Dr. Jen Clifden
Educator | Researcher | Burnout Preventionist
The Light You Cast™
for Educational Caregivers
Caring For and Protecting Our Educators
All school staff who engage students on a daily basis are educational caregivers! The influence that a present, compassionate, and kind educational caregiver has on a student is profound and long lasting. The research calls it the "Turn Around Teacher" effect.
Students thrive when schools and classroom spaces feel safe to learn, fail, feel joy, and explore one's interests and gifts. They thrive socially, academically, and emotionally when they feel seen and known by the educational caregivers in their schools and classrooms.
Research confirms that healthy teacher/student relationships correlate to increased student learning and increased teacher effectiveness and job satisfaction. Teachers report increased psychic rewards and revitalized energy when their relationships with students are healthy and harmonized.
The Light You Cast™ for Educators and Educational Caregivers is designed to:
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Increase educator awareness of early warning signs of burnout, compassion fatigue, and moral injury-- protective states of energy conservation that can negatively impact student - teacher relationships.
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Provide educators and educational caregivers with practices, strategies, and experiences rooted in mindful awareness and SEL for the deepening of self-awareness, self-compassion, and emotional resilience so that they can routinely adapt to the stressors of the profession in a functional and flexible way.
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Increase educator perspectives and practices that are rooted in mindfulness, restorative practice, and social and emotional learning to deliberately create healthy and engaging, equity-centered learning environments and relational spaces.
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Provide educators and educational caregivers with the foundational awareness and skills of relationship health so to be able to see and respond to student behavior from a healing-centered, trauma-informed perspective that stokes resonant relationships.
What We Know About
Teacher Burnout
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The mind of a teacher impacts teacher quality and is a critical factor in determining if a student receives a meaningful education (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, 2002; National Reading Panel, 2000)
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Teachers are among the groups of professionals most seriously impacted by stress, depression, and psychological fatigue (Franco, C., Manas, I., Cangas, A., Moreno, E., & Gallego, J. (2010). Reducing teachers’ psychological distress through a mindfulness training program.)
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Self-awareness and emotional intelligence build resilience and support teachers in their ability to cope with the emotional demands of teaching.
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The mental/emotional traits or “dispositions” of teachers directly affect their effectiveness as educators. When teachers are resilient, focused, and engaged, they are more skillful in executing quality instruction and interacting with students in meaningful ways.
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Emotional stress and poor emotional management is cited as of the primary reasons teachers flee the profession with nearly half of new teachers leaving the profession within their first five years of teaching. (Larrivee, B. (2012). Cultivating Teacher Renewal. United Kingdom)
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Teaching is emotional labor, and teacher emotional exhaustion and classroom climate are intricately connected. Burned-out teachers are less likely to demonstrate empathy and a caring attitude toward their students and have a diminished tolerance for disruptive behavior.
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Core Burn Clean Cycle
The Light You Cast™ for Educators and Educational Caregivers illuminates a cyclical process that builds stable and sustainable energy over time where the educator heals and becomes more of one's self through their teaching and work with students!
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"This training, while it addresses the very personal needs of avoiding burnout and coping with stress, finds its way into improving our relationships with everyone we encounter on our mission to teach."
High School Teacher
Core Restoration Practices
The Light You Cast™ for Educators and Educational Caregivers recognizes that teacher dispositions are not fixed personality traits; they are dynamic and cultivatable. With a growing body of data-driven mindfulness-based interventions, we can effectively train and support the cultivation of self-awareness, critical consciousness, curiosity, positive attitude, and compassion; essential habits of mind and dispositions of care of our teachers
The Light You Cast™curriculum integrates healing-centered design, adult Social and Emotional Learning theory, interpersonal neurobiology, trauma-responsive care, and attachment theory with restorative, somatic movement exercises and mindfulness practices, so to cultivate the 3 R's of educator mind, body, and soul well-being.
REST
Healing Pillar
Regulate Nervous System | Restore Rhythm of the Body
Engage trauma-informed, body-centered "pressure relief valve" practices that harmonize, soothe, and regulate the mindbodysoul system.
