Welcome to the Classroom Narratives Healing in
Education podcast, the space where education
meets resilience. I'm Dr. Joey Weisler, and in
each episode, we dive deep into the personal
stories of educators, students, leaders, and
frontline advocates who are navigating the complexities
within modern education. Whether you're just
starting your teaching journey, or are we seasoned
professional looking for inspiration, we'll
explore how to foster meaningful change, prevent
burnout, and build trauma -informed communities
within our schools. Now, let's take a seat at
the front of the classroom as we get started.
Welcome back to the Classroom Narratives Healing
in Education Podcast, where we're continuing
to explore healing, burnout, and resilience in
education, one story at a time. Today, we're
joined by someone whose work is reshaping how
we think about storytelling and service spaces.
Maria Bryan is the founder and principal of Maria
Bryan Creative, a Tallahassee -based consultancy
originally built in Brooklyn. She's a trauma
-informed storyteller, a purpose -driven marketing
strategist, and the host of the When Bearing Witness
podcast. Through certifications, workshops, and keynotes, Maria teaches nonprofits
and really all of us how to gather and share
world -changing stories without causing harm.
Her guiding belief is that stories are sacred
and storytellers have the ability to create safer
and more connected communities. So in today's
conversation, we're going to be working to unpack
what it means to approach storytelling with care
and compassion, especially when working in education,
advocacy, and healing spaces. Maria, welcome
to the show. Oh, thank you so much, Joey. That
was a very kind introduction. We try. Thank you
again. So before we came on, Maria and I met
through a mutual conversation. And just now on
our pre -recording, I mentioned the idea as to
how I was speaking with another contact about
a week ago who is working with film here in the
South Florida area. And the resolution that we
both came up with is that, we know how important
mental health is to our community. Everybody
wants to say, yes, mental health matters. Mental
health matters. Break the stigma. Yet the work
that we do and actually trying to lean into the
discomfort and telling those stories and witnessing
those stories is something that a lot of us still
really hold back on doing. So Maria, tell us
your perspective on that philosophy and what
is Maria Bryan Creative doing to cover that?
Yeah, so I couldn't agree more. Actually, it's
one of my biggest pet peeves when nonprofit marketers
and fundraisers will tell their story owners,
if you tell your story, it's going to help in
your healing process. And I just think that's
really not very genuine, authentic, or necessarily
true. It's a promise that we can't make that
just by telling your story that you will heal.
So I'm so glad that you're having these kinds
of conversations as well. In my studies of being
trauma -informed and trauma -resilient, storytelling
can play a huge role in healing, but it's not
a promise that we can make, especially on a timeline.
So what my thoughts are, when you are going to
tell your own story or you're asking others to
tell their story, especially in the teaching
context, you should have two questions in mind.
One is, what is your goal? or telling your story
or a story? And what is the outcome that you
want? So maybe your goal is to heal, but maybe
It's to educate. Maybe it's to inspire. Maybe
it's to change legislation. And what outcome
do you want? What kind of action do you want
people to take? Do you want your students to
check on one another? Do you want fellow teachers
to check on their students? Do you want... administration
to provide better spaces safer more trauma -informed
spaces and I think when we ask these questions
what are your goals and what outcomes do you
want it frees us up to not just focus so heavily
on the healing part there's lots of reasons why
storytelling is important and I don't think we
need to put so much pressure on the healing aspect
of it because you're right storytelling can be
incredibly painful. There's a lot of tenants
of being trauma informed. And there's two that
I really stick to. And that is providing safety
and agency, because those are the two things
that are stripped away when you have experienced
trauma and trauma, by the way, isn't the experience
itself. That's how your body responds to trauma,
which is going to be different for every single
person. And so I actually feel like we should
give that agency to folks make give that decision
to folks. If they're in a season where they just
want to listen to fun, lighthearted podcasts,
I think that's perfectly fine. And when they're
ready, when they're ready to dig a little bit
deeper and to hold space for pain and revisiting
those difficult parts, maybe they never will,
then invite them to come listen to you. I think
that. All of us, again, for your listeners who
are teachers or storytellers, that we think that
we are for everybody, but really we are for people
who are ready and willing to listen to what we
have to say. So folks are tuning in to a difficult
subject matter. and they're not ready, they're
actually probably going to make negative associations
with you. So it's best to just let people know
that you're there, you're there when they're
ready to engage. Those are my thoughts. I'd love
that to be ready and to be willing to go into
those types of stories when the subject feels
that the time is right. So with that, we talk
about stories. Again, you advocate for the truth
that stories are sacred. I love that line so
much. So for educators and nonprofit professionals
who are working with real human pain, what does
it mean to treat storytelling as sacred in practical
terms? Stories are a gift. You know, we sometimes
feel that people owe us their stories. Sometimes
we feel like kind of alluding to your previous
questions, people. should listen to our stories
or you hear someone's story and you're like,
oh, someone else needs to hear that story. But
really stories are so personal and they're a
gift. So first and foremost, it's not something
that anyone has to give. It's a choice to give
and it's a beautiful gift to give. Also, in my
experience, stories change lives. They're foundational
to behavior change, to social justice, to the
development of young people in my world, the
nonprofit sector, they change minds, they change
hearts, they open wallets, they move missions.
