ABSTRACT
The Healing the Self model was developed from evidence-based psychotherapy approaches that have been demonstrated to reduce anger, anxiety, and other emotional turmoil. Healing the Self provides a framework for teachers and others to apply evidence-based, psychotherapeutically derived skills and concepts in the classroom. This chapter outlines how schools can attempt to build trust with families, explores how to bridge the home-school divide. Thinking of problems in terms of context avoids the necessity of an agreement to the problem by the school and the student’s family. That is, rather than agreeing that a student, Billy, has ADHD, the school must merely do its best to enable Billy to focus at school. Adults working with challenging children must recognize the family’s need to feel proud in order to invest and connect with both the child’s emotional growth and the school or therapist.
