Light Up Empathy

A 4-week space explorer themed morning meeting series for middle school ESY scholars with disabilities. Led by Commander Sosnoff, it covers Mars Rover, Asteroid Navigation, Saturn Rings, and Nebula sectors with calendar ship logs, cosmic energy checks, stellar affirmations, and turn-and-talk communication prompts.

A interactive and engaging lesson designed to equip transitioning middle school students with coping strategies for handling sensory overload, rule-breaking peers, and group work frustrations. Includes an 10-slide presentation, a highly visual coping checklist, and a detailed facilitator guide.

A Tier 3 individual counseling intervention designed for 7th graders (ages 12-13) to map physical stress patterns, analyze neurological escalation, and construct customized coping matrices.

A restorative, intervention-focused lesson designed to address active bullying, social exclusion, or bystander behaviors. Provides a structured, objective, and deeply empathetic framework for restorative justice, self-reflection, and behavior correction.

A preventative Advisory-focused lesson that analyzes peer pressure, the psychological mechanics of herd mentality, and the courage required to stand alone. Students engage in self-reflection, case analysis, and scenario-based writing prompts to develop an 'outlier' mindset.

DBT emotion regulation session teaching 'Check the Facts' to verify if emotional reactions match the actual objective facts of a school or social situation.

DBT emotion regulation session teaching 'Opposite Action' to change painful or unhelpful emotions by deliberately acting contrary to emotional urges.

DBT distress tolerance session teaching 'Radical Acceptance' to tolerate painful realities that cannot be changed immediately without making them worse.

CBT and ACT session focusing on identifying core personal values and taking committed action steps toward them in school and life.

Interpersonal effectiveness session covering DBT FAST skills (Fair, Apologies, Stick to values, Truthful) to build self-respect and set healthy personal boundaries with peers.

Interpersonal effectiveness session covering the second half of DBT DEAR MAN (Mindful, Appear confident, Negotiate) to guide active communication delivery and conflict negotiation.

Interpersonal effectiveness session covering the first half of DBT DEAR MAN (Describe, Express, Assert, Reinforce) to teach structured assertive communication.

DBT session focusing on the 'Urge Surfing' technique to ride out intense emotional impulses and urges without acting on them destructively.

DBT session focusing on Behavior Chain Analysis to trace the sequence of events, thoughts, physical sensations, and actions that lead to emotional outbursts.

DBT crisis survival session focusing on the TIPP skills, specifically Paced breathing and Paired muscle relaxation to activate the parasympathetic nervous system.

DBT crisis survival session focusing on the TIPP skills, specifically Temperature shift and Intense exercise to down-regulate the nervous system.

Somatic and relaxation session focusing on Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) and diaphragmatic breathing to release physical stress.

Somatic grounding session utilizing sensory-based techniques to de-escalate anxiety and hyperarousal in school situations.

CBT session focusing on identifying automatic negative thoughts (ANTs) and cognitive reframing techniques using a 'Thought Detective' metaphor.

Day 3 of the Empathy Connection curriculum. Students apply active listening skills to complex disagreement scenarios, practice expressing empathy, and take the post-test assessment.

Day 2 of the Empathy Connection curriculum. Students engage in perspective-taking, learning that understanding another person's feelings and motives does not require agreeing with their point of view.

Day 1 of the Empathy Connection curriculum. Students administer the pre-test, explore the mechanical and emotional differences between sympathy and empathy, and practice shifting sympathy into empathy.

An 8th-grade social skills lesson designed to help students decode the intended meaning of a speaker by analyzing context (setting, timing) and relationship dynamics (familiarity, peer history). Includes an interactive slide deck, a student-facing practice decoder, and a facilitator guide.

A self-concept development lesson for sixth-grade students to boost self-esteem and positive self-talk before the summer transition. Students identify four learning and personal strengths to design a personal 'shield of honor'.