During the interview with Teri Barila, the Children’s Resilience Initiative Director, several key points were discussed. Teri emphasized the importance of safety, connection, and learning in supporting trauma-impacted youth. She highlighted that regulation is crucial before any learning can take place, as the body’s response to stress shuts down other functions. Teri stressed the need for adults to understand the impact of toxic stress on brain development and to approach behavior from a different lens, focusing on what the individual has experienced rather than what is wrong with them.
Teaching regulation to students was also discussed, with Teri emphasizing the importance of teaching self-regulation skills from an early age and providing opportunities for students to calm down. She emphasized the need for adults to be present with the child, noticing, naming, validating, and managing their feelings. Teri also highlighted the significance of attachment to a caring adult as the number one strategy for resilience.
The interview touched on the role of schools in creating a caring and supportive environment for students. Teri emphasized that any perception of loss of safety can lead to students becoming disregulated, and that trauma is not just about adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), but also about the perception of loss of safety and connection. She stressed the importance of moral and emotional safety in addition to physical safety.
Teri also addressed concerns about the time and resources required to support trauma-impacted youth. She emphasized that creating a calm room is not punishment and that schools cannot do this alone. She encouraged a shift from a punishment mode to a regulatory mode in teaching and supporting students.
Overall, Teri Barila’s interview highlighted the importance of understanding the hardwired response system in the brain and the need for adults to support trauma-impacted youth through nurturing and regulation. She emphasized the role of attachment to a caring adult, the importance of creating a safe environment, and the reparative and restorative nature of nurturance.
- Toxic Stress impacts our brain development and architecture
- Brain developed to protect that individual.
- When you feel threatened, you go to that brain stem.
- How we look at behavior from a different lens.
- It’s not what’s wrong with this person
- What has this person experienced that I can manage to support him or her?
- Regulatory skills are needed for kids.
- Body already understands that you are being threatened.
- Body shuts down all other functions to be supportive.
- Use the same response systems as a child.
- Understanding our brain architecture.
- Language centers are disconnected when they are under stress.
- Provide opportunities to calm down.
- You ain’t getting to learning until that student is regulated.
- We further escalate that response by sending the student out.
- When we recognize that behavior is a call for help, we will move from punishment to regulation.
- How to teach regulation to students.
- Teach them how their brain works.
- Don’t wait until they are in high school to teach self-regulation.
- Recognize, validate, and manage their feelings.
- Where are you as you’re walking into my classroom?
- What’s going on in your world?
- Mantras, other ways to regulate.
- It’s all about being present with the child.
- Noticing, naming, validating, and managing their feelings.
- We forget to notice that kids are escalating.
- Rather than punishing a child for having a feeling…
- Do you have enough skills to manage the feelings
- What to do when they are escalated.
- When one is having trouble, we don’t alienate, we try to help.
- Welcome slip - “We’re glad you’re here. Welcome to school.”
- Safety. Connection. Learning.
- This makes it too easy for kids. We coddle them.
- How did you learn resilience?
- Did you have an adult to help shape you into something better?
- Resilience - #1 strategy attachment to a caring adult.
- Bruce Perry - National Leader on trauma.
- Witnessed in their humanity
- How do we create that caring, supportive environment that supports that student when we are in the school environment?
- We can’t get hung up on the behavior.
- The problem is when we alienate because of the behavior.
- Understanding that any perception of loss of safety is the potential for students to become disregulated.
- Trauma is the perception of loss of safety and connection, not just the ACES.
- Safety - not just physical safety. Moral safety and emotional safety - see more from Sandra Bloom
- How to deal with the response, “This takes too much time.”
- A calm room is not punishment.
- Schools can’t do this alone.
- “My Piece Matters”
- Won’t kids take advantage of that? Teachers notice that.
- Every child wants to do well.
- Do we teach them through a punishment mode or a regulatory mode?
- Building adult skills to support trauma-impacted youth.
- Emotional Hygiene
- How to be a transformative principal? Dig into the understanding of the hardwired response system in the brain. Kids aren’t out to get you, they just don’t know how to manage themselves.
- Self-Reg Stewart Shanker
- By Daniel Goleman Emotional Intelligence
- Starts with the understanding that each of us can help create a safe environment.
- Nurturance is reparative and restorative.
About Teri Barila
Theresa Barila is the founder of the Community Resilience Initiative (CRI) based in Walla Walla, WA. CRI’s mission supports three pillars: training, community engagement, and Resilience product development.
Teri earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology (American University) and a Masters of Science in Fisheries Management (University of Maryland) and spent 20 years as a Research Biologist with the Federal Salmon and Steelhead Recovery program in the Pacific Northwest. Her experience in that field helped her bridge science and practice when she changed careers and moved into community engagement work 22 years ago.
Recognized internationally for her work with CRI, Teri frequently travels, training communities to develop their own blueprint so that “Resilience Trumps ACEs.” Teri is involved extensively in training, consulting, writing, and researching in trauma, Resilience, and community capacity building. Her work has attracted attention in various venues, in part due to the focus Teri places on grassroots organizational development and the focus on hope of Resilience.
Teri is a mom to two children, a son, and a daughter, and was pleased to add the title grandmother in 2018. Experiencing a special needs child’s world has significantly shaped Teri’s thinking on systems, education, Resilience, and advocacy for children. Teri enjoys anything to do with the out-of-doors and sunshine and blue sky in her spare time.
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Episode 28
