Dr. Jen Clifden
Educator | Relationship Researcher | Retention Specialist
Healing Schools
The most powerful factor in education isn’t a method or curriculum; it’s an educator’s safe Presence.
When adults stay regulated, connected, and grounded, students feel safer, behavior improves, and learning conditions strengthen. The Light You Cast™ is built on this truth: a regulated, attuned nervous system is one of the most powerful teaching tools an educator can bring to the classroom.
The Light You Cast™ | Healing Schools supports healing and well-being for all school staff by teaching the REST, RESTORATION, and REVITALIZATION practices that regulate adults’ nervous systems, maintain social-emotional Presence under stress, and model resilience and co-regulation. Burnout prevention becomes a natural by-product of these transformational practices, while simultaneously fostering safe, socially and emotionally supportive school climates where educators, school support staff, administrators and students can thrive in relationship with each other.
We are their external nervous systems.
As educators and school staff, our well-regulated nervous systems support our mental health and help us stay emotionally balanced and socially attuned, allowing our Presence to become a positive force in the school and classroom setting.
By co-regulating with students in safe social engagement zones, we amplify their healing, resilience, and learning while also replenishing our own well-being and energizing our sense of purpose.
"My husband, who is also a teacher, could not praise this training enough for helping him stay in the job."
Elementary Teacher
TLYC | Research Informed Foundation
Trauma-Responsive
Approaches
CASEL Social Emotional Learning
Competencies
Nervous System Health
Practices
Stress Metabolization
Interventions
Culturally Responsive Teaching
Practices
Healing Centered Engagement
Principles
Restorative Practice
Approaches
Mindfulness
Interventions
"The Light You Cast has taught me how to take life and teaching moment by moment, how to see clearly the problems that my students have in the moment and acting proactively. I've learned how to be calm and attentive to my students and how to be compassionate and mindful of their needs and my own."
Middle School Teacher
Integrated and Collaborative
Research shows that adult mental health and social-emotional well-being directly impact student learning by shaping the quality of relationships in the classroom.
Because relationships are a primary driver of resilience and motivation in schools and classrooms, The Light You Cast™ aligns our curriculum and experiences around these frameworks for school, staff, and student wellness:
Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Collaborative Approach
to Learning and Health.
@ CDC 2024
@ OSSE.gov
The Light You Cast™ interdisciplinary curriculum equips educators and school staff with research-backed practices that strengthen self-efficacy, nervous system regulation, adult social-emotional (SEL) competencies, co-regulation, and trauma-responsive classroom engagement practices.
These core capacities support school staff in cultivating their own calm, coherence, and resilience (Employee Wellness) while providing high-impact practices, rituals, and routines to mirror and model mental health, thriving states, and relational skills, fostering a healthy Social-Emotional Climate across the whole school, whole community, whole child, whole educator collaborative approach.
Whole School
Strengthens adult SEL, emotional regulation, and relational attunement across classrooms and schools
Whole Educator
Honor educators as whole people; providing professional learning experiences where they feel safe, seen, and supported
Whole Child
Supports educators' and school staff ability to foster safety, belonging, and optimal learning environments
Whole Community
Recognizes staff wellness as the unseen foundation for healthy school communities
CARE + HEALING + SUPPORT
Single Session | Event-Based
TLYC | Professional Development
TLYC | Keynote
Gift your staff an engaging, interactive professional learning experience that helps them feel seen, valued, and supported. They’ll gain practical, trauma-responsive strategies to manage stress, safeguard their mental health, and enhance social-emotional well-being as they continue their work of empowering others.
Explore how Jen engages large audiences, sparks meaningful reflection, and leaves participants energized, empowered, and saying:“This was the single best hour of professional engagement I have ever experienced!”
Cohort-Based | Sustained
Ideal for cohorts with similar roles or PLC groups
offered as a district-sponsored initiative or as a school-based training
New Teacher Induction Support | Leadership | Mentor Teachers
School Counselors | Behavior Support Teams | Cultural Liaisons
Restorative Practice Leads | Paraprofessionals/ EAs
TLYC | THE GROUNDED
{New} TEACHER
TLYC | ON-SITE
Equip early-career educators with the steadiness, SEL capacity, and presence that bring out the best in every learner. By strengthening teacher well-being, social–emotional and culturally sustaining teaching practices, relational skill, and the ability to move through the attitudinal phases of teaching with clarity and compassion, this training helps stave off burnout before it begins and transforms classrooms into places of safety, connection, and meaningful engagement.
This is our flagship curriculum offered in person, on-site, and in community. This immersive experience embodies the full depth of The Light You Cast™ curriculum tailored to the specific role of your group and elevated by the energy, connection, and support that only shared learning can provide.
After-School | Community-Based
Ideal for informal after-school support
offered as a district-sponsored initiative or as an after-school,
site-based offering
TLYC | COMMUNITIES
of PRACTICE
Experience the simple yet transformational power of circling up. TLYC | Communities of Practice are optional, on-going, drop-in 60–90 minute support circles where educators and caregivers gather to restore energy, release stress, and reconnect through shared practice. Grounded in The Light You Cast™ core practices, these non-instructional sessions harness the healing power of community and remind us that regulation, renewal, and resilience are strengthened when we practice together.
TLYC | IN-MOTION
Experience The Light You Cast™ in motion. TLYC Somatic Movement sessions -- offered in 30, 60, or 75 minute -- use body-first practices to calm the nervous system, release tension, boost energy, and integrate core curriculum principles. Facilitated on-site for convenience and community, these sessions offer the healing benefit of practicing together in a shared space, deepening connection while collectively releasing stress
Individualized | Choice-Driven
The online training can be licensed as districtwide invitational mental health/well-being support offering, by individual school building(s), or through a single administrator license that allows leaders to facilitate staff learning in PLCs or group settings, in-person and on-site
TLYC | ON-DEMAND
The Light You Cast™ ON-DEMAND is a self-paced, ongoing mental health training designed to support educators and school staff when they need it and how they choose to engage; not just during a single workshop or scheduled PD day. This fully online, eight-module mini–master class series gives educators instant, repeatable access to research-backed principles, practical strategies, and mind–body practices they can use anytime, anywhere to manage stress and strengthen inner steadiness.
