Unconditional Education Training

Seneca Services Education Unconditional Training Overview

Overview

Seneca’s Unconditional Education trainings empower educators to confidently navigate challenges and enrich the student experience at their schools. Through dynamic coaching — and by focusing on root causes of behavior — these professional development opportunities help create environments where both students and teachers flourish, feel valued, and are set up for success.

H.E.A.L. Training Series

The HEAL training series is a comprehensive program designed to foster personal and collective growth. The curriculum is based on four key action pillars:

Heal

Engage

Align

Lead

Each pillar addresses critical aspects of professional development, centering around trauma-informed practices, behavior intervention, relationship building, culture and climate alignment, and leadership skills.

PILLAR 1

Heal

Heal focuses on trauma-informed, healing-centered strategies. These trainings help educators understand trauma’s impact on behavior and learning — and equip them with the tools they need to create supportive environments that promote resilience and recovery. Expand each topic to learn more.

By embracing healing-centered engagement and trauma-informed principles, educators unlock the potential to cultivate thriving learning environments where every student feels valued and empowered. This dynamic approach moves away from victim-centered perspectives — instead recognizing students as active agents in their own growth — with a strong emphasis on cultural identity, community connection, and collective healing. Each of the following modules is 30 minutes and can be expanded based on your specific goals.

  • Understanding Trauma: Staff will explore the complex nature of trauma, including personal, intergenerational, racial, and institutional impacts on learning and behavior.
  • Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES): ACEs are traumatic events, like abuse, neglect, or household dysfunction, that occur before age 18, often leading to lasting health and education challenges.
  • Healing-Centered Engagement: This strength-based approach shifts focus from trauma to healing through cultural, collective, and identity-restoring practices.
  • Internal Working Model: Educators will design interventions to meet the emotional and academic needs of trauma-affected students.

By exploring the connections between trauma, behavior, and emotional regulation, participants will gain insight into how adverse experiences shape students’ actions. These sessions also examine the role of power dynamics and implicit bias in shaping our perceptions of behavior, encouraging staff to reflect on how these factors influence their responses and interactions with students. Each of the following modules is 30 minutes and can be expanded based on your specific goals.

  • Identity & Behavior: Explore how social identities shape experiences and behavior. Discuss privilege, marginalization, and self-awareness in social interactions.
  • Decoding Behavior: Challenging behaviors signal unmet needs. Instead of labeling actions, learn to view them as cues and ask, “What is this behavior trying to tell me?”
  • Trauma’s Footprint: Investigate trauma’s effects on behavior, especially in children. This will cover key symptoms and trauma-informed approaches.
  • Navigating Escalation: Learn the seven-phase escalation cycle in order to understand behavioral patterns and implement timely interventions.

Please note: Understanding Challenging Behaviors is a prerequisite to this topic. These sessions delve deeply into the behavioral escalation cycle, equipping participants with the knowledge and tools necessary to foster a positive learning environment. Participants will learn trauma-informed strategies to proactively prevent and effectively de-escalate problem behaviors. Each of the following modules is 30 minutes and can be expanded based on your specific goals.

  • Intervention Strategies for Escalation Cycle: Learn targeted strategies for each escalation phase, using proactive and reactive techniques to manage behavior, ensure safety, and foster positive outcomes.
  • Visualizing Behavior: Explore behavior maps linking actions, consequences, and emotions. Create and use these tools to encourage positive choices and reduce challenges.
  • Essential Tools: Access a glossary of tools and strategies to address challenging behaviors effectively in educational and therapeutic contexts.

Unleash the power of proactive communication and positive teamwork! These trainings explore the impact of power and privilege on group dynamics and equips you with practical strategies to build a stronger, more collaborative school culture. Each of the following modules is 30 minutes and can be expanded based on your specific goals.