RESTORATION
Healing Pillar
Making Meaning | Integration
Consciously metabolize
mental and emotional stress through our signature cognitive - behavioral Burn Clean Process to build resilience, self-confidence, mental agility, emotional literacy, and behavioral patterns that align with core worth and values.
REVITALIZATION
Healing Pillar
Connection with Others
Cultivate social intelligence and relationship skills to see, sense and respond to another's behavioral cues without taking it personally while creating resonate relationship patterns where others feel seen and safe.
Curriculum
The Light You Cast™ curriculum teaches the
science of relationships and is based on:
Healing-Centered Design
Mindfulness
Somatic Practices
Social and Emotional Learning Theory
Interpersonal Neurobiology
Trauma-Responsive Care
Restorative Justice Practices
Training Design & Delivery
The Light You Cast™for Educators curriculum can be offered as a series of in-person training where we gather as a cohort or group to engage in soothing body-mind healing movement, group learning, peer processing, and collective healing.
In-person trainings can either complement the online, self-paced modules, or they can stand on their own.
All training sessions include:
Direct instruction on current, evidence-based knowledge and research about teacher burnout and compassion fatigue prevention, human resilience, dispositional development, restorative justice, and relational health practices
Trauma-informed somatic breath and body practices that strengthen the parasympathetic nervous system's relaxation response and calm a busy mind in the midst of teaching
Beautifully illustrated Put Into Practice training handbook that outlines detailed application practices to integrate into one's daily life as a teacher and personal life as a caregiver
Personal reflection and peer connection time for personal and peer integration.
On-Demand | Self-Paced Offering
The entire (8) module signature curriculum fully online and self-paced can be licensed for just you or your entire school or school district for ongoing, sustained mental health, emotional resilience, relational health, and burnout prevention support.
The Light You Cast™ ONLINE Curriculum can also be offered to complement and deepen any in-person professional development experiences.
On-Demand | Self-Paced
Statistics
40+
school districts and private schools who have engaged and integrated The Light You Cast™ professional development for their educators and educational caregivers
26,000
views of the On-Demand | Self-Paced The Light You Cast™ content and yoga videos by educators and educational caregivers.
17,000 +
hours invested by educators in their mental health, emotional wellness, body health, and soul well-being through the On-Demand | Self-Paced The Light You Cast™curriculum
8,000 +
educators and educational caregivers that have invested in their mind, body, and soul health through
The Light You Cast™ in-person and on-demand experiences
"Thank you for reminding me of how much power I have over myself. You brought me back to the present, put me back in touch with my body, and made things real for me again. I am left with the mindset that whatever role I play with my students, my light will shine through, and I will connect with them, guide them, help them, and still be me no matter the situation."
Middle School Orchestra Teacher
In-Person Offerings
Foundations Training
Banishing Educator Burnout
through Balance and Boundaries
As an educator, you have been called to a relationship-based profession. That means that the relationships you have with students are not only core to your sense of purpose, satisfaction, and effectiveness in your calling, they dramatically influence and impact your overall sense of self and personal well-being.
Given that all relationships are a sharing of energy and information, the primary question we will explore in our foundations work is:
How do you strategically maintain a sense of balance and inner harmony between the opposing forces of giving of yourself as an educator while not losing yourself in the process?
In our foundations training, together, we will:
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Explore and experience the 3 R's - REST, RESTORATION, REVITALIZATION cycle of teacher and educational caregiver wellbeing
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Engage and experience trauma-responsive mind-body somatic healing practices that calm a busy mind, soothe the nervous system, relieve anxiety and overwhelm, and revitalize energy throughout your entire system while you are teaching and working directly with students
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Reconnect with one's core power source as a educator: core values, core strengths, core calling, core knowledge, and core purpose
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Gain awareness of the 8 primary stressors for educators that drive burnout, compassion fatigue, and moral injury
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Learn how to recognize the stages and manifestations of teacher burnout, compassion fatigue, and moral injury while learning different stress-reducing strategies that mitigate the onset of the different types of energetic fatigue in teaching
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Learn and engage our signature Burn Clean CycleTM process for metabolizing the stress that feeds burnout into fuel that builds your resilience reservoirs so you bring more (not less) of your soul into your teaching and your relationships with students
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Explore the art of boundary setting and learn practical and concrete boundary building techniques that protect the teacher's most important assets- one's energy, attention, and sense of self/ presence
Choose which option works best for your staff
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(1 half day) 3-3.5 hour restorative retreat
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(1 day) 5-6 hour, in-person, training
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(2 day) 3 hour, in-person, training
Connect with Jen for a customized investment quote for the size of your group
4 Core Topics Trainings
The Light You Cast™for Educators and Educational Caregivers
curriculum is designed to be offered as a series of in-person training sessions where we gather as a cohort or as the collective school staff to engage in communities of practice, peer processing and integration, and collective healing and well-being.
