Ms. Shannon’s Counseling Page

11/30/2025

Sarah R. Moore, Dandelion Seeds Positive Parenting 💜

11/25/2025

11/21/2025

11/20/2025

Have you ever noticed how your child can go from calm to explosive in seconds? Dan Siegel’s Upstairs / Downstairs Brain is a simple way to understand why.

The 'downstairs brain' is in charge of big emotions, survival instincts and staying safe. It reacts quickly – think fight, flight, freeze.

The 'upstairs brain' is where problem-solving, empathy, and reasoning live. It helps children make good choices, manage feelings, and connect with others.

But here’s the catch: children’s upstairs brains are still under construction. That means when emotions overwhelm, their downstairs brain often takes over.

This isn’t 'bad behaviour' – it’s biology. When we see it this way, we can respond with compassion, co-regulation, and strategies that help a young person move from downstairs to upstairs.
Resources to support educating a child around this model are available in our Resource Store.
EMOTIONS and MY BRAIN
This extensive resource pack based on Dan Siegel’s Upstairs and Downstairs Brain
helps and educates children and young people on the concept of the upstairs and downstairs brain can help them recognise how their own brain functions and develop strategies for self-regulation and emotional intelligence.
The pack comprises explainers, emotions scale resources, practical activities including upstairs and downstairs brain choices (behaviours), stress response, amygdala hijack, explainers for both adults and young people and activities to consolidate learning around parts of the brain and functions. Also includes 5 skin tone range of emotions.

Varying resources to suit ages 6-16yrs. Now also available as an 8 week intervention.
Electronic download available at link in comments or via our Linktree Shop in Bio.

FOLLOW for more posts in our series, When Worries Take Over.

11/20/2025

A common misconception is people think a regulated nervous system means: calm, zen, peaceful, never stressed.

But from a polyvagal perspective? That's not regulation. That's one state.
A regulated nervous system is a FLEXIBLE one.

It can:
✨Activate when you need energy or focus (sympathetic)
✨Settle when it's time to rest (parasympathetic)
✨Connect when you feel safe (ventral vagal)
✨Protect when there's a threat (fight, flight, freeze)

And most importantly: it can MOVE between these states fluidly.🌀

Here's what this means for you:
❌ Don't judge yourself for not being calm all the time
✅ Celebrate when you can activate AND settle back down

❌ Don't think stress = dysregulation
✅ Dysregulation = getting STUCK in a state (can't come back down, can't access energy, can't feel safe)

❌ Don't aim for flatline calm
✅ Aim for nervous system flexibility, the ability to respond and recover

💥Stop aiming for constant calm. Start building nervous system flexibility.💥

11/15/2025

11/07/2025

😫 Inattention, defiance, or emotional outbursts? It might not be “bad behavior”…

🌪️ When sensory needs go unmet, kids can struggle to stay calm, focused, or regulated.

🏫 Sometimes the real challenge isn’t the child.

It’s the environment around them.

11/07/2025

It's Think About it Thursday!

11/07/2025

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From

11/07/2025

11/05/2025

Most of what we've been told about burnout is wrong.
And that's why so many educators are burning out, and then blaming themselves for it.😔

Burnout isn't a personal failure. It's a nervous system injury.📣📣

From a polyvagal perspective, burnout happens when your nervous system gets stuck in chronic dysregulation:
⚡Too much sympathetic activation (stress, doing, hypervigilance)
😴Not enough parasympathetic restoration (rest, safety, recovery)
🥶Eventually collapsing into dorsal vagal shutdown (freeze, numbness, collapse)

Understanding burnout through a nervous system lens changes everything:
👩‍🏫Instead of "I'm not strong enough" → "My nervous system needs protection"
👩‍🏫Instead of "I just need to push harder" → "My body is asking me to stop"
👩‍🏫Instead of "A vacation will fix this" → "I need sustained nervous system recovery"

The truth? Prevention is simpler than recovery. And prevention looks like:
✨Honoring your body's signals before collapse (notice sensations!)
✨Building in micro-moments of rest daily (settler practices!)
✨Protecting your nervous system like the resource it is (teacher well-being!)
✨Saying no before you're empty (boundaries!)

Your nervous system isn't broken. It's doing exactly what it's supposed to do: trying to protect you.

⚡The question is: Will you listen?⚡

11/05/2025

via Educated by Nature