New Workshop Offers Self Care Resiliency Training for Educators

Since mid-March, educators have been managing ways to help their students handle excessive amounts of stress and uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Routines were ruined, precious moments were canceled or delayed, technology replaced personal contact. In other words, things that were once controlled became uncontrollable. That amount of pressure takes a tremendous toll on the body and mind.

While the educators focused on making sure their students were supported, they may have neglected to give themselves that same level of care. Self-care is essential to your well-being, especially when circumstances are beyond your control.

Respected education specialists Dr. Lori Desautels and Michael McKnight recognize these needs and are inviting educators to participate in a virtual workshop, “Taking Care of Your Brain and Body Affects Everything in Your Life” on October 14.

This free session will provide guidance on how to effectively care for YOU while also caring for those around you. Participants will hear the latest research on resiliency and learn self-care strategies they can use in both personal and professional lives.

· To register for the 7 – 8:30pm Zoom workshop, visit: capeassist.org/teacher-resilience

The free workshop is sponsored by O.C.E.A.N., Inc and hosted by Cape Assist in partnership with the Cape Regional Wellness Alliance, O.C.E.A.N., Inc Community Action Partnership, Cape May County Healthy Community Coalition, P.R.I.D.E., JTAC, Atlantic Prevention Resources, and Stockton University - Southern Regional Institute and Educational Technology Training Center.

About the presenters
Dr. Lori Desautels
Esteemed educator and author Dr. Desautels has been an Assistant Professor at Butler University since 2016, teaching both undergraduate and graduate programs in the College of Education. She is also the founder of the Educational Neuroscience Symposium, and creator of a nine-hour credit graduate certification at Butler University in Applied Educational Neuroscience/Brain and Trauma.
Dr. Desautels’ passion is engaging students through the application of neuroscience as it applies to attachment, regulation, and educator brain state, and teaching students and staff about their neuroanatomy.

Dr. Desautels has conducted brain institutes and workshops throughout the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, and Dubai on Mind Brain Teaching and Learning. She has created webinars for educators, clinicians, and administrators illustrating how educators and students alike must understand their neuroanatomy to regulate behavior and calm the brain.

Michael McKnight
Michael McKnight is an educational specialist for the New Jersey Department of Education’s Cape May County Office, and is involved with a wide range of issues across the county’s 16 school districts. He is also an adjunct professor at Stockton University, teaching Inclusive Learning in Education.

Prior to joining the Department of Education, McKnight spent 23 years in schools working with and developing programming for emotionally and behaviorally troubled students.

He has a passion for creating and supporting Reclaiming Environments for “at-risk” children and youth, as well as the adults who serve them. McKnight provides professional development to schools, and his current focus is helping create school-level “Resiliency Teams” for districts working with children and youth who suffer toxic levels of stress. The resiliency teams are designed to create turnkey training in schools and move schools toward becoming trauma responsive.

Dr. Desautels and McKnight are the coauthors of two books: “Unwritten: The Story of A Living System” about school transformation and “Eyes Are Never Quiet: Listening Beneath the Behaviors of Our Most Troubled Students.”