In-person trainings can either complement the online, self-paced modules or can stand on their own.
Each core topic is designed to be a 3-3.5 hour immersive experience.
#1
#2
Managing Your Energy, Not Time
The art of energy management
Detoxing Toxic Teacher Stress
How school stress harms and heals
Busyness and time stress has become a predominate mode of being in our systems of education. When teachers and educational caregivers feel chronically time-starved, it impacts their entire mind-body-spirit system. In this session, we explore how to create the "slow in the fast" where the educator learns strategies and mindsets to teach from a place of presence and patience. This session sets the foundational concepts of Burnout Awareness, Mental Health, and Energy Restoration
"Healing is a practice. It's not a one-time thing or idea. If I get up and do a bunch of exercises and repeat them, over time my muscles with get stronger. Healing is a practice just like this." (M. Schroedl) Detoxing stress before it sets into the mind, body, soul system is perpetual practice, and it requires attention, dedication, and commitment. In this session, we focus our attention on specific practices that educators can leverage THROUGH stressful moments to transfigure toxic stress into moments of self-care and self-healing. Not all stress is created equal. Some stress is good and some is not. In this session we explore the Stress Spectrum while educators learn about how the personally interact with and metabolizes different stressors in different ways. In this session, we explore the toxic stress impact and it's connection to how it negatively impacts student-teacher relationships and the teacher's relationship with the self. Our focus: -What is toxic stress vs. healthy/productive stress? How does toxic school stress create trauma in the body of the educator? -What is productive/healthy stress? -How can we strategically metabolize common teacher triggers into energetic fuel that stokes teacher resilience, mental health, and wisdom? Discover one's personal triggers that drive toxic reactions and learn an evidence-baed H.E.A.L practice for transforming a trigger into healing, insight, and mental health Engage and experience RESTORATIVE mind-body practices that settle and safeguard the body and befriend the nervous system
#3
The Healing Powers of Compassion
How compassion for the self cultivates compassion and empathy for students
#4
Energized Teaching
The Light You Cast and the Turn Around Teacher Impact
“It’s critical to realize that this epidemic of compassion fatigue is a shared responsibility. Individuals are not going to ‘resilience their way’ out of this. The medical system and culture of medicine have to change.” Oana Tomescu, MD We believe that the calling to be a public health caregiver is about care and healing for the communities they serve, AND we believe that public health caregivers were called to this healing work not only to heal others but to heal themselves. We believe that public health caregivers can learn strategies, perspectives, habits, and ways of being in relationship to stress and PTSD that stoke self-witnessing, self-compassion, and unconditional positive regard. Compassion for the self begets compassion for those in one's care. Compassion heals burnout, secondary trauma, and compassion fatigue. This session sets the foundational concepts of Relationship Revitalization and Compassionate Caregiving: - Learn and practice the 3 core elements of self-compassion while exploring how self-compassion has protective properties that stave off secondary trauma and compassion fatigue - Explore the difference between compassion fatigue, burnout, and secondary trauma - Experience the C.A.R.E healing module for revitalizing relationships based on deep listening and empathy - Discover one's personal triggers that drive compassion fatigue - Learn an evidence-based C.A.R.E practice for strengthening healthy relationships and social connections in the workplace where all feel safe, significant, and valued - Engage and experience REVITALIZING mind-body practices that activate the "soul nerve" and drive connection with those in our care
"As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our PRESENCE automatically liberates others." (M. Williamson) All relationships are a sharing of energy and information (Dan Seigel, Interpersonal Neurobiology). The light you cast, your presence, is the foundation of creating and sustaining healthy relationships. In order to best know how to sustain and maintain health relationships outwardly, one must know the core inner processes and practices that produce a healthy relationship with the self. If, as caregivers, we aspire to create and hold space for others to grow, thrive, become, and realize their fullest expression of self, we first need to know and practice this resilience and becoming practice for ourselves. In this session, caregivers engage the 4 core elements for committing to their commitment to maintain balance between investing energy inward to grow and develop as a human and soul while giving their energy outward to those in their care. We will also engage the core parts of the Hero's Journey to illustrate and illuminate a pathway of practices that produce the three core manifestations of Burning Clean: Self-Revitalization Self-Confidence Emotional Expression and Vitality
Select one or more 3 hour training ala cart style or offer all 4 to your school or district staff
Connect with Jen for a customized investment quote for the size of your group and desired choice of sessions
Outcomes
Through the The Light You Cast™ for Educators and Educational Caregivers,
we will enact the cycle of healing and mindbodysoul restoration:
RECOGNITION
Validate teachers need for sustained and systematic support in monitoring and assessing their physical, emotional, mental, and soul health within the system of education and everyday teaching.
