Therapeutic Educator – Neurodevelopmental & Relational Learning

This role exists to support one child’s emotional well-being, self-trust, and re-engagement with learning after a history of educational trauma.

We are seeking an educator who understands that nervous system safety is foundational to learning, and that cognition, creativity, and academic engagement emerge from safety, regulation, and connection. This role is best suited for someone highly skilled in emotional attunement and relational repair, who is comfortable letting learning unfold organically rather than driving it by pace, standards, or compliance.

The educator in this role must be comfortable moving slowly, tolerating ambiguity, and prioritizing relationship over productivity or performance. Progress is measured less by visible output and more by increased sense of safety, agency, and intrinsic motivation.

Student Context

The student is a bright, funny, and loving 9-year-old who connects deeply with adults who are calm, present, and attuned. She loves humor and creative play and feels safest when interactions are steady and measured.

Born prematurely and shaped by significant early medical experiences, she startles easily and benefits from relational environments that support regulation and trust.

She is highly intelligent, imaginative and capable of higher-order thinking. She is also:

• Highly sensitive and shame-aware

• Perfectionistic and strongly motivated to please others

• Impacted by past school-based trauma

• Managing cerebral palsy, autism, and high anxiety

Over time, her drive to accommodate others has led to a loss of voice and internal agency. The work now is to support her in safely reconnecting with her own preferences, intuition, and intrinsic motivation so she can rediscover a sense of joy and ownership in learning.

Essential Responsibilities

Relational & Emotional Support

• Track the student’s nervous system moment to moment, including subtle signs of stress, shutdown, over-accommodation, or shame

• Respond to distress in real time with curiosity, attunement, and repair

• Comfortably name misattunements, acknowledge mistakes, and restore trust with the child

• Co-create tools and strategies with the student to support regulation, recovery, and self-advocacy

Learning & Curriculum

• Build upon learning frameworks developed by parents and therapists at home to support the development of trust in self, voice, and agency after a history of compliance-based learning.

• Co-create tools and strategies with the student to support regulation, recovery, and self-advocacy (e.g. trigger-support toolkit).

• Engage in symbolic play, imaginative storytelling, and co-created narratives as core learning pathways

• Allow curriculum to emerge from the student’s interests, readiness, and internal motivation

• Hold high expectations while honoring pacing, capacity, and emotional safety

Whole-Child Care & Collaboration

• Integrate motor, sensory, and physical considerations without pathologizing or lowering expectations

• Support self-care needs (e.g., toileting, mobility equipment, meals) in collaboration with parents and therapists

• Work intimately with parents and collaborate with outside therapists or specialists as needed, appreciating consistency across environments is essential for this foundational learning

• Observe, reflect, and adjust approaches based on the child’s evolving needs

• Maintain a stance of curiosity, humility, and flexibility

Required Capacities

• Exceptionally high emotional intelligence and strong self-regulation

• Comfort acknowledging mistakes and immediate repair with a child

• Willingness to slow down and prioritize safety over productivity

• Deep respect for the student’s internal experience

• Playfulness, imagination, and relational warmth

• Comfort with uncertainty and emergent processes

• Strong grasp of elementary curriculum, with the ability to draw upon it fluidly and integrate it into play-based and interest-led learning when the child is ready

• Skilled at discerning when the child has sufficient safety and engagement to invite learning, and when continued relational support is needed instead

Preferred Background (but not sufficient alone)

• Special education or related field

• Experience with shame-sensitive or perfectionistic learners

• Trauma-informed education

• Neurodevelopmental, somatic, or attachment-based training

• Experience supporting children with motor disabilities (cerebral palsy a plus)

Fit Note

This role is not aligned with behaviorist, compliance-based, or rigid curriculum-driven approaches. It requires an educator who sees repair as essential, relationship as central, and learning as something that unfolds when a child feels safe enough to be fully themselves. It also involves slow, non-linear progress shaped by the child’s readiness - educators must be comfortable with this type of pace.

Schedule and Compensation

Schedule and role structure (part-time, full-time, or contract) will be shaped around the strengths and availability of the selected candidate. Compensation will be commensurate with experience and role scope.

How to Apply

Please submit a resume, cover letter and contact information for 3 references to Brinda Ghiya (brinda.ghiya @ gmail . com) with the subject line: Interest in Therapeutic Educator Position. In your cover letter, please address the following:

1. What are 3 words that best describe you?

2. What draws you to this role?

3. What makes you a good fit for this position?

4. Why are you available and interested in this position now?

5. Do you have experience supporting children with trauma and anxiety? with motor

differences?