Safe Spaces - And the adventure begins.

First stop - Pasadena, via LA International Airport.

The first thing that struck me when I walked into the customs hall was how much it smelt like America - it was all faux maple syrup and donuts... I was surprised by how many of the airport workers were elderly - and I was reminded of how the Australian pension and superannuation system really is one of the key areas that stand us out from other western democratic nations in terms of caring for our older people.

Anyway, - here I am, in Pasadena, LA, California. I’m staying in a semi industrial / student area, my hotel is directly across the road from Pasadena’s Community College, an impressive deco building and the Shatford library.

I have two meetings set up at the Center for Connection (http://www.thecenterforconnection.org/), with counsellors, Debra Hori and Olivia Martinez-Hague. They each have different skills and work focus areas but both use Interpersonal Nuerobiology (IPNB) theories.

The Center For Connection was set up by Tina Payne Bryson, whose work with Dan Siegel on strategies to nurture children's minds is a best selling book.

Debra works as an Educational therapist working mostly with children and teens who have learning differences. She supports and educates children, parents and caregivers, and teachers about learning differences and teaches them how to use their brains/mind in ways that work for them and steers right away from the deficit model.
Olivia also works with children and teens with learning differences; her qualifications as an occupational therapist and clinical psychologist focus her work on the somatic (body). She uses a range of play based tools to work with children. While I was in the waiting room to meet with Olivia and Debra a little girl told her mother “I cant wait to go in and play on the tyres”. I was led through to the interview room, we first went through the ‘play-therapy’ room, which was full of coloured floor mats,  tyres, balls and all sorts of tactile, brightly coloured, active spaces.
Our discussion centred around the issue of emotional regulation and safety, and how critical it is for students of all ages, to feel safe in the classroom, with their teachers and peers, so that the opportunity for learning is optimal.

Debra and Olivia both focus on teaching student's about their brains and regulation. They teach them to identify the signals their brains and bodies send them when they are becoming dysregulated, and strategies to assist them to move back in to a regulated space.
As educators we know that knowledge is powerful - and I too know that when I first started on my own therapeutic journey, I found the new language of psychology I was learning about my mind/brain/body allowed me an insight into myself that I didn't previously have. It also gave me a language to describe teaching practices that always made sense to me but I couldn't explain thoroughly.

Emotional regulation refers to the emotional state of being -

• To be in a regulated space is when the brain is active and ready for learning and the nervous system is in a secure space.
• Dysreglulation refers to the space that is either highly anxious or numbed out.

There are lots of tools we can use to bring ourselves and others around us (co-regulation) into a calm  space which is the best space for learning and teaching.
What works to create a safe space for adults who are in the adult literacy classroom? We have to assume that adults come to class with:

• Their own lived experience of learning that may have been unsatisfactory at best, traumatic at 
• worst.
• Their own skills, knowledge and strengths. They are experts in their own lives. 
• And we know that adults (everyone) have different learning styles. We also know as teachers that we have different teaching styles. But as teachers it is our responsibility to create and be mindful of what a safe learning environment looks like: 

Bringing awareness to our emotional states can help people to be more able to identify when they are feeling dysregulated - and through some simple, non-threatening teaching activities, create some space for students to bring themselves into that space. This could be:
1. a simple journal writing exercise, where students are encouraged to use feeling words,
2. Some quiet time at the beginning / middle / end of class
3. Providing a graph that charts the emotional space - students can identify where they are.
4. Providing a left brain / right brain activity - this could be singing, tai chi movement, induced laughter, charades...

Other ideas we came up with about safety, especially for people who may be sensitive or have learning differences:
Seating, lighting, exits, agreed rules, expectations, guidelines - making sure they are all clear and accessible, autonomy, noise, timing, obvious structure..
Writing the structure of the session on the whiteboard will let the learners know what to expect for the session - empowering.
Finally, checking in time at the end of the session - or during if that is necessary - ensuring there are no anxieties left dangling is good for everyone.

Although both women have a similar approach to working with children who learn differently, they both very much work from a strengths based approach. Not only do they discover student's strengths in the initial interview, but they build this in to all their future work and  ensure that they work from a curious base - and teach the power of curiousity. 

Pasadena - a beautiful oasis of learning, compassion, and caring.

L-R; Debra Hori, Linno, Olivia Martinez Hauge.