Empowered Resilience in Education

Having the ability to self-regulate is the foundation of wellness and affects every other area including academics, social/emotional growth and overall happiness. Now, more than ever, we need to empower students and staff with tools for mental wellness. Empowered Resilience in Education helps children, teens and adults learn tools to take control of how they feel and helps increase their overall wellness.

Children are frequently told to “pay attention”, but no one has ever showed them how. Mindfulness can actually train the brain to create new neurological pathways for paying attention. Focus skills help students to gain awareness of their thought patterns and feelings, directly resulting in more positive actions. Instead of reacting automatically, students learn to pause and assess the situation choosing a less reactive, more positive response. Self-regulation is enhanced with mindfulness affecting relationships with friends and family. The increased ability to focus also directly affects performance in schoolwork and extra-curricular activities. Mindfulness improves the social and emotional intelligence of our students and is an effective positive behavior intervention.

A Few Words From Trina

I have witnessed first-hand the transformative power of living mindfully. After experiencing my own success with implementing Mindfulness strategies into my life, I decided to share it with my sons. They enjoyed the lessons and easily caught on to the techniques of noticing their thoughts and emotions and the importance of living in the present moment. I decided to try incorporating these skills into my classroom. My students enjoyed this time to get quiet and focus and I began to see them using the techniques in the classroom and on the playground to self-regulate. I received training in Mindfulness and wrote my own curriculum to use with the students, that also aligned with the outcomes of the Saskatchewan Health Curriculum. I incorporated these resilience strategies daily in my classroom for the next 14 years before leaving my teaching career to spread this important message full time.

As a former classroom teacher with over 20 years of classroom experience, I know the stressors that teachers and students face on a daily basis. I use my life experience, training in Mindful-Based Stress Reduction and Mindful Teaching to help others “be” present for each precious moment and to deal with daily stress more effectively.

It’s been almost 20 years of speaking and working with sharing tools for mental wellness (the last 6 of them being full time) and I still enjoy sharing these skills with teachers, parents and working directly with the students to show how these practices can enrich their experience. I feel visiting schools and working with the students and teachers is a very valuable experience and can help bring more peace and happiness to an entire school community. I am beyond proud of the Empowered Resilience Program that I offer along with my book “Good Morning, Sunshine!” and the Release App that I created as a support for personal and classroom use!
Save the date: Watch for my next 10-Day Worldwide Classroom Mindfulness Challenge coming in January 2026!

Empowered Resilience in Education Presentation Menu:

This unique program menu supports mental health and wellness. Participants learn the real cause of stress and become empowered with simple tools to release stress and limiting beliefs that may be holding them back. They learn how incorporating Mindfulness strategies can help to train their brain to gain awareness of thought patterns and feelings, resulting in enhanced self-regulation and resilience. Trina also shares valuable tools for decreasing the intensity of difficult emotions and limiting beliefs through “Tapping”. This easy to learn resilience tool yields promising results for mental and physical wellness and has recently been called the NUMBER ONE technique for stress reduction.

Presentation Offerings:

