2025 Summer Symposium

Felt safety is a relatively new term in education. It contrasts with concepts of school safety that are focused on securing the school environment or reducing violent incidents and physical harm. These valid school safety efforts (i.e. active shooter drills, fire drills, metal detectors, resource officers, locked doors, bullet-proof glass, etc) remind us that danger is ever-lurking. In this conference session, participants learn and experience the concept of felt–safety — a regulated state in the body. They gain an embodied understanding of how this ventral vagal state supports sequential brain development and prosocial behaviors in the classroom (adult and student).