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SELF-REG HAVENS
Havens are our dream for all schools, early childhood centres, homes — everywhere! A Self-Reg Haven is a place where everyone feels safe in every way: physically, emotionally, socially, and culturally.
Places, spaces and relationships that embrace the new and hopeful science of stress, self-regulation, and co-regulation, using Self-Reg as a foundational framework for all they do, are on the Self-Reg Haven journey.
In Havens we apply Self-Reg in layers, starting with the universal layer—everyone—and including not just children but every staff member and extending to parents and the community. No two Self-Reg Havens are alike and they all are continually evolving, but we can tell you this: you know one the moment you are in it.
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SELF-REG HAVEN FEATURES
I Know a Haven When I Find One
I’ve been thinking a lot about Self-Reg Havens these days as we get ready for the new school year. One big question that is not so easy to answer is: what makes a home, an early childhood centre, a school, or a community a haven? Stuart Shanker says…
The Self-Reg View of: Schools as “Self-Reg Havens”
“What,” Susan asked me, “do you mean when you talk about schools becoming ‘Self-Reg Havens’ and why is this so important?” My immediate reaction was: Ask me an easy one why don’t you! But the fact is, our experience…
Self-Reg RADAR: A Tool to Help With the “How” of Becoming a Haven
A Self-Reg Haven is a school where everyone feels physically and emotionally safe, where students and staff alike feel connected to the school and to each other. But the big question is the “How?”. I get asked questions like…
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MOST RECENT SELF-REG HAVEN BLOGS
WAVE Self-Reg Mapping Tool
The WAVE Self-Reg Mapping tool was designed for school teams who are at the second stage (Sunrise) of the Self-Reg Haven journey. WAVE can be used to help educators build a deeper understanding of a student in order to inform ( from a Self-Reg standpoint) both...
The RADAR Planning Model
Becoming a Self-Reg Haven, doesn’t happen in a week or a month. It’s an ongoing process of learning, trial and error, re-evaluation, reflection, planning, and learning from experience. RADAR is an acronym we use at The MEHRIT Centre as the name of our planning process...
No Such Thing As a Bad Kid. Really?
John Hoffman reflects on Stuart Shanker’s opening talk at SRSS 2023 There's No Such Thing as a Bad Kid For years, Stuart Shanker has maintained that “there’s no such thing as a bad kid.” It’s become one of the big mantras of the Self-Reg framework. But for Stuart it...
Self-Reg Strategies in the Five Domains
Self-Reg considers stress and self-regulation across five domains of experience: biological, emotion, cognitive, social and prosocial. And, as Stuart Shanker and Susan Hopkins so often say, it’s important to consider possible stressors in all five domains. At the same...
The Self-Reg Journey of Lisa Taylor
Dufferin County: Sparking Self-Reg Through “Dialogue, Dialogue, Dialogue” Originally written in 2019 I was noticing a significant increase in the number of children, younger and younger, unable to cope with the simplest of things and seeming so anxiety filled and...
The Self-Reg Journey of Anne Connolly
Self-Reg is for everyone and its capacity for positive impact is unlimited Originally written in 2019 I’m a Special Education teacher in MIssissauga, Ontario and mom of 2 fabulous neurodiverse kids. One of my children has struggled greatly with her self-regulation...