And all of these just reminds me how precious
and sacred stories are. And I hope you don't
mind me getting a little bit. political, but
right now the nonprofit space is very much under
attack. A lot of funding is being pulled from
really, really important missions across the
United States. And this year is also a reminder
to me that they can't take away our stories.
No one can take away our stories and our experiences.
So no matter what's being pulled from us, we'll
always have, and not just our stories from this
year or from today, but just generations our
ancestors stories and what we've all been through
what are again our ancestors have been through
these are the stories that are ours to keep and
will also get us through difficult times I'm
getting all the feels from that. Stories are
a gift. It's our choice to give and no one can
take our stories away. Truthfully, humans are
storytelling creatures. Like our minds are wired
to give and receive stories, essentially. And
one of the reasons why I love teaching a literature
class is for that reason, because I tell the
students, take this space to explore your story,
not just the stories we read, but the stories
you want to tell as well and find your voice
through that. Again, as an educator working with
that, I also have to be careful not to blur boundaries
and lines and getting students to tell a story
that they may not be ready to tell. So what would
you say are some of the biggest mistakes that
well -meaning educators and change makers make
when asking students and communities to come
forward with their stories? And how can we do
better in being trauma informed in that space?
Right. I think it comes down to like story readiness
and story consent, which are like. technical
terms that we use as storytellers, but the story
readiness is just that. My hope is that students...
have choices in telling their stories. And just
because you share your story doesn't mean it
needs to be shared publicly. So I'd wonder as
far as story readiness, and I guess consent too,
as a matter of what if you gave students journals
and you gave these story prompts and they had
choices to keep their stories to themselves,
to allow their teacher to read this or to share
in front of the class, right? And that's where
we give that safety and agency. Just writing
the story is such a powerful experience, but
that's a story that you can just keep to yourself.
And that's where consent comes in too. If you
make it mandatory for your students to write
about maybe something very difficult, I would
just weigh if it's their own personal story that
they own. If that's really giving them consent,
if that's really giving them agency, I think
that would be really powerful for students to
know I can write this story, I can explore my
story, but then I have the choice on whether
or not I want to keep this to myself. I would
love also for educators to give resources like
nervous system dysregulation, just basic education.
Like if you are feeling anxious or depressed
and give a little bit of those signs and symptoms
like. If you're dissociating, you're suddenly
being forgetful or you're kind of out of your
head. Maybe you're feeling shaky or sweaty. Maybe
your heart is racing or your breath is speeding
up. If students know that they're writing their
story or reading their story and these things
are happening, likely they're not maybe ready.
And so you could say, hey, maybe this is something
that you might want to talk to a counselor, a
school counselor with or a therapist with or
your parents with. I think there's like a lot.
of guidance that you can surround students telling
their own personal story and to be in tune with
their bodies and what's happening in their bodies
as they're thinking about their stories, writing
their stories, and again, maybe amplifying their
stories by telling them in front of a classroom
or even sharing them with their teachers. You're
making me think back to one of my favorite movie
scenes from Hollywood Teachers. In the movie
Freedom Riders, Long Beach educator Erin Gruwell
buys her students composition notebooks. And
these are students that I've given her a really
hard time with her acclimation as a first year
teacher. And really all that she knows about
them is that a lot of them are gang affiliates.
