In addition to sharing valuable insights, Nancy’s conversational tone and ability to show vulnerability in her practice brings her listeners in, creates a space for empathy and learning, and inspires us to connect at a deeper level with more people. And, one hopes, we will all make a bigger impact because of that.
”School Mental Health Course
Dr. Rappaport is available to speak or conduct longer workshops upon request on topics including the following:
- The Behavior Code: Understanding and Teaching the Most Challenging Students
- Resilience: Understanding and Teaching Challenging Children Without Burnout
- Compassion, Burnout, and Empathic Fatigue: Building Resilience in Our Patients and Ourselves
- “Is This Student Safe to Return?” A Comprehensive School Safety Assessment Approach
- After a Suicide: Helping Children Heal
- Teen Depression: What Parents, Schools, and Communities Can Do
- Finding Our Way: Healing Our Traumatized Children
- The Power of Reflection: The Role of Narrative in Medicine
- Advocating for Patients and Educating about Suicide: Drawing from Personal and Clinical Experience
Upcoming Events
School Safety Assessments with Case
Online OR at the Fairmont Copley Plaza
Presented with Dr. Sarah Goodrum.
Keynote: Making a Difference Conference
Supporting Youth with Depression During the Pandemic and Beyond: What Families, Schools, and Communities Can Do
Workshop 34: Writers Un-Block: An Individualized, Intensive, and Motivationally Enhancing Writing Workshop
Institute 4: The Psychiatrist’s Role in School Safety: Preventing, Assessing, and Responding to Student Threats
Child and adolescent psychiatrists are increasingly asked to make judgments about student safety and violence prevention in schools. Participants review the current research on assessing student threats, broaden their knowledge base of the safety/threat assessment process, and learn critical information necessary to complete a threat assessment. Topics covered include school violence perception, performing a safety/threat assessment, and developing programs to support students, families, and educators responding to school safety issues. Case discussions and question and answer periods are integral to understanding the level of risk, practicing case formulation, and planning next steps. Participants receive helpful tools and develop skills to assist them in working with schools to gather information, assess student safety, intervene appropriately, and make follow-up recommendations.
Presented with Dr. Sarah Goodrum, Dr. Farah Williams, Dr. Deborah Weisbrot, Dr. Saneliso Masuku, and Dr. Meredith Gansner.
The Behavior Code: Understanding and Teaching the Most Challenging Students
This interactive workshop will teach participants about classroom interventions and building resilience for students who have anxiety, depression, or oppositional behavior and who may be explosive, as well as those who have experienced trauma (including the impacts of the pandemic). The morning session will introduce participants to the FAIR Plan method of understanding and improving behavior in challenging students, which looks at the function of the behavior, accommodations, interventions, and response to the behavior. The impact of trauma will also be addressed, and many tools and concrete strategies will be introduced with an emphasis on helping students feel safe to accelerate learning; and strategies for working together with challenging parents to support their students and build better working relationships. Participants will work together on case studies using the information presented in order to deepen their understanding. In the afternoon, following a discussion of understanding and working with depressed students, including those who may be suicidal, the workshop will conclude with a discussion of how we can build resilience in both our students and ourselves. Handouts will include a detailed reference list for further reading on topics covered throughout the day. This workshop will provide the information, skills, and concrete strategies that educators need to make a crucial difference for students with challenging behavior.
Course Objectives
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Use strategies that enhance relationships with students with challenging behavior as a life-saving connection and address underlying skill deficits
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List the elements of a FAIR behavior plan
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Describe why traditional behavior plans of reward and consequences often do not work for students with challenging behavior such as anxiety and oppositional behavior
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Describe strategies for collaborating with parents, including those who may be disengaged or angry, to build an alliance and give concrete suggestions to help students with challenging behavior
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List signs and symptoms of depression in children and adolescents
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Identify steps to take when concerned a student may be suicidal
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Describe strategies for reintegrating students at school following a hospitalization
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Describe strategies for building resilience in students
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Identify tools for building resilience in self and in fellow educators
| Course Schedule | |
| 8:00-9:30 | Understanding and teaching the most challenging students |
| 9:30-10:00 | Break |
| 10:00-11:30 | Working with challenging students…and challenging parents |
| 11:30-12:30 | Lunch |
| 12:30-2:00 | Keeping kids alive: working with depressed kids and families |
| 2:00-2:30 | Break |
| 2:30-4:00 | Building resilience |
| 4:00 | Course evaluation |
Previous Events
Real World Strategies for Working with Challenging Students
Needham, MA
Improving the Odds for Children's Safety In Schools: Lessons Learned
Newark, NJ
The Behavior Code: Practical Strategies for Understanding and Teaching Students with Anxiety-Related and Disruptive Behavior
Newton, MA
The Behavior Code: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Teaching the Most Challenging Students
Real-World Strategies for Understanding and Teaching Challenging Students
Boston, MA
I Didn’t Mean to…: The Student with Sexualized Behavior
Building Connections and Hope: What Families, Schools, and Communities Can Do to Support Youth with Depression During the Pandemic and Beyond:
Participants will be able to:
- Recognize signs and symptoms of depression in teens
- List strategies for connecting with and supporting teens, including those with trauma histories and those with depression, during the pandemic
- Describe steps to take when concerned a teen is having suicidal thoughts
Supporting Youth with Depression During the Pandemic and Beyond: What Families, Schools, and Communities Can Do
Dr. Rappaport will discuss what depression may look like in teens at home and at school, how to proceed when concerned a teen may be suicidal, and how to connect with and support teens with depression during the pandemic and beyond. She will also discuss how building resilience in ourselves and in the teens in our lives allows us to boost our, and their, capacity to endure and perhaps even thrive during uncertain and challenging times. Her talk is based on her many years of clinical experience and experience translating psychiatric concepts into easy actionable steps for educators and families.
Participants will be able to:
- Recognize signs and symptoms of depression in teens
- List strategies for connecting with and supporting teens, including those with trauma histories and those with depression, during the pandemic
- Describe steps to take when concerned a teen is having suicidal thoughts
