Trauma-informed Transformation in Schools

September 10, 2025•12 min read

"Now every time I witness a strong person, I want to know: What darkness did you conquer in your story? Mountains don't rise without earthquakes."
Katherine Mackenett

50% of children in Asia, Africa, and Northern America experienced violence last year. (1)

The number of 2-17 year olds who experienced the most severe forms of violence in the past year is estimated to be at least 64% of children in Asia, 56% in Northern America, 50% in Africa, 34% in Latin America, and 12% in Europe. (2)

Over half of all children in the world – 1 billion children ages 2-17 years – experience violence every year. (3)

Every year in the U.S., more than 3.6 million referrals are made to child protection agencies involving more than 6.6 million children. (4)

Youth neglect is the most common form of maltreatment with 377,742 reported cases (4B)
Youth neglect is reported more than 4X as often as physical abuse (62,685 cases) and more than 8X as often as sexual abuse (44,355 cases)
Most neglect victims are abused by a parent. Reports from 2022 showed that 89% of victims were maltreated by one or both parents.
Young children are the most vulnerable with the highest rate of victimization being younger than 1 year old.

We are in an epidemic of the unintentional disempowering treatment of young people. Experiencing violence in childhood impacts lifelong health and well-being. (5)

During a traumatic event, the survival brain takes over and knocks calm, critical thinking offline. This is an automatic response to keep us safe and alive in the moment.

However, without proper protective factors to help us understand that we (the child) is not to blame or is still worthy and valued, this disempowering survival pattern will continue into adulthood and cause unnecessary emotional, social and physical challenges in our abilities to feel motivated, take action towards things that are good for us and that feel exciting, and to experience overall feelings of joy, fulfillment, and well-being. As we grow up, we will feel heightened disempowering emotions when something in our current environment consciously or unconsciously reminds our brain and nervous system of the past disempowering event(s). The brain and body never forget the pain of past developmental trauma (5a). At least, not until the individual can connect with it, process it, and release it. Working with our emotional patterns and building our social-emotional intelligence are NOT mainstream skills that we have experienced or learned. In fact, most people have been taught that if you have emotional pain something is wrong with you. I have seen young people be ignored and isolated when they have recurring depression. We have learned through unhealthy societal norms to feel weak when we have strong emotions, so we tuck them inside of us and hide our emotions from others.

This is the worst thing we can do.

We are now understanding the importance and necessity of becoming social-emotional and even cultural intelligence experts beginning at a very young age to be able to process and break-through past developmental traumas and painful emotions. We are not broken when we have a lot of emotion. We just don't know what to do with them! Think about when someone breaks their arm. We don't think that they are "messed up" because they broke their arm. So we are learning to understand that the neglect, abuse and developmental trauma that happened to us growing up is NOT our fault. All of us have some type of developmental trauma and it is time to know how to work with our emotions at the highest level. It is never too late to learn these skills. We can learn them from in the womb to our last days on earth as elders. Once we understand why we get so emotionally triggered and feel so much emotional pain, and once we understand how to work with them, we all will develop the skills for trauma-informed transformation! It does not just have to be a therapist role.

There is unequivocal evidence supporting that for young people to become social-emotionally intelligent and skilled, they need safe, stable, supportive relationships and healthy and empowering environments. These "empowered partnerships and environments" give children and youth the best chance of reaching their full potential and feel fulfilled and healthy. They are KEY during times when our young people feel scared, unsure, and not OK. They are especially key when they make "mistakes" (which I call "learnings") with their emotions and behaviors and strike out to hurt others. (6) We think they are being bad in these situations, but the truth is, they have never learned what to do with their emotions except what they see others do (hide them, verbally lash out, hit, slap, walk away). So now, it is time to "teach and model" for them the skills to deal with their emotions and the behaviors that follow them.

The key is positive connection and empowerment.

The human brain and nervous system are hardwired for connection and belonging (“I feel seen, heard and valued for who I am.” “You like me, and I am a part of something.”). So, when young people experience Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) or developmental trauma (disconnection) without safe, stable and nurturing care, they develop disempowering beliefs about their self-worth and abilities. This causes increases in their sensitivities to environmental stimuli and the fight, flight, freeze, or please response. (7) In other words, they get emotionally triggered more easily. Continuously living in a reactive, fearful state without trusting, consistent, and nurturing protections and connections results in increases in toxic stress which leads to decreases in healthy mental, physical and emotional development and the inability to form functional relationships. (8)

The key is for adults to learn how to positively connect when kids are in a reactive state and their

emotions are flying high. Adults don't know how to do this with kids much less with themselves. We must learn how if we want a shift in society towards more peace and sustainability. It begins within.

In addition, the inherent “systematic trauma” from the archaic, industrialized, one-size-fits-all current educational system and philosophy is not helping young people and their educators become empowered. The whole system is unintentionally set up to disempower by focusing on outcomes students and their educators can't control like classroom grades and achievement test scores. The education system is designed for students to be 'pitted' against each other like a cast system as a form of motivation. We know that extrinsic motivation undermines intrinsic motivation. So why do we wonder why students hate school, feel stressed out and don't know what they like or want to do when they get out. Everything is based on extrinsic rewards. Real learning isn't even a factor.

Moreover, the education system's ill-informed, out-dated daily process of learning and living is not designed to deal with the adverse effects of ACEs and neglect that every student and adult comes to school with. (9) Our current public school educational philosophy is actually unintentionally causing primary and secondary trauma on top of the past home and neighborhood disconnections that all participants already have. The school system itself, causes further disempowering beliefs about their abilities to learn and grow and that high levels of stress and overwhelm are the norm.