(For Educators/Administrators/ Support Staff)
Are you really present in the classroom or are you caught up in the busy-ness of the profession running on automatic pilot? How does our own resilience and ability to self-regulate affect our classroom climate? Paying attention to our own state of presence helps us to be more aware of the happenings in our classroom. We can easily diffuse situations, hold the attention of students and create a relaxed and accepting environment for all students to learn and grow. Our teaching becomes authentic and natural and we are able to make positive choices when it comes to our actions and speech. When your students feel they are cared for and you are truly "in the room", a more authentic dance happens and connections are strengthened. These strategies change the way we interact with our students. Trina Markusson uses her classroom experiences and training in Mindful-based Stress Reduction to help you "be" in the room and understand the implications for teaching presently, making meaningful connections with your students. Teaching presently is the first step to having an effective classroom.
(For Teachers/Administrators)
Life for students can be stressful! School, extra-curricular activities and relationships can cause anxiety and worry affecting all areas of life including academics, social interactions and emotional development.
Are your students stressed, anxious or over-active? Learn how Mindfulness can help create a calm, peaceful and caring classroom. Mindfulness nourishes the social/emotional side to support the “whole” child by training their brain to self-regulate, directly affecting their level of achievement. Teachers will understand the importance of modelling Mindful strategies, learn the benefits and try some sample activities to use with students in the classroom. Mindfulness is an educational tool promoting wellness strategies for children and teens. Although it matches specific Saskatchewan Health Curriculum outcomes, it is beneficial across all grade levels, classrooms and subject areas.
Children use Mindfulness strategies by learning to focus on their experience in the present moment. This helps them to pay attention, reduce stress, helps promote positive choices by improving impulse control, creating a calmer classroom climate. Sample lessons include awareness of our breath, thoughts, movement and feelings. Description text goes here
(For K-12 Students)
Students will gain a solid foundation of the concept of mindfulness, learn tools for resilience and gain an experience of being in the precious, present moment. All presentations are geared to the specific age groups with meaningful examples and activities. A full day consists of 4 one-hour presentations with age-alike groups.iption
Parents and Grandparents can learn the tools for resilience in this one-hour evening presentation. These sessions have become very popular and the feedback has been incredible. Parents learn tools for their own wellness and tools to be able to help their own children. This presentation can also be extended to introduce Tapping as a simple and easy tool to help ourselves and our children release stress, difficult emotions and limiting beliefs to foster positive mental health.
Targeted towards middle years and high school students, these presentations have a focus on using mental strength strategies to play, perform and act from the zone of their peak performance. There is a series of 5 sessions in total and can be offered along with the school package. Can be done in-person (if location allows) or online. Contact Trina for more information.
Tapping is an effective and easy-to-learn wellness tool. This simple technique can help reduce stress, manage difficult emotions, and even break through limiting beliefs by lightly tapping on specific points on the body to calm the nervous system. It also rewires the brain for health by soothing the amygdala (the brain's stress centre) and lowering cortisol (the stress hormone). In this session, teachers and students will understand the science behind tapping, learn the basics of this straightforward technique, and try a simple tapping sequence to expand their wellness toolkit.

Additional Offerings:

These retreat-style trainings have been the most requested professional development in many Sask. School divisions! It takes place at the beautiful Windy Acres Bed and Breakfast near Yorkton, Saskatchewan. For two days and two nights, participant are immersed in mindfulness practices, focusing on their own wellness and learning resilience strategies to bring more calm to their classroom or school community. Highly recommended for Teachers, Administrators, Student Support Teachers, Educational Assistants, School Social Workers, Speech and Language Workers, Occupational Therapists, etc.
Here’s what participants are saying:
“This PD is priceless. I’ve never felt so balance, inspired and motivated after a pd session. I am excited to take all I have learned and apply it to my classroom and personal life. Thank you!” - Grade 6 Educator, Good Spirit School Division
“This was an incredible privilege to be a part of. I feel refreshed and prepared to prioritize peace in my life and stillness in my classroom. Thank you for your leadership and guidance. As you support each educator, it creates a ripple effect in our students lives and their families. Together, we are changing the world, one precious present moment at a time.” - Grade 2 Educator, Regina Public School Division
Next Level One Mindfulness in Education is in March 2026. Contact Trina for more info or to register!
Aligning with Saskatchewan Curricular outcomes, the Release App serves as a valuable resource for students and teachers in effectively managing stress, anxiety and other big emotions, both within and beyond the classroom setting. The Release App is quickly becoming one of the most used resilience apps in classrooms across Canada. With a variety of calming audios to promote focus, attention and calm in the classroom, it is an entire K-12 resilience program at your fingertips and only takes 3-5 minutes per day! Contact Trina for school/division pricing packages.
As a follow-up to the staff PD session, Trina offers a 10-Day Staff Resilience Challenge to support the practice of mindfulness and resilience. This challenge can help “Release” stress whether it’s from relationships, work overwhelm, resentments from the past, anxiety and even limiting beliefs about yourself. With this challenge, your body and mind can feel lighter in only minutes per day. Beginning with a 40-minute group virtual session, this challenge is followed up with daily emails and guided exercises from the Release App to begin to knock off the stressors in life. Each participant will require a monthly or an annual subscription to the Release App to participate.
“After the challenge, our staff reported feeling a greater sense of calm and focus, improved sleep, concentration and the ability to relax, which is something everyone could use right now.” - Regina Public School Division Administrator

Most Popular - School Package! My “Empowered Resilience” school package includes: One (1) staff PD session, four (4) one-hour student sessions (full day) and one (1) evening parent/community session.

When teachers, students, and parents all use the same language and tools for resilience, that’s when we begin to see changes in the mental health of our children. Professional references are available at your request.

““Thank you for adding to my tool box of skills that I use to help my students and myself. Your presentation was one of the best things that I have brought into my classroom.”
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— Teacher - Horizon School Division