Creating a therapeutic school experience for children and youth with adverse childhood experiences, developmental trauma and mental illness

The Big Idea

What would happen if we combined school and therapy using a Reggio Emilia approach in specialized classrooms and/or in a comprehensive day treatment center?

Who is this for?

• Children who have had multiple adverse experiences with accompanying behavioral challenges.

• Children who experience mental health challenges or neurodivergence.  

• Families who serve them

• Educators looking for a way to teach this population

• Mental Health providers looking for an effective environment in which to help.

• Communities who need safe schools.  

Why the title Bridges to Healing?  

I have a unique vantage point as a parent of four boys adopted from foster care and victims of trauma.  Even with access to insurance and resources for self-pay, our family has struggled greatly with accessing appropriate mental health care.  At one point we had arranged to take our family to an intensive outpatient family therapy in another state.  We had paid for everything, traveled there, and yet, we were having difficulty getting the children to join.  

At one point the director of the program and I were standing on a walking bridge outside, talking about the problem and I said; 

“You know, this program is really great, but there just is no bridge to it for my kids.  They are right here, but they cannot access it because it doesn't feel safe, there is no bridge that they can cross to get there.”  

Accessibility is not just about logistics like funding and transportation, it is also about feeling safe enough to trust in a healing process.