online-ready, DIY professional development opportunity that can help you, your teaching team, case managers and home visitors turn trauma-triggered into trauma-transformed.    DIY Training: Evidence-Based Strategies for ..read more

Do your clients need a course? How can you know whether you need a curriculum for your adult clients and what to include in it if you do? Before you invest time and money trying to develop a course, use this five-minute video tutorial with the downloadable pre-design survey to answer these six questions and determine whether a course is what they need. Your answers to these questions can help you outline a targeted learning event to take to funders or board members. By answering the six questions you will clearly outline the need your clients have for more instruction, what they will need to k ..read more

Reduce resistance and upset and help learners rewire their brains. In this five-minute video learn how you can support your adult learners when they are triggered and experiencing upset or resistance in your learning event. Understand the science behind how using positive odors can reduce stress and support both physical and psychological health and well-being. Facilitate an in-person or online activity in which learners identify positive sensory experiences and the odors that evoke them. Using simple, inexpensive materials, assemble sensory packets with or for adult learners they can carry in ..read more

 Your organization’s struggle during the pandemic: The pandemic has closed your doors and left your vulnerable clients without your effective classroom-based programs. Their progress slows, referrals have stopped, and funders are pressing you to get your programs online. It’s time to equip your instructors with the essential confidence and competence they need to begin moving your client classes online.  Use this DIY training to turn things around. Trauma-Informed Practices for Teaching Online is a two-and-a-half hour, do-it-yourself training to get your instructors teaching on ..read more

“Grief is pure love moving through you in a different form.” — Healing from Grief, a Relax Melodies Meditation As a white, middle class, privileged boomer crossing the threshold of 60, I know I have to make relevance as an educator a driving priority. When I yield to that drive out of a sense of professional responsibility and inhabit the role of lifelong learner, I find the most curious, painful, yet breathtakingly precious thing happening. My heart, mind and soul breaks wide open along seemingly fossilized lines, revealing and bringing into the light, everything I thought I knew for sure, a ..read more

Use AUDITION activities to assess learning and encourage adults to take what they’ve learned back out to their lives. In Part 5 of my video series on Trauma-Informed Teaching Strategies, you’ll learn how to map onto how brains learn as you bring your learning event to a close with an AUDITION activity. An AUDITION activity does double-duty. It allows adults to demonstrate their learning so you can be confident your session was a success, while allowing your client-learners to audition their new knowledge and skills to see if they’re worth keeping and taking back to their lives.  This four ..read more