What is a Trauma Informed/Sensitive School?

It is helpful when teachers are ‘trauma aware and informed’ because studies show that children have a higher chance of building resilience.

In Part 3 of our EFT Practitioner training in schools we focus on being trauma aware.  This part of the course is aimed at staff qualified to work in this area.  We help schools recognise the importance of safeguarding themselves and their pupils; understanding the effects of trauma on the child brain; how to recognise signs of trauma and mainly learn EFT techniques and how to integrate them based on models such as Van der Kolk's.  We then teach the importance of following the correct process in this regard to avoid re-traumatisation.  We then introduce them to strategies implemented in other schools.

What may not seem obvious is that common occurrences and routines can actually become classroom trauma triggers that cause a domino effect of negative reactions. Once triggered, a traumatized student can’t be engaged in your lesson, and their learning stops. 

Traumatized students experience more dysregulated arousal than others. This means they feel too much or not enough more often than kids who haven’t experienced too much stress in their lives and may easily become overwhelmed.

EFT can help regulate emotions and calm down the amygdala - responsible for the 'fight, flight, freeze' mode.