What if the behaviors you are trying to manage are actually signals asking for safety, connection, and care?
In Trauma-Informed Teaching: From Reaction to Restoration, Dr. Annise Mabry offers a powerful, healing-centered guide for homeschool cooperatives, microschools, and alternative education programs serving students impacted by trauma.
Too often, educators are taught to respond to challenging behavior with control, compliance, and consequences. Dr. Mabry invites a different approach. One rooted in understanding how trauma affects the brain, learning, and relationships, and how educators can move from reactive discipline to restorative, student-centered practices.
Drawing from real-world experience working with underserved youth, homeschool families, and community-based education models, this book bridges research, lived experience, and practical application. Readers will learn how trauma shows up in learning environments, why traditional classroom management often fails vulnerable students, and how to create spaces where safety, belonging, and growth are possible.
Inside this book, you will discover:
How trauma impacts behavior, learning, and emotional regulation
Why punishment-based discipline can retraumatize students
Practical strategies for building emotionally safe learning environments
Trauma-informed approaches for homeschool cooperatives and microschools
How educators can sustain themselves while supporting students
This book is not about perfection. It is about presence, restoration, and creating educational ecosystems where students are seen, supported, and empowered to succeed.
If you are an educator who believes learning should heal, not harm, this book is for you.
Dr. Annise Mabry is an award-winning author, educator, and nationally recognized leader in trauma-informed education and community-based program development. With a PhD in Education and Criminal Justice, an MBA, and a career that bridges academia, public service, and entrepreneurship, she is known for turning lived experience into systems that restore dignity and opportunity.
Dr. Mabry is the founder of The Dr. Annise Mabry Foundation and the creator of Tiers Free Academy Homeschool Cooperative, one of the largest trauma-informed homeschool programs in the Southern United States. Through her work, she has helped thousands of families navigate alternative education pathways, supported at-risk youth in earning high school diplomas, and developed innovative programs that address literacy gaps, workforce readiness, and community stability.
Her writing is deeply personal and purpose-driven, often rooted in her journey as a mother who built solutions when traditional systems failed her children. She is the author of Educational Disobedience: A Mom Who Became a Movement, a multi-award-winning memoir that challenges conventional education and advocates for restorative, student-centered approaches. Her work consistently centers one core belief: restoration must matter more than control.
In addition to her writing, Dr. Mabry has secured millions in grant funding, designed large-scale intervention programs, and collaborated with law enforcement, schools, and nonprofits to create sustainable models for change in underserved communities. She is also a Georgia Certified Peace Officer and a sought-after speaker on trauma-informed leadership, educational reform, and community impact.
Dr. Mabry's work continues to inspire educators, parents, and leaders to rethink what is possible when systems are built with humanity at the center.