  • SCARF Model: Discover how social threats impact team dynamics and performance using the SCARF Model (Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness). Learn strategies to reduce threats and boost rewards in team interactions.
  • Giving Feedback: Master the art of giving constructive feedback with a focus on timing, framing, and effective communication.
  • Receiving Feedback: Practice active listening, reflecting, and managing emotions to handle feedback constructively and with understanding.
  • OFIR Model: Explore the OIFR Model (Observational, Interactive, Feedback, Reflective) to enhance learning and growth through structured interactions and behavioral insights.

This training provides educators with the tools and insights to foster meaningful family engagement. Through self-reflection, overcoming communication barriers, and exploring effective strategies, participants will enhance collaboration with families — enriching student learning and building a supportive educational community. Each of the following modules is 30 minutes and can be expanded based on your specific goals.

  • Looking Inward: Explore self-reflection for educators and families. Gain an understanding of how biases and experiences shape engagement.
  • Breaking Down Walls: Examine barriers to effective family-educator communication. Learn to recognize and address challenges.
  • Bridging the Gap: Discover strategies to enhance family communication, with a focus on trust, transparency, and collaboration.
  • Innovative Approaches: Explore creative methods for family engagement and learn to create a welcoming environment for all.

This is a transformative training designed to empower educators with the tools and frameworks to cultivate personal and community wellness. Through exploring the impact of stress and moral injury, redefining self-care through a radical and healing-centered lens, and fostering collective care practices, participants will develop actionable plans for sustainable well-being, build supportive relationships, and create a thriving educational environment for themselves and their communities. Each of the following modules is 30 minutes and can be expanded based on your specific goals.

  • The Weight of Stress: Unpack personal and systemic stress on educators.
  • Beyond the Basics: Redefine self-care by exploring radical self-care and healing-centered engagement.
  • Navigating Moral Injury: Address moral injury through self- and collective-care practices.
  • Sustainable Collective Well-Being: Create actionable wellness plans, commit to ongoing care, and find support.

This training is designed to foster a more equitable and inclusive environment in education. Through four comprehensive modules, participants will uncover the nature and origins of implicit bias, recognize its impact on educators and students, and gain actionable strategies to interrupt bias and promote a thriving community for all. Each of the following modules is 30 minutes and can be expanded based on your specific goals.

  • Uncovering the Unseen: How implicit biases affect perceptions and actions without conscious awareness.
  • Tracing the Roots: Explore the impact of how societal norms, cultural messages, and personal experiences shape implicit biases.
  • Bias in the Classroom: How implicit bias affects educators and students, impacting classroom interactions, discipline, expectations, and outcomes.
  • Interrupting Bias to Foster Equity: Strategies to bring awareness and interrupt biases, fostering equitable environments.
PILLAR 2

Engage

Heal focuses on trauma-informed, healing-centered strategies. These trainings help educators understand trauma’s impact on behavior and learning — and equip them with the tools they need to create supportive environments that promote resilience and recovery. Expand each topic to learn more.

PILLAR 3

Align

Align explores the systems and practices shaping school environments and equips you to build a welcoming space where every student succeeds. Discover transformative systems and equity-driven strategies to cultivate thriving, inclusive schools. Participants will unleash the power of frameworks, such as restorative practices and courageous conversations, to revolutionize your school’s climate. Please contact the Unconditional Education team at [email protected] to learn more about professional development opportunities around these topics.

PILLAR 4

Lead

Lead is our advanced leadership coaching and consultation thread for school and district partners. Customized trainings cover facilitation, emotional intelligence, and team coaching from a healing-centered perspective to drive change and inspire others. Please contact the Unconditional Education team at [email protected] to learn more about professional development opportunities around these topics.

Seneca Services Education Unconditional Training Lets Connect

Let's Connnect

If you have an existing partnership with Seneca, please connect with your Seneca Director of School Partnerships to explore Unconditional Education training options at your site(s). If you do not have an existing service partnership with Seneca, please contact [email protected] to discuss how we can support your school or district. We look forward to partnering with you to create thriving educational environments where every student can succeed!