Because the training is self-paced, teachers can move through the content at their own rhythm, revisit modules as needed, and integrate practices in ways that fit real school days and real lives. Participants earn 4.5 clock hours of CEUs, making this flexible, daily-use resource both personally supportive and professionally meaningful.
School Leadership
The Light We Cast™ | School Administrators
Grounded in Resonant and Adaptive Leadership principles, The Light We Cast™ for school administrators is designed with the real pressures of school leadership in mind and offers customized professional learning experiences designed to help leaders generate efficient, effective energy; the kind that emerges from insight, intuition, and alignment with core leadership strengths.
Leaders learn to slow down, regulate stress, resist the urge to rush or rescue, and meet complexity, uncertainty, and moments of not knowing with steadiness and sustainable energy that creates conditions where students, staff, and systems heal, adapt, and thrive.
Customized Coaching
TLYC | Personalized Care and Coaching
One-on-one support that customizes all trainings and practices to your unique role, stressors, and personal life. Designed for educators, school leaders, and human-service professionals, this coaching helps you heal from burnout, prevent it from recurring, and maintain work-life integration. Learn to regulate your stress, co-regulate with students and colleagues, and sustain the energy, presence, and fulfillment your work and life deserve.
TLYC | Signature Research-Backed Practices
When adults stay regulated, connected, and grounded, students feel safer, behavior improves, and learning conditions strengthen. The Light You Cast™ is built on this truth: your regulated nervous system is one of the most powerful teaching tools you have.
The Light You Cast™ curriculum centers on REST – RESTORATION -- REVITALIZATION, evidence-informed practices that nurture staff well-being while equipping educators to bring the same strategies into the classroom, fostering resilience, regulation, and connection for their students.
REST
NERVOUS SYSTEM HEALTH
Relax and Restore Saftey
Engage body-centered, trauma-responsive practices that gently regulate your nervous system, relieve patterns of tension and overwhelm, and replenish internal energy reserves. These practices invite your body out of survival mode and back into balance.
RESTORATION
MENTAL HEALTH
Making Meaning
Learn our signature, evidence-based Burn Balanced™ stress metabolization practice designed to sharpen clarity, counter the anxiety story, restore emotional balance, and rebuild a healthy sense of agency that helps you direct your energy toward what you can control while releasing the tight hold on what you cannot.
REVITALIZATION
RELATIONAL HEALTH
Connect with Others
Build the social intelligence and relational skills to respond with intention, create connections where others feel deeply seen and valued, and amplify your impact while staying peaceful and present.
"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
Every TLYC session includes:
Direct instruction on current, evidence-based knowledge and research about the 5 core capacities of mental health, burnout awareness, stress resilience strategies, and adaptive approaches staff can immediately apply at work or at home.
A simple, yet effective, trauma-responsive exercise that strengthens the parasympathetic nervous system's relaxation response, soothes a busy mind, and reconnects your staff with their body's intelligence.
Beautifully illustrated Put Into Practice handouts that outline detailed integration practices they can immediately apply to their professional and personal lives to extend and deepen the keynote conversation.
Engagement and interaction! Every keynote will get your staff connecting to themselves, each other, and to the collective mission that drives their work.
Core Curriculum
The Light You Cast™
is research based, teaches the science of relationships, and draws from
Social Emotional Cultural Learning (SECL) Theory
Restorative Practice
Conscious Discipline
Interpersonal Neurobiology
Trauma-Responsive Practices
Healing-Centered Engagement
Somatic (mind-body) Practices
Mindfulness
Nervous System Health
"Because of this training, I have now proclaimed that I am in my age of restoration;
professionally, personally, and spiritually.
You have helped me more than you will ever know. You helped me get back to myself."
High School Teacher
The Light You Cast™
Impact Data
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
Outcomes
RECOGNITION
Validate teachers need for sustained and systematic support in monitoring and assessing their physical, emotional, mental, and pyschological health within the system of education and everyday teaching.
EDUCATION & AWARENESS
Explore the 3 R's of relational healing and health - REST, RESTORATION, REVITALIZATION;
raise awareness of the primary sources of toxic stress in teaching and how to leverage stress to heal and not harm; explore the stages and manifestations of burnout, compassion fatigue, moral injury, and vicarious trauma.
HEALING & TRANSFORMATION
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 & CO-REGULATION
Experience slow, gentle body-based movement practices designed to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, melt tension, and provide manageable stress that boosts mental and emotional energy, enhances balance and body awareness, and supports overall physical health. These practices, combined with mindfulness-based visualizations, help you embody co-regulation, activating the brain’s self-regulatory systems to soothe stress, reduce anxiety, and override overwhelm—so you can model calm and resilient presence for those in your care
SUSTAINED, COMMUNAL SUPPORT
Engage in strategic school-based support and peer networking to prevent and mitigate burnout, secondary trauma, and moral injury, while fostering collective healing and supporting the restoration and rejuvenation of educators. Through these practices, staff cultivate a culture of healing-centered engagement that strengthens both individual well-being and the social-emotional climate of the school community.
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. "
Let's Connect!
Book a Free (and enjoyable) Consultation
I would love to chat.
We can schedule a 15 - 45 minute discovery conversation where I learn more about your needs and offer ways I am potentially able to support you or your staff's development. This is a no obligation, no risk discovery conversation.