They're surviving on a day -to -day basis to
just show up to class and just be there. And
she finally buys them these composition notebooks
and says, you will write in your journal every
single day. But if you want me to read it. put
it in the back cabinet and I will read the ones
that are there. Eventually, every single student
leaves their journal in that cabinet. And that's
where she sees the backstories to these students
and ways that she's now able to approach them
from the perspective of a soul rather than just
a body who's coming into that classroom. And
when I was teaching as well, I did the same thing
where I said to my students, write a journal
about this topic. And I mentioned this in a couple
of podcasts where I said to them, When we're
talking about one of my favorite stories of mice
and men, you're welcome to write about a time
where you felt like that you were an outsider
in your lives. And I really did not want anyone
to share it because my mentality was as much
as I want to hear what you have to say, I have
been convinced by the powers above me that I'm
not ready to hear that. I love how self -aware
that is. But the students had enough trust in
me where they wanted to some of them even publicly
confide in what they wrote down and it leads
me to think about when it comes to regulating
the nervous system as you suggest what are some
strategies that you know of about trying to regulate
the nervous system and when you do hear a story
that you can tell has caused pain to the storyteller
how can you help them through that process well
there's up regulating and down regulating which
i think is really important because we talk a
lot about down regulating because we think If
someone's experiencing trauma, then we have to
calm them down. But actually some folks will
respond to trauma, feeling very depressed and
down. And like I said, disassociated. So it's,
I think it's important to teach both upregulating
and downregulating. So downregulating, if you're
like heart is beating out of your chest and your
breath is really heavy, a lot is going on internally,
both chemically and with your hormones. And again,
all of this is brilliant to protect our bodies
when we're in danger, but our bodies don't quite.
know how to turn it off when we are safe. So
down regulating breathing is such a powerful
way to down regulate box breathing. Also tapping
is really powerful. I like butterfly tapping
and I know this is audio, but if you kind of
put your hands in the shape of a butterfly where
you're crossing your thumbs and then you put
your thumbs on your clavicle. And then you're
tapping your shoulder on one side and then tapping
your other shoulder going back and forth. This
is a really great way to down regulate as well.
And then upregulate could be exercising, moving,
dancing, listen to like upbeat music, which I
think would be a really great exercise you could
do with your students. So if you are feeling
like paralyzed or disassociated, so this is more
of the freeze response, right? Where the other
two would be the fight response and the flight
response. But the freeze response, you might
need to upregulate. And so that's where you might.
to get your body moving. I do want to say though,
that you always want to support folks to get
professional help as well. So these are always
good when you're in the classroom or just day
to day, it's really good life skills. But if
your students have experienced trauma, I think
it's always good to involve school counselors
and to have hotlines, all kinds of resources.
And I think, and this is something that we've
talked about before, Joey, and that's like knowing
your scope and having boundaries. So being able
to teach these things, but also to know that
you're not a therapist and so to have like important
resources something else I'd love educators is
just to have resources at their desk I don't
know what's appropriate because I'm not in this
world but they're reading a book that's about
sexual violence to have certain resources for
that if you're talking about racism to have resources
for those who are experiencing systematic racism
same with LGBT issues all kinds of issues that
I hope we're exploring in the classroom so folks
are going to be learning new things, but some
folks have such deep lived experiences that this
is going to tap into. So yes, to teaching students
to upregulate and downregulate, but also having
additional resources to really support them through
that trauma healing would be the way to go. You
train professionals who don't come from clinical
or social work backgrounds normally. And when
you work with people like me who are educators
who may even be working in literature spaces
where stories may unsolicitedly welcome personal
anecdotes of their own about their own pain and
trauma, how do we handle that? And what are some
trauma -informed practices that our educators
can think about now with the new school year
coming up? Yeah, I think. I would love for teachers
and students to practice content warnings. I
know even content warnings can be a little bit
controversial and nuanced, but to get in the
practice of letting students know you are always
free to share difficult life experiences, but
not everyone in the room might have the emotional
capacity for it. So to allow for two things,
one, if you're going to share something That
is painful for you. It might be painful for other
people to hear. You essentially don't want to
bury the lead. So yes, we're sometimes you get
really far into the story until you get to the
point. So that's essentially what a content warning
is where you're telling a casual story. And then
all of a sudden you're talking about a rape or
you're talking about a shooting or you're talking
about racism. or homelessness, whatever it may
be, something that would be really upsetting
to tell or to hear. So a student might say, hey,
I want to share a story and I'm going to be talking
about abuse. I'm going to be talking about sexual
abuse. I'm going to be talking about rape. And
this is my content warning. And then for you
as an educator to allow students to leave the
room. for this. And I don't know what that looks
like in the contents of education, if they would
be allowed to go to the bathroom simply or go
to the library. I know when I do trainings virtually,
I tell people I'm going to be talking about,
let's say, pediatric cancer for the next three
minutes. So put me on mute and I'll wave my hands
when I'm done talking about it. So again, that
gives choice to other students in the room. And
I would say even maybe with some of these books
to let folks know you don't have to read this
book. If you feel like it might be too difficult
for you to read because of your own lived experiences.
