I’m unclear how to begin doing a thing I want to do, so I’m taking this tiny little first step out into the social media void.
The short? I’d like to consolidate a directory of trauma-informed, social and emotional (TISE, as I’ve started acronymming it) learning oriented, inclusive, antiracist, queer-affirming, and representationally-diverse professionals and resources for infants, toddlers, preschoolers and early elementary children and their support networks.
The long? As many of you know, I’ve been serving as a trauma-informed social-emotional learning clinician at a Pittsburgh preschool for several years now. Of course, I’m a speech/language therapist by training and trade, and I’ve been traveling a path of disavowing the traditional medical model of pathologically perceiving the individuals, communities, and families we serve as needing “to be fixed” or “assimilated to the norm” using behaviorist compliance techniques. This also means that I’ve been disentangling myself from most aspects of Skinnerian and Lovaas-inspired Applied Behavior Analysis, at least as we, considering most societal-systems-at-large and educational systems in particular, have come to conceive and apply them. I am disinterested in punishment/reward paradigms, in pathologizing the brains and outward behaviors of neurodivergent and disabled people, and interacting with students with an eye towards compliance (at all costs including social and emotional well-being) to standardized constructs of “normal” or “appropriate.”
To this end, I would love to compile a directory of professionals serving children, families, and communities as we consider TISE (trauma-informed, social and emotional) partnerships. I am interested in knowing which behavioral, medical, community, physical, and/or mental health professionals are: genderqueer and trans affirming and comfortable, neurodivergence affirming and comfortable, disability affirming and comfortable, Black affirming and comfortable across the spiritual and socioeconomic diversity with Black and African American communities, and/or socioeconomically disattached from endeavors pointed in the direction of making people assimilate to white dominant cultural standards as being medically or naturally “right.” There are likely other critical categories or demographics that I’m missing, and I want to remedy THAT as well. I am but one cisgender heterosexual white man attempting to heal his own traumas while serving the myriad communities around me in a trauma-informed, social and emotional, inclusive manner.
I realize this is a lot and will require inputs from diverse people and/or communities who may not necessarily align across the broad spectrum of human existence and interaction. However, I also know that there are many people who desire to support and bolster truly inclusive, socially-, emotionally-, and trauma-informed environments for ourselves, our children, our families, our community institutions, and our greater communities…and I believe we can and should be partnering, collaborating, and creating holistically-safe spaces.
If you’re interested in engaging in any way, offering insights or ideas, experiences, or technical/professional interest, I’m certainly available.
Considering the nature of the world at this point, and the increase in virtual communication and supports, I believe that any and all resources pointed in the directions I’ve described above could be valuable to local communities. However, I also believe it’s essential to find, partner with, and build community with like-minded and ethically-pointed professionals and collaborators who are immediately accessible. Also keep in mind that I am particularly interested in creating community with professionals and resources/organizations serving children and families with children in the infant, toddler, preschool, and early elementary range of ages.
I would love for this to happen to ANY extent that is possible. Children are precious and full humans who deserve to have their agency, consent, experiences, and self-identification respected and protected.
-Mr. Greg
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