Healthy Power in Schools – A Webinar Series (Groups)

Description

Healthy Power in Schools: Creating a Path for Engagement, Learning, and Equity – A Webinar Series

with Gillian Boudreau, Ph.D. and Joelle van Lent, Psy.D.

How do school systems and people within them nurture a deep awareness of inequitable and unhealthy patterns in order to actively interrupt them in their communities? Join Gillian and Joelle as they discuss both symptoms of power imbalance and creative solutions for engagement, learning, and equity.

Session 1: A Safe Brain is a Smart Brain

This webinar addresses the impacts of chronic fear and stress on executive functioning. Using research on trauma, resiliency, and developmental psychology, the presenters unpack the predictably contagious nature of fear in communities, and simple interpersonal shifts that can reduce this effect.

Session 2: Mental Bandwidth and Space to Think

In this recording, Gillian and Joelle will address the impact of fear on the brain and on communities. Particular attention will be paid to intersectionality and the heavier mental burden of chronic fear and stress on BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, neurodivergent people, and others.

Session 3: Interrogating What and Who Is Prioritized

When leaders and decision-makers are overwhelmed, afraid, and burned out, power gets consolidated further away from vulnerable students and staff, creating a feedback loop of fear and distress in the community. This session takes a critical look at what and who is inherently prioritized in public schools, who is chronically stressed by the system, and what can be done about it.

Gillian Boudreau is a licensed clinical psychologist and a licensed school psychologist. She runs a psychotherapy practice with a focus on autism, anxiety, and trauma, and teaches graduate courses on resilience, mindfulness, and social and emotional learning. Gillian is a national speaker and consultant working to support systems and communities to identify and shift fearful patterns, as well as remove obstacles to optimal connection and development.

Joelle van Lent is a licensed psychologist with over 20 years of experience working with children, families, and child serving agencies. Joelle has expertise as a therapist, clinician, evaluator, consultant, and trainer. Her work focuses on child and adolescent mental health, family therapy, trauma, and Autism Spectrum Disorder. Joelle’s approach is geared toward fostering resilience and creating communities that support healthy development.