Applying the Neurosequential Model of Education to Address Emotion Regulation in the Social Work Classroom
Jennifer Lewis, PHD, LCSW; Bianca Harper, DSW, LCSW; Michele Grethel, Ph.D., LCSW&Sabrina Schoneberg, MSW
Abstract
Social work students who aspire to be skilled clinicians must be capable of teaching emotional regulation to their clients despite not having always mastered the skill themselves. This can be observed as dysregulation during course and field work. It therefore behooves us as social work educators to intentionally teach emotion regulation skills and ensure that it is appropriately scaffolded into the curriculum. Informed by literature on trauma informed pedagogy and the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (Perry, 2006), the sequential use of somatic, affective and cognitive skill building can be used in the classroom as a way to help social work students learn and heal.