Overwhelmed nervous systems are increasingly shaping our society—the immense stress caused by relentless demands for performance has also reached our education system. Burnout at school has become an issue not only for teachers, but also for students. Since the coronavirus pandemic, depression rates among young people have also skyrocketed. Boundary violations through physical or emotional-verbal abuse, digital addiction, bullying and blaming on social media, pornography or images of war in the schoolyard, etc. have become constant issues in the school environment. Personal distress has thus become an increasingly widespread part of school life. Traumatized children are shaping the modern school system and overwhelming many school administrators and teachers. The 16th Annual Zurich Trauma Days from June 19 to 21 will therefore focus on the controversial contemporary topic of “SCHOOL AND TRAUMA.”

Saturday, June 20, 2026
Mobilization and Self-Regulation
Ale Duarte, BRA

“Regulation First” is the name of the program that Ale Duarte has put together for teachers in schools and therapists who want to support children and adolescents, and for which he has received positive feedback and growing interest internationally. His model focuses on three key pillars: 

1. How do children mobilize their energy?
2. Class structure and meeting space
3. Support skills

The realization that teachers often lack knowledge about how to support children in self-regulation has led him to focus particularly on point 2. Many teachers and other caregivers spend up to 50% of their time managing emotional states - and are extremely dissatisfied that they have to do so. This Saturday, Ale Duarte will show how a regulation-friendly classroom and meeting structure can be created. For him, knowledge of the basic dynamics of the nervous system of children with behavioral issues is central to dealing with challenging, mostly trauma-related events. Learning for life (and dealing with trauma) happens on both sides of the encounter, for teachers as well as for students - which has immense social value.

In his contribution, the founder of SOMATIC EXPERIENCING (SE) shows how children in different age groups can be supported after experiencing trauma so that they do not disrupt the learning process in daycare centers, kindergartens, primary or secondary schools, and into adolescence through freezing, dissociation, or constant (survival) struggles — but rather find their own way of processing the overwhelming events they have experienced. Practical examples are intended to show caregivers and teachers easy-to-use interventions. For the SE pioneer, a trauma-free school is an eminently important peace project.