Josh Varner
SPEAKER, AUTHOR &
CONSULTANT
ABOUT JOSHJosh Varner is a trauma informed speaker and a school mental health professional with a PASSION for helping individuals and schools to support students who have been impacted by childhood trauma. Josh has presented over 300 high energy, informative, interactive presentations to audiences all over the country. Along with speaking Josh has been a mental health professional, school counselor and coordinated an at-risk student program. Josh has experience in the classroom working with traumatized students and knows what will work for teachers.
Professional Development
School Wide Professional Development
Keynote Speaking
Keynote
Be Their Hero: Trauma Informed Care
Two out of every three students in the United States are impacted by a traumatic event. When students experience trauma or an extremely stressful situation, it's normal and natural for them to have a hard time coping afterwards. I'm passionate about teaching educators how to support individuals impacted by trauma. I specialize in inspiring teachers that they can support these students and be the hero in their life journey.
During this training participants will learn:
1. Learn how many students are impacted by childhood trauma and how to identify them.
2. Learn how the brain and body respond to trauma and how that impacts student behavior.
3. Leave with a ‘Call to Action’ and be equipped with many specific tools that are easy to use to support their students.
Keynote
Managing the Unmanageable: How to deal with increased stress in schools.
Recent studies have shown that it has never been more stressful to be an educator than it has over the past two years. Teacher burnout is at an all time high. So many of our stressors are out of our control (pandemic, lack of subs, increased student issues) but we can control how we manage our increased stress load. During this presentation you will learn how stress is stored in the body and evidence based ways to release it.
During this training participants will learn:
How stress gets stored in the body
Evidence based practices that complete the stress cycle
How to make an individualized stress management plan that meets the needs of each person.
Workshop
Supporting Dysregulated Students
Increased mental health challenges are putting additional stress on school staff and students. During this presentation we are going to learn how to maximize the resources in our school to support these students.
During this training participants will learn:
Classroom interventions to support dysregulated students.
Schoolwide supports designed to support students.
Student coping strategies that increase regulation and learning.
Workshop
Building Student Support Plans
Every challenging student has different needs to help them be successful in the school environment. During this training we will examine common challenging situations and practice making plans to help these students thrive..
During this training participants will learn:
Identify students' strengths.
Identify the root cause of the behavior.
Create individualized student support plans designed to address problematic behaviors.
Student Keynote
Why Mental Health Matters
More students are struggling with their mental health than ever before. They are looking for answers to the problems they are facing every day.
During this training participants will learn:
Why young people are struggling with their mental health at such alarming rates.
How to recognize when they need support with their emotional health.
Evidence based ways to meet their mental health needs.