Shanker Self-Reg® begins with a powerful idea, captured in Stuart Shanker’s words: “See a child differently, and you see a different child.” That shift in how we see can change everything between us. Stuart Shanker, D.Phil, spent the last fifty years studying the brain, the body, and human development, searching for what actually shapes how we act, and that work led him to Self-Reg: the science that reframes behaviour not as a matter of willpower, but as a window into the brain-body system.
Stuart’s work challenges what we’ve long believed, not just about self-control, but about what it means to be human and to live well with one another. What happens within us is deeply connected to what happens between us; human beings do not function in isolation. This understanding begins in our earliest relationships and reaches into our schools, organizations, communities, and democratic life.
Across countries and cultures, people are worried about children and youth. Challenging behaviour has become daily instead of occasional. Anxiety is rising. School refusal is no longer rare. And parents, educators, and early childhood professionals, the people carrying all of this, are running on empty. Telling a child to try harder, behave better, or just calm down hasn’t worked. It was never built to explain why. Self-Reg starts with a different question: not what’s wrong with this child, but what’s happening in their brain-body system, and what’s happening between that system and the world around them.
This science gives us reason for hope. It shows us how deeply interconnected the brain and body are, and how development happens through relationships, not through a single system working in isolation. Shanker Self-Reg draws on this science across five interconnected domains, not just to explain what’s happening, but to show us what to do about it.
“Why? Why now?” is one of Stuart Shanker’s most important questions. It invites us to pause before deciding that we already know what a behaviour means, whether we’re looking at a child, a colleague, or ourselves. The “why now” is rarely one thing. Each of us carries our own stress backpack, and what’s inside it is different for every person. The “why now” is the moment that backpack’s cumulative weight, built across every domain of a life, finally shows up as behaviour.
Many of us inherited a compliance lens: the person understands what is expected and should do what they are told. Self-Reg opens a wider view, one grounded in science rather than judgment.
We call this looking with soft eyes. Soft eyes see the brilliance behind the behaviour: a brain-body system doing exactly what it has learned to do, shaped by everything a person has lived through and is living through now. Challenge still matters. Self-Reg helps us tell the difference between a challenge that builds someone up and a system that has been asked to carry more than it can, for longer than it should.
Explore Self-Reg learning, resources and practical tools for early childhood professionals and the early years.
Find Self-Reg learning, resources and support for parents, caregivers, families and communities.
Explore Self-Reg learning, resources and practical tools for educators, school leaders and school communities.
Explore Self-Reg science, learning and resources relevant to allied health professionals and practice.
Find Self-Reg learning, resources and partnership opportunities for leaders, teams and workplaces.
Explore Self-Reg research, learning and resources for researchers, faculty and postsecondary communities.
Stuart Shanker, D.Phil, founded The MEHRIT Centre in 2011 to help create a better world for children, youth, and families. For more than a decade, Susan Hopkins, EdD, has led TMC alongside Stuart and a deeply committed team.
Through courses, partnerships, and resources, we help people around the world bring Shanker Self-Reg into the places where children live and grow.
Our deepest way to learn Self-Reg.
Bring Self-Reg to your organization, community, or event.
Mini-courses, microcredentials, masterclasses, team learning and more.
Read, reflect, and bring Self-Reg into practice through toolkits.
Explore, discover, and keep learning.
Live online and in person learning and the annual summer symposium.
People come because they are looking for something that works, and for hope that things can be different.
See where to start.
