Journeys Program
Trauma-informed, intensive support for students struggling with anxiety, trauma or dysregulation on their journey towards learning independence
Cajal Academy offers a new, trauma-informed alternative to ABA-based therapeutic programs for students whose growth is limited by social-emotional challenges and associated behaviors that interfere with their ability to access academic and/or social experiences. These may include task avoidance, social anxiety and/or social cognition challenges, prior academic trauma and emotional dysregulation.
Leveraging our team’s deep expertise in neuropsychology and in neurophysiological regulation, we start with the data in each student’s profile to understand how their specific mix of strengths and weaknesses contributes to their life-lived experiences and then collaborate with each student to identify the many current and historical factors contributing to the child’s struggles and develop customized programs to address them. Throughout this process, we tap into our students’ high analytical reasoning skills by sharing with them the science behind it all, giving them a sense of agency over experiences that may seem to be happening “to” them.
This process places the emphasis on identifying, addressing and then helping the child to understand the causes driving their struggles, rather than on incentivizing or deterring the resulting behaviors. Over time, this leads to sustainable behavioral changes that better generalize across settings than is the case for systems reliant on extrinsic punishments or rewards.
Each child’s program is highly customized to their needs, however here are some common elements of our Journeys Programs:
We create customized social-emotional learning programs to address the challenges holding a child back.
Our approach to social-emotional challenges starts with understanding the drivers behind them—not just deterring the results.
Each program starts with a deep dive to understand “the why” behind a child’s behaviors
As with all areas of Cajal Academy programming, the first step in addressing a child’s behaviors is to understand, at a very granular level, the many factors that drive them—because it is only by understanding what problems this child needs our help to solve that we can create sustainable solutions.
We put each child’s social-emotional challenges into the context of their overall experiences, and then create holistic programs to reduce these barriers and foster their growth
Part of being a trauma-informed school is appreciating that experiences of prior academic stress alter a child’s brain in ways that impact their future experiences even in other academic environments. Helping a child move forward therefore requires that we not only address the learning differences and other challenges that drove those negative experiences, but that we heal the trauma, and give them the building blocks for an authentic growth mindset.
Cajal Parent Testimonials
We are a trauma-informed school, with expertise in the science behind it.
As the trauma-informed school movement teaches, students must feel safe before they can learn—so close teacher relationships, a supportive environment and a collaborative problem-solving approach when students struggle are at the heart of our program. We are taking the work of the trauma-informed schools movement a step further, by appreciating that before a child can experience emotional safety, they must be in a state of physiological regulation. Bringing these two understandings together can be transformative for a child.
We use the science of neurophysiological regulation to coach each student in strategies they can use to monitor & manage internal reactions, and then learn to exercise choice over their responses
One of the fundamental differences between Cajal Academy and other schools offering therapeutic programming is our team’s expertise in neurophysiological regulation, and our direct ties to the neuropsychological research community. For kids, this translates into real, actionable insights into hidden events that can drive very big reactions, and then actionable strategies they can use to reduce them. This dramatically improves behavioral outcomes by reducing the atypical impulses the child is trying to contain, in conjunction with positive reinforcement for their efforts to do so.
We prepare students to thrive wherever they want to be, by giving them the tools and the time they need
Healing from prior academic trauma is a non-linear progression, and one that will take a different amount of time for each child. Thus, we take a “long arc” view to a child’s growth within the program, investing heavily in their sense of safety and connection at the outset before we expect to see acceleration in their learning progress.
So when parents ask us if we start planning for transition from day one in the program, our answer is that we start creating a roadmap for how we can free this child to thrive in mainstream environments from day one, and understand that once this healing process takes place they will be ready for that transition.
We help students overcome resistance to learning activities through a trauma-informed approach that validates their responses and helps them overcome their fears.
Twice exceptional kids often become resistant to learning tasks outside their interests. We understand this as a fear-driven response, and apply a trauma-informed approach to help students overcome them.
We bring about healing and growth through academics—not despite them.
We understand that the intellectually-gifted kids we served will not reach a place of feeling happy, healthy and whole until they’ve had the opportunity to take their intellectual abilities for a test drive. That’s why at Cajal, our academic programs aren’t secondary to our therapeutic goals—they are a critical tool for bringing about healing. Because experiencing their superpowers gives them courage and resilience to tackle their struggles.
Our academic program is specifically designed to give our students this opportunity. Students engage deeply with standards-based academics by collaborating with one another to solve real world problems. Meanwhile, scientific and humanities content supporting their therapeutic goals are woven into the design of the projects themselves, for truly multi-disciplinary learning. It’s a powerful recipe for helping bright and gifted learners overcome their fears and, we would argue, essential to this cohort’s growth and success.
Students receive ongoing counseling and consultations with our PhD-level psychologist and recognized neuropsychologist
Dr. Steven Mattis is an accomplished clinical neuropsychologist, academician and medical school professor with over 70 peer-reviewed journal articles to his name. He also currently serves as President of the Juvenile Bipolar Foundation. Students meet with Dr. Mattis each week in private and small group sessions, and benefit from his ongoing observations and consultations to the team to monitor and adapt student programs in real time.
Frequently Asked Questions
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All applicants must meet Cajal Academy’s admissions criteria, including that they must have high analytical reasoning and/or creative thinking skills, as evidenced by very high to superior scores on standardized neuropsychological testing instruments for verbal, fluid and/or visual-spatial reasoning. These skills are essential to our therapeutic approaches for students having social-emotional and/or regulatory challenges, as these approaches were specifically-designed to leverage our cohort’s strong analytical abilities.
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There is no such thing as a “one-size-fits-all” program for addressing social-emotional needs. Our approach leverages the power of the group and kids’ desire to be part of a connective community as a powerful healing tool—even if they’re not sure how to build those connections. Thus, ours is not an appropriate program for students who do not feel a desire for social connection, or who lack the ability to experience empathy for others.
Additionally, we are unable to admit students who are physically assaultive towards staff or peers, have a history of bullying, are intentionally emotionally hurtful or show sadistic tendencies, as these profiles are destructive to the emotionally safe environment that is essential for a trauma-informed program. Students who repeatedly engage in bullying behavior towards staff or students may be asked to leave.
Finally, the effectiveness of our self-regulation interventions will depend on the nature of the drivers underlying the child’s dysregulation, and also the child’s ability to assimilate and apply our strategies. Thus, our program will not be appropriate for students having certain thought disorders and/or mood disorders without appropriate pharmacological intervention. These concerns should be discussed with our Director of Programs in the admissions process.
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Each child’s program is customized based on the extent of their challenges, the drivers behind them, the interventions required to address them, and the level of multi-disciplinary coordination and cross-training that will be required to ensure that these interventions are holistically integrated throughout all aspects of their programming day.
This process begins in the application process, which includes an in-depth application seeking a “mom and dad’s eye view” of the child’s needs, as well as the child’s evaluations and IEP. For students having social-emotional needs appropriate to our Journeys Program, additional information may be required, including a history of all past evaluations so that we can understand the child’s progression and life-lived experience. The tuition fee will be provided to you at the end of the admissions process. Should there be a significant change in your child’s presentation (either increasing or reducing their needs for support) as the program progresses, we will discuss this with you. In some cases, it may be possible to separately bill certain direct therapeutic services in order to help defray these costs.
Flexible tuition arrangements & affording a Cajal Academy education
Special education programs are costly, but there are a number of ways that families can get assistance, depending on their child’s needs and circumstances, including tax deductions, school district funding and flexible tuition payment schedules.