What Does Self-Reg Look Like When It Starts to Change a Whole System?

One educator learns Self-Reg. They start seeing things differently. They share what they are noticing with a colleague. The colleague reads something. Attends a workshop. Tries it with a student. Brings it back to a team meeting.

And slowly, almost without anyone planning it, something in the culture starts to shift.

This is how Self-Reg tends to spread. Not by mandate, but by resonance. Not because someone was told to do it, but because it helped them make sense of what they were seeing.

Why Systems Change Is Never Simple

But systems change is never smooth. There are bumps. There are colleagues who are skeptical, there are leaders who are cautious and there are moments when it feels like the old language and the old approaches just keep reasserting themselves, no matter how hard you try.

Self-Reg Can Shift Systems

The final day of the symposium gives space to this honestly. A session called “When Self-Reg Starts to Shift Systems” creates room for the real conversation about what it looks like when this framework moves beyond one classroom or one team, and all the complications that come with that.

Looking at the World Through Self-Reg Eyes

Stuart Shanker’s keynote on the final morning, which is the only in-person talk he gives all year, takes the widest possible view. He looks at Self-Reg not just through the lens of schools or families, but through the lens of the world itself, examining how stress, fear, and dysregulation are shaping societies in ways we can all recognize.

It is a talk that is described as challenging, unsettling at times, and ultimately hopeful. That feels about right for this moment.

Sessions related to this post:

• July 9, 10:30 AM: Looking at the World Through Self-Reg Eyes, Stuart Shanker
• July 9, 12:45 PM Block 3: When Self-Reg Starts to Shift Systems, Kim Smith and Sonia Mastrangelo
• July 6, 3:00 PM Block 2: Learning Self-Reg Changed How We Understood Behaviour (Panel), Susan Hopkins with Brenda Smith-Chant, Crystal Carbino, Kim Smith, Paula Jurczak

Join us for the 12th annual Self-Reg Summer Symposium at Trent University – live in person for the full embodied experience, and online with key sessions live-streamed worldwide – to bust myths, practice five-domain Co-Reg in real cases, and leave re-skilled and re-energized for what kids need now.

Would you like to see the benefits of all in your care feeling safe, rooted, balanced, capable & trusted? Learn how to nurture a Self-Reg Haven with our Self-Reg Havens: 5 Look Fors available for both individuals and teams.