Creating a Resilient Nervous System: Using the Superpower of Neuroscience to Cope with Stress and Trauma
First Presenter's Institution
Ahimsa Yoga 716
First Presenter's Brief Biography
A 20-year veteran school psychologist, Lauren has worked with students of all ages across Western New York. She grew frustrated with traditional behavior plans, special education referrals, and counseling which rarely seemed to help students to the degree hoped. Tired of bureaucracy and band-aids, Lauren took a deep dive into neuroscience and surfaced with new insights for her students and teachers. At the same time, Lauren became a registered yoga teacher as well as a certified trauma-resiliency coach. Lauren is passionate about her work and motivates others to implement these somatic tools in the classroom. She founded Ahimsa Yoga 716 to bring the many benefits of yoga to adults and children.
Document Type
Event
Primary Strand
Mindfulness and Wellbeing
Relevance to Primary Strand
My presentation addresses how trauma and stress impact the nervous system and development. It teaches hands-on practical strategies to regulate the nervous system, which includes yoga, breathwork, mindfulness, meditation, rhythm, and tapping.
Brief Program Description
Learn how to "hack" into your students' (and your own) nervous system to alleviate stress and trauma. In this session, you will acquire immediate and easily implemented strategies and activities for the classroom, including yoga, breathwork, mindfulness, meditation, rhythm, and tapping.
Summary
Participants will gain knowledge of trauma and stress and how to use the “superpower” of neuroscience to tap into the nervous system in order to regulate and calm their children (and themselves). These strategies are vital to all people, not just children. The better we can understand stress/trauma and its impact on our body, the more we’ll be able to take action and make choices in order to limit that negative impact.
In the first portion of this presentation, attendees will learn about: types of trauma, how it impacts children's neurological development and as a result their learning, health, and relationships, what fight/flight/freeze looks like in the classroom, and what makes some people more resilient than others. This information is grounded in the theories of the polyvagal nerve and somatic experiencing, as well as the Circle of Courage indigenous model of youth development.
Given that background, attendees will then engage in hand-on activities, games, exercises, and interventions which tap into the nervous system. They will be provided with strategies on how to both calm and activate the nervous system and when to use which. Over 50 techniques which can be immediately implemented will be taught so participants are armed with not only knowledge but the tools to use that knowledge in the classroom. These strategies will include yoga, breathwork, mindfulness, meditation, rhythm, and sensory stimulation. Also presented will be methods to identify strong areas of resilience for a child and how to build other protective factors into a child’s day.
Evidence
This proposal is based on the works of Dr. Peter Levine, Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk, Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn and Dr. Stephen Porges.
The ACEs study has demonstrated the impact of stress and trauma on children. Stress is medically shown to create a physical response in the body with a cascade of neurochemicals.
Studies in peer-reviewed journals have shown that since stress is physiological, you must do something physical to combat and lessen it.
This presentation brings together trauma research, the polyvagal theory, somatic experiencing, and mindfulness-based stress reduction for teachers and other caring adults so they can provide solutions to the trauma-impacted children in their lives.
Learning Objective 1
Discover the relationship between trauma and its physical impact on brain development and the nervous system.
Learning Objective 2
Understand what fight, flight, and freeze look like in children.
Learning Objective 3
Develop awareness of resilience and protective factors.
Learning Objective 4
Practice activities and strategies to build resilience and reset children’s nervous systems.
Recommended Citation
Etu, Lauren, "Creating a Resilient Nervous System: Using the Superpower of Neuroscience to Cope with Stress and Trauma" (2022). Southeast Conference on School Climate. 33.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/secsc/2022/2022/33
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Creating a Resilient Nervous System: Using the Superpower of Neuroscience to Cope with Stress and Trauma
Participants will gain knowledge of trauma and stress and how to use the “superpower” of neuroscience to tap into the nervous system in order to regulate and calm their children (and themselves). These strategies are vital to all people, not just children. The better we can understand stress/trauma and its impact on our body, the more we’ll be able to take action and make choices in order to limit that negative impact.
In the first portion of this presentation, attendees will learn about: types of trauma, how it impacts children's neurological development and as a result their learning, health, and relationships, what fight/flight/freeze looks like in the classroom, and what makes some people more resilient than others. This information is grounded in the theories of the polyvagal nerve and somatic experiencing, as well as the Circle of Courage indigenous model of youth development.
Given that background, attendees will then engage in hand-on activities, games, exercises, and interventions which tap into the nervous system. They will be provided with strategies on how to both calm and activate the nervous system and when to use which. Over 50 techniques which can be immediately implemented will be taught so participants are armed with not only knowledge but the tools to use that knowledge in the classroom. These strategies will include yoga, breathwork, mindfulness, meditation, rhythm, and sensory stimulation. Also presented will be methods to identify strong areas of resilience for a child and how to build other protective factors into a child’s day.
