Allison Edwards LPC, RPT is an affiliate professor in the Human Development Counseling department at Vanderbilt University. She is the author of numerous books including Worry Says What? and Flooded: A Brain-Based Guide to Help Children Regulate Emotions (click the link to see a full list of her titles). Allison received her graduate degree in Counseling from Vanderbilt University and is a National Certified Counselor, Licensed Professional Counselor, and Registered Play Therapist. Allison has over 20 years experience working as a school teacher, school counselor, child/adolescent psychotherapist, and educational consultant to schools throughout the country.
Allison travels both nationally and internationally training professionals in the areas of empowering anxious children in the classroom, managing the emotional needs of students, recognizing the social/emotional needs of gifted students, and sharing how educators can talk to parents about student anxiety. Allison helps school leaders understand how social/emotional differences can be supported in their neurologically diverse student populations, and provides consultation and staff development on how to effectively improve emotion regulation in the classroom.
Today’s kids are falling apart in classrooms and educators and struggling with how to best support them. Should we allow students to avoid discomfort or push them to do challenging tasks? In this presentation, Allison will share how we got here and how we can help kids build resilience to manage their daily lives, and prepare them for the road ahead. Using real-life examples, humor and practical strategies, Allison will share how educators can take students from debilitated to empowered.
Based on her new book, Allison will give counselors and educators the tools they need to help students manage emotions. Using brain research and practical interventions, participants will learn to set up spaces to reset the brain, deescalate high-conflict situations and redirect students with emotions in mind. Along the way, educators will learn how to manage their own emotions when triggered. This is a must-attend for anyone who works with children!
We spend our days helping kids but how do we help ourselves? This program outlines self-care models for counseling professionals, uses humor and storytelling the normalize just how hard our jobs are, and leaves counselors feeling rejuvenated and hopeful that the career path they’ve chosen is right for them. How to structure your day, what to do afterwards, balancing home and work life and how to focus on the good will help counselors better manage their taxing jobs and give them strategies they can use for years to come!
Based on her best-selling book, Allison guides participants through the mental and emotional process of where the fears of smart kids come from and why they are so hard to move past. She explains why highly intelligent kids have a higher prevalence of social and emotional problems and how these differences present themselves in the classroom. In addition, she teaches 10 specially designed tools participants can use to help smart kids not only succeed in the classroom, but in life.
Feel like you don’t have enough time to do counseling? Participants will learn 15 counseling techniques that can be implemented in less than 15 minutes from when a student walks into your office. The program can be suited to elementary, middle, or high school counselors (or a combination of all) and participants will not only learn the strategies but will be doing them alongside Allison as she teaches how to implement them. Get out your Play-Doh! This hands-on, experiential program will revolutionize your counseling department and help kids leave feeling empowered.
Anxiety is the #1 mental health disorder in the country and affects nearly 30% of students. Each day students walk into classrooms with upset stomachs, sweaty palms and minds spinning with fear-based thoughts. Learn how to recognize anxiety in children, how to support anxiety in neurologically diverse classrooms, and how to talk to parents about student anxiety. Educators will leave the session with confidence to identify issues to address inside the classroom and how to work with outside professionals to help anxious children begin to thrive.
Teachers walk into classrooms everyday with students who have difficulty managing emotions. In this workshop, teachers will learn why Emotion Regulation is so hard for students (based on their backgrounds, Trauma and ACE’s) and learn effective ways to help students. Based on brain research, teachers will learn tools to help even the most dysregulated students become successful in the classroom.
Counselors work daily with students who are unable to regulate their emotions. Trauma and ACE’s are a large part of this epidemic and based on brain research, this workshop will help counselors learn how to identify triggers, teach effective coping strategies, and help students go from debilitated to empowered.
