From Understanding to Action: Attachment-Informed Interventions for Anxiety-Based School Refusal

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Register by: October 31, 2026

An Attachment Informed Approach to Navigate Anxiety-Based School Refusal

This three-part training series provides an attachment-informed and trauma-aware framework for understanding and responding to anxiety-based school refusal. Participants will move from understanding attachment and nervous-system dynamics underlying school refusal to creating practical strategies to support educational engagement.

Part 2:
From Understanding to Action: Attachment-Informed Interventions for Anxiety-Based School Refusal

Understanding the anxiety beneath school refusal is only the first step. The second training in this series focuses on translating an attachment- and trauma-informed understanding of school refusal into practical interventions that educators, truancy officers, school counselors, and administrators can use within their respective roles.

Participants will examine how adult responses can either intensify or reduce a student's threat response and will learn strategies for creating relational safety without inadvertently reinforcing avoidance. The training addresses the balance between empathy and accountability, the importance of predictable boundaries, and ways to support gradual increases in a student's capacity to tolerate separation, uncertainty, and school-related distress.

Particular attention will be given to identifying maintaining cycles of avoidance and accommodation, strengthening connection and regulation, collaborating with caregivers, and developing responses that are both compassionate and appropriately boundaried. Participants will leave with concrete strategies for responding to school refusal episodes, supporting re-entry and attendance, and creating school environments that promote regulation, agency, and adaptive coping.