By Dr. Elizabeth Roberts, Psychologist Last April, I sat down for a wide-ranging conversation with Jamie Kreidstein of the Let's Talk, Youth Psychology podcast hosted by McGill University. Our conversation focused on teacher well-being, school climate, trauma-informed practice, and the state of mental health in our education system. These are themes I return to again and again in my clinical and school-based work, because they shape every student’s experience and every teacher’s day.
Below is a reflection on key ideas we discussed, along with why they matter for educators, families, and anyone concerned about the health of our schools.
My Professional Path & Why School Climate Matters
My work has spanned school psychology, clinical practice, and collaboration with families, teachers, and administrators. Across settings, one truth has remained constant: healthy school climate is not optional, it is foundational.
A positive school climate is created when:
Teachers feel psychologically safe,
Relationships are predictable and supportive,
Expectations are shared and consistent, and
Adults feel equipped to understand and respond to student needs.
When school climate is strong, teachers feel more supported, less overwhelmed, and more effective in their roles. That sense of well-being and professional efficacy has a direct impact on students—their learning, their emotional regulation, and their relationships within the school community. But the ripple effects extend even further. A healthy climate also shapes the experience of the school’s support professionals. Psychologists, OTs, SLPs, and social workers often find themselves delivering individual interventions that land flat when the broader climate is strained (very demotivating). When the system is steady, collaborative, and predictable, these interventions become far more impactful, because the foundation is finally strong enough to hold them.
During the height of the pandemic, the boundaries between home and school blurred. Parents became co-teachers; teachers became family-support coordinators; and communication became constant, messy, and deeply human.
Although the crisis has passed, the landscape has not returned to “before.”
Three lasting changes stand out:
Parents are more stressed and often more anxious.
Teachers carry more responsibility for emotional regulation and behavioural management.
Communication expectations remain high, while capacity is lower.
These shifts impact school climate in meaningful ways. When the home–school relationship feels strained or depleted, both parties experience less trust, less patience, and less clarity. Students feel this immediately.
The challenge ahead is not “improving communication” but rebuilding collaboration with gentleness, boundaries, and shared understanding of what each system is carrying.
How COVID-19 Taxed the Education System, and Why It Still Shows
The pandemic didn’t just exhaust teachers; it reshaped the nervous system of the entire profession.
Teachers absorbed:
Chronic uncertainty,
Rapid shifts in role expectations,
Heightened behavioural needs,
Increased emotional labour, and
Fewer institutional resources to support them.
Many educators describe feeling “never fully recovered.” The system absorbed a trauma of its own, and we see the effects today in:
Increased dysregulation among students,
Higher behavioural intensity,
Lower tolerance across all parties, and
Reduced resilience in school teams.
Trauma-Informed Practice: Not Softer, but Clearer
A trauma-informed approach in schools is often misunderstood as being “softer” on students, or as an invitation to let things go, but that couldn't be further from the truth or intention. Trauma-informed practice isn’t about lowering expectations—it’s about clarifying them. At its core, it is a framework built on predictability, clarity, safety, attunement, and co-regulation.
Rather than asking, “How do I stop this behaviour?”, it invites a different starting point: What has shaped this behaviour? The goal isn’t to excuse what’s happening, but to better understand it so we can intervene in ways that actually work.
In a school context, this means noticing how a child’s attachment history might influence the way they respond to authority or transitions. It means being curious about why certain cues: tone of voice, a sudden change, or a perceived criticism can ignite a reaction that seems disproportionate on the surface. It means supporting the adults in the building, not just the students, so teachers and staff can interpret behaviours accurately rather than through the lens of their own stress or overwhelm.
The State of School-Based Mental Health: Where We Are and Where We’re Not
Research and funding over the last decade have focused heavily on:
SEL curriculum
Mental health literacy
Suicide prevention
Anti-bullying programs
Universal screening
But what’s been missing is equally important:
Support for teacher emotional labour
Systems to process staff stress
Ongoing reflective supervision
Structured trauma-informed coaching
Time to collaborate across disciplines
We have focused on student-facing interventions without equally resourcing the adults who deliver them.
Where Do We Go From Here?
If we want thriving school environments, the solutions are not “more self-care” or another PD day on mindfulness. True teacher wellness requires:
1. Space for teachers to process the stress of the system
Not a break, processing. Meaningful, ongoing spaces where teachers can reflect on the emotional load of the work.
2. Strong, respectful home–school partnerships
Collaboration must move away from crisis-driven interactions toward predictable, trust-building structures.
3. Reflective practice as a system-level intervention
When teachers, parents, and support staff sit together to clarify patterns, explore meaning, and decide the next steps, everyone benefits.
Reflective spaces create:
Clarity
Containment,
Better boundaries,
Recognition of when an issue requires additional intervention instead of more emotional labour from teachers.
This is not a luxury; it is future-proofing our schools.
Final Thoughts
Teachers deserve systems that recognize the emotional weight of the work—not just their instructional load. Students deserve adults who feel supported and understood. Parents deserve partnerships rooted in empathy rather than exhaustion.
A healthier school climate begins with acknowledging what the last years have demanded of everyone—and intentionally building structures that can hold that reality.
If we can do that, we create schools that don’t just function, but heal, connect, and help entire communities thrive.
🎧 Click here to listen to the podcast episode on Spotify, and please send me your thoughts!
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