Consultation for Preschools in Portland, Oregon
Will anything help this student be less challenging?
Supporting a child with significant behavioral, emotional, or sensory needs in the classroom can feel exhausting and overwhelming.
Dr. Katie Statman-Weil, LCSW has worked as a preschool teacher, center director, and college professor. Katie understands what it feels like to work with kids with big, confusing, and challenging behaviors in the classroom. Katie can work with a teacher, teaching team, or school to support shifts in classroom behaviors.
Many children exhibiting challenging behaviors are navigating nervous system stress, sensory overwhelm, trauma, anxiety, lagging skills, or neurodivergence. When educators are supported in understanding the “why” beneath behavior, everything begins to shift. Through relational, trauma-responsive, and neuroaffirming approaches, it becomes possible to create classroom environments where both students and educators feel more regulated, connected, and capable.
“Katie truly cared about us and our growth as an educator. She catered to our needs greatly.”
Maybe this isn’t how you imagined teaching would feel.
Many educators and school teams enter the profession feeling passionate, capable, and deeply committed to supporting children. But when a student presents with intense behavioral, emotional, or relational challenges, that confidence can begin to erode. Despite your training, experience, and best efforts, you may find yourself feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure how to meet the needs of a child whose behaviors seem constant, unpredictable, or escalating.
Over time, the stress can impact the entire classroom community. Teaching teams often find themselves exhausted from managing repeated dysregulation, struggling to balance the needs of one child with the needs of the group, and questioning whether anything will truly help. Even the most compassionate educators can begin to feel discouraged when traditional approaches don’t seem to work.
This is where consultation and collaborative support can make a meaningful difference.
Through a relational, trauma-responsive, and neuroaffirming lens, teaching teams can begin to better understand the “why” beneath challenging behavior and develop practical, sustainable strategies that support both the child and the adults caring for them. When educators feel supported and equipped, classrooms become more connected, regulated, and resilient for everyone involved.
Moving From Surviving to Thriving as an Educational Team
My goal in partnering with teaching teams is to help educators better understand the brain-behavior connection: how a child’s nervous system, developmental profile, sensory experience, trauma history, or neurodivergence may be influencing the behaviors showing up in the classroom. When educators begin to understand behavior through a relational and neurological lens, it becomes possible to respond in ways that reduce stress, increase connection, and create more sustainable support for everyone involved.
This work is about moving beyond crisis management and toward classrooms where both students and educators can feel more regulated, capable, and connected.
Consultation & Support May Be Helpful for Your Teaching Team If…
A student’s behaviors have continued to escalate despite the many interventions, strategies, and supports your team has already tried.
Your staff feels emotionally exhausted, overwhelmed, or constantly “on edge” while trying to manage the intensity of the classroom environment.
The relationship between educators and the student feels increasingly strained, disconnected, or stuck in cycles of conflict and dysregulation.
Supporting one child’s needs has begun to impact the well-being of the larger classroom community, staff morale, or team cohesion.
Teaching teams feel discouraged, ineffective, or uncertain about how to move forward in a way that truly supports the child.
You find yourselves spending most of the day reacting to crises rather than teaching, connecting, and building a positive classroom culture.
Staff members are struggling to balance compassion for the child with the very real stress and demands of the situation.
You worry about whether your current approaches are helping, or unintentionally increasing stress, shame, or dysregulation for the child.
Your team is looking for a more relational, trauma-responsive, and neuroaffirming framework for understanding and responding to behavior.
You want practical, sustainable strategies that support both the child and the adults caring for them.