Let's get started, Jen, just by having you share a little bit of your story and how you help families.

Sure. So I live in New York, central New York, and I am a mom of two.

I recently, just a little over two years ago, got divorced and moved out right when the world shut down. So literally that weekend I moved out and all of a sudden, all of the things that were, were not anymore. I also was a teacher in a public school. I taught music and I overnight had to figure out online teaching, homeschooling my kids and, you know, along with everyone else kind of reinventing a new life because of that opportunity– I Can look back and really see it as an opportunity to reinvent myself– I found a new way that I can really live my mission, which has always been to inspire people to discover their voice. When I was in the classroom teaching music, that was quite literal, but I discovered that there was something else.

For me, there was an inner voice kind of calling that there was something else. And I followed that, that piece of me and it landed me to actually start my own business. And now I serve teachers and school leaders and work with school districts to find their voice and empower them in ways that they can understand how to regain their sense of agency again.

While the work that I'm doing explicitly, isn't changing the institutional systems and the things that are broken within those organizations. What we're doing is focusing on ourselves and when we focus on ourselves, that's when we see all of the external things start to change. So I serve families by serving teachers who then, you know, who, first of all, many of them are parents themselves. And you know, they of course impacted generations of, of kids moving forward. So it's exciting work.

Let's dive in a little bit to your work assisting students and teachers to find their voice as trauma survivors. Many of our listeners. are on that journey themselves finding their voice and finding, rediscovering their sense of agency. So, can you speak to that piece just a little bit?

Sure. I, and I do want to be clear here too, that the work that I do is actually is really geared towards adults, because while our intention is always to help kids and to teach them the things if we ourselves are not well versed in these skills, then we're actually not able to teach them because even though the words that we say might be the right things, the things that we model actually speak so much more loudly than the things that we say.

The thing that I think is most important in finding your voice is understanding the role that self-regulation has to play. So, before we can even get to a point where you are able to say the things you want to say and show up and do the things you want to do, you have to get really comfortable noticing what's happening physically in your body.

Because without self-regulation, we're always in a state of survival. And whether you've gone through big T trauma, little T trauma, your nervous system reacts the same way. The trauma happens inside of you. It's not. Of course, the actual event, it's the feelings that happen and that are remembered in your body and in your system.

So when you're able to really understand how your body and is interplaying with your mind, then start to notice when you're feeling activated and start regulating, that's the first step in actually finding your voice.

What is self-regulation? What are the steps to becoming a self-regulated Individual?

Yes. I'm so glad you asked that. Self-regulation is going from that survival state where your brain is activated.

The part of your brain responsible for that stress response, your amygdala is on. It hasn't evolved much since the days we were hunting and gathering and being chased by bears. So even though it might seem like a harmless interaction, your amygdala still feels like it's being chased by a bear, so that survival state is when we're activated and things happen in our systems, like:
- increased heart rate,
- breathing gets faster
- muscle tension or tightness
- stomach pains
- Sweating

These are all ways that we go into fight, flight, freeze, or fog and when we are in that state, that stress state, there are parts of our brain that aren't functioning anymore because we don't need them when we're being chased by a bear.

So essentially it shuts off things like your prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for executive thinking, problem-solving, creativity, and prioritizing. Things that we probably will need to solve the problem or deal with a situation that's in front of us that's causing us stress. So self-regulation encompasses the tools that we use to bring ourselves from actively feeling as if we're being chased by a bear– survival to safety, where our nervous system is like, all right, we're good. We are so good. So then everything comes back online and you can actually go ahead and do the things that you need to do. So self-regulation happens in the middle.

How can our audience connect with you further? They would like to follow you on social media or connect?

On my website, empowerededucator.com, there is a free resource on there of 10 ways to beat the burnout. Essentially those are 10 Self-regulation techniques that you can use on the fly.

On Social Media, you can find Jen
Facebook community- Empowered Educator Faculty Room
Instagram & Twitter- @jenrafferty_