So, yeah, I would love to see students and teachers
alike to start. Giving content warnings and to
just say, hey, I'm going to be talking about
this difficult thing. And I'm going to let you
choose students to opt out of just the next five
minutes or the next 10 minutes. And I think it's
a great life lesson for later in life. I know
even with my friends, sometimes when I'm going
through something hard, I'll just ask, hey, I
want to talk about a mental health issue. Do
you have capacity to listen to this right now?
Even to my husband, I'll ask that. And my children
are very young. But I think as humans, we all
should get in the habit of just asking each other,
like, do you have the emotional capacity to have
this difficult conversation and not just to unload?
And I know that doesn't sound fair when someone's
sharing their story, but I think that storytellers,
story owners and stories receivers all need to
be cautious of one another and respect one another.
And not just because you're brave enough to tell
your story doesn't mean that everyone has the
capacity. to listen to it and to receive it,
especially if they've had that same lived experience.
For example, and I will give a content warning,
I will talk about, you know, there could be a
student that had just experienced sexual abuse
the day before and it's so new to them and it's
so deeply traumatizing that we just can't expect
that everyone in the room feels safe to listen
to the really difficult traumatic stories. How
we process trauma has everything to do with our
bodies and our own trauma responses. Again, the
fight, flight, freeze, and fawn response has
to do with our genetics. It has to do with generational
trauma that we can't even really maybe explain.
It could be our community trauma and collective
traumas. There are so many things that will inform
how folks are ready and are able to process things.
One thing we're still talking about is, like
we said at the very beginning, is that we still
need to find ways to invite students but not
mandate them to lean into that discomfort and
find that balance. One thing that I also think
about, if students say, I really don't want to
join this discussion today, then I give them
something alternative. It's not an excuse, but
it's just an alternative because I'm all about
being... flexible with them where if we're reading
a story on this topic you don't need to be there
enjoying the conversation but if you can reflect
for me during this window and show me what you
gained during that time with you and yours that
i can then build on to bring you back into the
conversation by the time you feel ready. I think
it would be worthwhile having grounding exercises
before and after. And so that could be as simple
as breathing, but it can also, sometimes we will
activate the senses or just acknowledge your
senses. So everyone look around the room and
focus on something you see. So maybe that's the
red exit sign. And then what do you smell? Maybe
it's something coming from the lunchroom or the
paint, or I don't know what high school students
probably don't smell that great, but like whatever
they're smelling. you feel, maybe it's the air
conditioning, maybe it's their sweater or something
that they're wearing. What do they hear and just
have silence. Maybe they do hear like the hum
of something. So again, just activate and like,
what do you taste? Just focus on your tongue
and your mouth and maybe what you had for breakfast
or what you had for lunch. And these bring people
out of these traumatic places. And again, it's
reminding your body that even though you're listening
to these stories, you're not there. Even if you're
really living. painful things, you're not there,
you're here and you're present and safe. And
that's something that you can do at the end of
class too, especially if someone has shared something
really difficult. One of my closest, dearest
friends does this exercise with her four -year
-old where they're pretending they're holding
a cup of hot chocolate and to breathe in, they're
smelling the delicious hot chocolate and then
they blow on the hot chocolate to cool it down.
