Trauma-Informed Practices for the Classroom and Beyond

Find the right strategies and tools to support students who experience trauma

Studies show that 46-75% of children experience trauma, often resulting in challenging behavior, depression, and anxiety as well as long-term physical and mental health issues. Today’s educators, counselors, and clinicians need the right strategies to help. 

Written by experts with years of experience working with children and teens exposed to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), Trauma-Informed Practices for the Classroom and Beyond describes the most effective tools available and walks you through how to implement them with compassion and fidelity. Inside, you’ll find

• Detailed and easy-to-implement interventions that alleviate the effects of trauma, including mindfulness, journaling, restorative justice, and more
• Trauma-informed practices to use with all students, regardless of their age or the duration or frequency of their trauma exposure
• Ways educators can prepare their classrooms and schools to support students who experience ACEs

This how-to guide and its companion website with discussion points, recommended videos, and additional resources equips you with evidence-based techniques and instructions to support children and teens with ACEs and enhances your practice to better serve the students who need our help most.

Laura Waller, MS/MA, is a former elementary school teacher, an author, a National Certified Counselor, and a Licensed Professional Counselor. She holds a master’s degree in elementary education from Johns Hopkins University and a second master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling from Capella University. Waller is also an ADHD-Certified Clinical Services Provider. She entered the counseling field after a number of years as a teacher in elementary classrooms in North Carolina and Washington, DC. This classroom background yields a unique developmental perspective when Waller is working therapeutically with children, teens, and their families. She currently provides individual and family therapy for clients in the Northern Virginia (NOVA) area ranging in age from 8 to 601. She also hosts monthly seminars and groups aimed at supporting parents with a particular focus on raising neurodivergent children. Waller has led numerous workshops for churches and schools in the NOVA area with a specific focus on communication between teens and parents as well as using emotional support animals in a therapeutic setting.

Waller is active in several professional associations, including the American Counseling Association (ACA) and Northern Virginia Licensed Professional Counselors (NVLPC). She has coauthored three books in education, most recently RTI and Differentiated Reading in the K–8 Classroom by Solution Tree Press (2011).

William N. Bender, PhD, has had a long and distinguished career in education, teaching in public school for several years and in higher education for some 26 years at Blue?eld State College in West Virginia, Rutgers University in New Jersey, and the University of Georgia. He has written 36 books in special and general education. With his retirement, he has stepped back from his rigorous workshop schedule, which as recently as 2016 included some 40 workshop days per year. While the COVID-19 pandemic impacted his work, he has written four historical ?ction novels and several educational books in recent years. He has delivered several professional development projects, including most recently a keynote for a virtual conference on project-based learning in Brazil in conjunction with his Corwin book Project-Based Learning (2012).