“We are actually in a belief’s gap, not an achievement gap.” (10)

The education system also does not allow schools and educators to prioritize building wellness, social-emotional, leadership, and life skills that are the foundation of inspired learning and the ability to navigate real life more easily as a overall healthy citizen. The ramifications of the robotized, competitive, unhealthy, outcome-based school system has created a current generation of disconnected students and teachers who are stressed, depressed and unhealthy and are too unaware or scared to say or do anything about it. Thousands of high school students are dropping out of school, don’t fit in the current system, and teachers are quitting.

What if the reason students and teachers are leaving has little to do with themselves, but that the system they are learning and teaching in is not working?

Young people spend an average of 1200 hours in school every year! During my research, when I ask secondary students if they value or like school, they most often state something to the effect, “Not really but I don’t have a choice; I need to do it "their way" to make the grade, pass the class, so I can get a good job to be successful in life”.

This is very interesting to me because extrinsic grades don't correlate with experiencing a fulfilling career/job and feeling successful...

INTRINSIC SELF-VALUE, PASSION, AND LIFE-BALANCE CORRELATES WITH SUCCESS.

How would it feel if you had to wake up every day and do things you didn’t enjoy and at times were extremely painful? Where did we learn that this is what makes us healthy, fulfilled and successful?

Do we need to question anymore that this outcome-focus creates toxic stress, depression, anger, exhaustion, and poor emotional, mental, and physical health.

SOLUTION

It is imperative that students and teachers are offered a healthy and empowering educational experience where they are excited and motivated to attend because they can’t wait to have another experience of how their gifts and skills will come alive and contribute to their personal growth and the greater good NOW.

The old “survival of the most academically and athletically fittest” educational framework needs to be displaced by a healthy and empowering one where everyone thrives.

It is time to offer an educational system and philosophy where all the people working, learning and playing there, “are fully at ease with themselves and with their colleagues, brimming with enthusiasm and energy. Nobody wears a mask or pretends to be someone they are not. Everybody is using their talents to the fullest and seems incredibly alive.” (11)

The future of any society depends on its ability to foster the healthy development of the next generation. Preventing and responding to child maltreatment at home and at school requires a multisectoral approach. The earlier such interventions occur in children’s lives, the greater benefits to the child (e.g. cognitive development, behavioral and social competence, educational attainment) and to society (e.g. reduced crime). The World Health Organization recommends interventions to build a positive school climate and violence-free environment, and strengthen relationships between students, teachers and administrators. (12)

Trauma-informed practices are beginning to filter into public and private schools all over the world. With the recognition of the CDC's Adverse Childhood Experience Study(13) growing immensely over the last 25 years, many educational leaders know the importance now of implementing a social and emotional learning (14) program not as an add-on to the school’s curriculum, but as an integral part of everything. According to CASEL, (15) one of the leading researchers in social emotional learning, SEL includes the dimensions of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. When an effective SEL program is integrated, a positive school and classroom climate prevails. As a result students tend to engage more, take more risks, become more innovative, shift into a growth mindset more often, and feel more confident in their abilities and relationships. Both educators and students also feel more satisfied with their lives, collaborate more often, practice more self-care, and enjoy school more.

However, I believe it is time to take it one step further and train and coach adults who work with young people in a new form of relating, teaching, and leading that I call Empowerment Coaching and Learning.

Central to the new-paradigm of a system of change that I developed over 30 years of research, called the Empowerment Education® System of W.E.L.L.-Being, the pedagogy of Empowerment Coaching & Learning is trauma-informed, transformation in action, leading to inspired learning, balance, and upgrades in how to carry out and integrate CASEL's 5 dimensions of SEL.

Why do anything if it doesn't take care of all the educator and youth challenges?

Why do anything, if it just adds more "things" to the day?

I had to begin somewhere, and all the trauma and thriving research up to date is now available in how we form these new types of relationships. It is backwards to everything we have learned. It is only for adults who are ready to transform themselves to transform their learning and living environments. It is not easy. We are in a time where there are thousands of adults ready to have one foot in the old paradigm and one foot in the new and be responsible for the SHIFT. It is not easy, but when you get it, and do it, everything changes into learning environments on fire.

It is critical that all adults who work with children, especially educators and parents, know how to effectively transform their own disempowering ways that were developed in their childhood, -the patterns that stand in their ways of experiencing healthy and empowering thoughts, feelings and behaviors, -the patterns that stand in their way of having positively connected and empowering relationships with youth. As adults learn the skills of Empowerment Coaching & Learning, they first learn how to do a trauma-informed transformational coaching approach with themselves to experience a SHIFT within their own bodies from disempowerment and disconnection to empowerment and connection. As they integrate this new approach within themselves, they are better equipped to support students in the same way because they already have experienced an internal, visceral understanding of what the inside-out shift feels like and how effective it is in naturally bringing the freedom, confidence and skills out in all students, no matter their physical, emotional and learning challenges.

We train and coach educators as trauma-informed, Life and Learning Empowerment Coaches in the Classroom…A COACH IN EVERY CLASSROOM. I have found that educators as Empowerment Coaches are the missing link to the positive SHIFT in the education system…SO SCHOOLS ARE WHERE EVERYONE THRIVES.

Start now with our free Empowerment Educators Coaching and Support Network.