And then to breathe in, they... sip the hot chocolate.
And so this is just a creative way to get children
to breathe and to breathe in and out and to activate
both their nose and their mouth in a way that's
almost like silly and age appropriate. Another
important part of being trauma informed is following
up. And that doesn't mean being intrusive, but
maybe if one particular class had a really in
-depth conversation and maybe it was emotional,
maybe the following class, you can just acknowledge
it and say, that was really hard. How are we
feeling about that? Or if there was one particular
student that Looked really emotional. If you
can, in a way that's appropriate and non -invasive,
just say, hey, I just want to follow up. We had
a really emotional conversation. You're really
brave in sharing your story, but I could tell
that you were emotional. I just want to see how
you're doing and how can we support you? I think
that's just another way to build trust with your
students. Thank you for sharing that strategy
with us. And to conclude, I wanted to know if
you could talk to us a little bit more about
the work being done through Maria Bryan Creative
and how our listeners can become more involved
with the work that you do. Oh, thank you, Joey.
That's so generous. So you mentioned the When
Bearing Witness podcast. So this is a great way
for you to learn a little bit more about being
trauma -informed as a storyteller. We focus a
little bit more specifically on nonprofit storytelling,
where you're sharing stories in order to raise
money or market your programs. There's a really
a lot of good nuggets in there that educators
would get. If storytelling is a big part of your
your role as an educator, like you teach literature,
I encourage you to check out my also say name
one bearing witness program. This is a six week
cohort. There's going to be one coming up. October
20th, 2025. And this goes really in depth into
foundationally what is trauma and the impacts
of trauma, how it affects the different kinds
of people in the storytelling ecosystem, which
I think is really important for educators. So
not just our story owners, but also storytellers
and our audiences. Audiences are clearly the
other students in the room. And then we go into
the process of, again, everything from story
readiness to the story gathering process. storytelling
process. Also what happens when harm happens,
you know, harm will happen. We will mess up as
educators, as trauma informed as we strive to
be, but this is a journey, not a destination.
So we talk about what we can, how we can wade
through the humanness of being trauma informed.
So again, this is a six week program. It is at
your own pace, but we have live integration calls
to talk through this. And I have everyone from
again, marketers and fundraisers to researchers
and grant writers. writers, videographers, and
podcasters. So if that sounds like you, I would
love to have educators in the room too, to bring
that perspective. I encourage you to check that
all out. And you can check that out at mariabryan
.com, B -R -Y -A -N .com. Would be available
to us in our show notes as well. So thank you
for sharing. And one final question. Is there
any question that you wish I would have asked
you today but didn't? And or what would you say
is the secret sauce to keeping trauma informed
when telling stories? I'm going to repeat the
secret sauce because I think it's worth repeating.
And that is your guidepost, or at least my guidepost,
is safety and agency. So when you're developing
your curriculum, when you have difficult topics.
that you're bringing up, difficult conversations.
Where are you providing agency to your students?
Where are you promoting safety? Also to note,
we can't promise safety and we can't promise
agency because these are things that we can do
our best to provide. But at the end of the day,
we can't guarantee folks are going to feel safe
and that they're totally going to be in control.
But we can strive towards. that so those are
my two guideposts and hopefully for educators
who are trauma -informed have those kind of guideposts
as well thank you so much Maria. So that was Maria
Bryan reminding us that stories aren't just
tools they are lived experiences that help us
move forward with safety and agency and if you're
an educator nonprofit leader, or future changemaker,
I hope that today's episode gave you a framework
for how to hold space with care. You can find
Maria's work at mariabryan.com and listen to
her when Bearing Witness podcasts wherever you
get your shows. And as always, if this episode
resonated with you, share it with somebody navigating
the beautiful, complex, and sometimes very heavy
stories in their classrooms or communities. Until
next time, take care and keep making spaces for
healing. Thank you for joining us on the Classroom
Narratives Healing and Education podcast. If
today's episode inspired you or made you think
differently, I'd love to hear from you. Drop
a comment or review wherever you listen to podcasts
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Remember, together we can transform our scars
into stars in education, one conversation at
a time.