LIVE ONLINE COURSE

Supporting Early Years Teams with Self-Reg

Science, Practice, and Co-Regulation
(with Project)

Starting September 16, 2025
(on Zoom)

Support teams across early years programs have deep expertise. Many already know the science, have strong strategies, and are doing incredible work to guide educators through stress and behaviour challenges.

But having tools and seeing them take root in practice are two different things. Change is hard, especially under pressure. This course is about helping those in support roles bridge that gap—bringing Self-Reg to life in ways that feel doable, relational, and real.

It’s about translating the science of co-regulation into the daily rhythm of early learning programs—through small shifts, shared language, and meaningful connection.
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The Project Add On is Optional
You can register without HERE
The Project is Required To Receive
A Certificate

Why This Course?

  • 6x 1hr Online Sessions
  • On Zoom
  • Facilitated by Susan Hopkins, EdD
  • Printable Early Years Toolkit Access
  • Recorded
  • Certificate Granted at Completion

Schedule

Tuesdays @ 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM ET
  • September 16
  • September 23
  • September 30
  • October 7
  • October 14
  • October 21

Explore session topics below.

Applied Project

Mini Case Study + 100-Day Plan
Apply the Self-Reg framework to a real-world support moment in your role, applying Self-Reg and developing a 100-Day Support Plan.

Learn more about the project below!

Who This Is For

This course is designed for professionals who support early years educators and programs, including:

  • Early years (including kindergarten)  consultants and inclusion staffP
  • edagogy and curriculum specialists
  • Centre directors, supervisors, and managers
  • Behaviour and mental health consultants
  • Professional learning facilitators and instructional coaches
  • Educators moving into team leadership or mentoring roles


If you support others—individually, in teams, or across a system—this course is for you.

Embedding Self-Reg in What You Already Do

This course honours the deep expertise you already bring. It’s not about starting over—it’s about embedding Self-Reg into the practices, programs, and professional learning you’re already leading. It’s about refining the lens, expanding the impact, and responding to stress-driven behaviour—child and adult—with greater precision, clarity, and confidence.

You’ll strengthen your ability to:
  • Identify stress states—not just surface behaviours—in educators, children, and teams, using tools like the 5 Look-Fors, Thayer Matrix, and Gray Brain lens.
  • Guide professional reflection around what’s getting in the way of strategy uptake, without assigning blame or adding more to anyone’s plate.
  • Use Self-Reg’s science to support capacity-building, especially when teams are facing pushback, fatigue, or repeated stuck patterns.
  • Embed co-regulation into everyday practice—not as a separate initiative, but woven into pedagogy, parent engagement, transitions, team meetings, and even conflict resolution.

Susan Hopkins
Executive Director, The MEHRIT Centre
Your Course Facilitator

Professional Learning That Lands

You’ll refine how you:
  • Design professional learning that goes beneath behaviour and beyond compliance.
  • Use case-based dialogue, layered reflection, and micro-practices that honour people’s readiness while gently deepening insight.
  • Make Self-Reg felt—not just heard—by shaping the pace, tone, rhythm, and relationship of your learning spaces.
  • Support teams to build real, observable change—not through pressure, but through co-regulated learning experiences.

This is about going deeper with the tools you already use, sharpening your lens, and walking alongside others as they apply Self-Reg in ways that truly shift practice.

Format & Registration

  • 6 x 90-minute interactive live sessions with Susan Hopkins via Zoom
  • All sessions recorded and accessible via the Self-Reg HUB
  • Includes the Self-Reg Early Childhood Development Toolkit (digital copy)
  • Optional 5-hour applied project (with feedback and support)  for a certificate of completion


Here is the regenerated full course outline, refined for tone, depth, and clarity—with Session 6 now emphasizing celebration, recognition, and renewal. This version is designed for early years specialists, consultants, pedagogical leaders, and professional learning facilitators, integrating advanced Self-Reg science with practical facilitation strategies.

Applied Project

Although optional, the applied project will grant you a certificate at the completion of this course.

Mini Case Study + 100-Day Plan: Bringing Self-Reg Into Your Context
Participants completing the course for certification will apply Self-Reg to a real-world support moment—something they’ve coached through, facilitated, or are currently navigating.

You’ll:
  • Choose a situation (e.g. team challenge, educator support, recurring program stressor)
  • Reflect using the Self-Reg 5 Steps, Look-Fors, PECS, and Thayer Matrix
  • Develop a 100-day support plan that integrates Self-Reg into your current context
  • Share your thinking through a short reflection, visual map, or narrated presentation


This project isn’t about solving everything—it’s about practicing reflection that leads to action.

Session Overviews

Patrick Jones - Course author
Meet the Facilitator

Susan Hopkins

Dr. Susan Hopkins is the Executive Director of Dr. Stuart Shanker's organization, Susan has been a teacher, school administrator, inclusive schooling coordinator, curriculum developer, educational researcher, and educational leader. She has worked in every area of education from the early years to post-secondary, from remote Northern schools to the Department of Education, and across contexts that include Italy and the Northwest Territories.

Final Words

This course is for the people behind the people.

The ones holding space when things feel stuck. The ones coaching with compassion, not compliance. The ones trying to keep their own balance while guiding others through theirs.

If you’re supporting educators, programs, or systems in the early years—this space is for you.

Let’s come together, make sense of what’s happening, and build co-regulation practices that honour the work, the people, and the children at the heart of it all.