EDUCATION & AWARENESS
Explore the 3 R's of teacher mindbodysoul healing and health - REST, RESTORATION, REVITALIZATION;
raise awareness of the primary sources of toxic stress in teaching and how to leverage stress to heal (vs. cause soul and self harm);
explore the stages and manifestations of burnout, compassion fatigue, and moral injury.
AWAKENING
Discover and engage trauma-responsive principles, practices, and perspectives to REGULATE and soothe the nervous system so to RELATE to stress in a healthy way in order to cultivate REASON and wisdom from overwhelm, uncertainty, stress, and anxiety that occurs in teaching.
EMBODIMENT
Experience slow and gentle body-based movement poses designed to activate the parasympathetic nervous system to melt tension while providing moderate amounts of healthy stress to boost mental and emotional energy, improve balance and body-awareness, and help to reduce inflammation that leads to disease; cultivate brain-health through mindfulness-based visualizations that activate the self-regulatory part of the brain to soothe stress, alleviate anxiety, and over-ride overwhelm.
RESTORATION
Learn how to engage our signature Burn Clean CyleTM for metabolizing stress into mental strength and agility, emotional health and vitality, value-based self-agency and action, and post-traumatic wisdom.
SUSTAINED SUPPORT
Engage in strategic school-based support and peer networking so to continually manage and mitigate the onset of burnout, secondary trauma, and moral injury while magnifying collective healing and individual restoration and rejuvenation of teachers.
What educators are saying after engaging The Light You Cast trainings
I believe...
“I can re-story a threat to be a challenge.”
“My perception of a situation creates my feelings in that present moment. What I am feeling directly influences what I say and do. I should go into each moment knowing that I have a deep well of kindness, calmness and caring to bring to that next moment or next interaction with students.”
“My joy comes from seeing the beauty of each child when they are learning and feeling successful!! I also feel joy when children come to see me with such love and excitement!!!"
“If I am feeling stressed, just taking a few moments to focus on my breathing will help reset my body.”
“How important gratitude is. Asking how I want to be today and recognizing my breath.”
“That we have to be intentional about creating opportunities to connect with and show compassion for students.”
“Creating micro moments in the day to stop the fast pace and connect with those in my care - miracles are more like changes in perspective, so I realized I have more control than I thought."
“In order to truly affirm my students, I need to affirm myself first.”
“I am naturally resilient, and that resilience within is cultivated in relationships with others, and hence as a teacher I am critical in building resiliency in my students. Embracing and honoring trauma is at the heart of allowing fear to turn into love.”
"I am enough."
"This training, while it addresses the very personal needs of avoiding burnout and coping with stress, finds its way into improving our relationships with everyone we encounter on our mission to teach. Self-love as the cornerstone of racial justice seems simple, cutting edge, and essential all at once. "
Certificate of Completion
Earn a Certificate of Completion for total number of "clock hours" to submit to their accrediting body for Continuing Education Credit consideration.
