Joan Brandenstein, M.Ed.

❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

💜 So true. 💜

If you’ve ever worked with a child and thought…

“Why is this behavior so big for such a small situation?”
“Why are they shutting down, melting down, or pushing everyone away?”

You’re not alone! And the behavior isn’t the real problem.

Many of the children in our churches and schools are carrying stress, overwhelm, and experiences they don’t yet have words for.

And often, we’ve been taught to respond with correction before connection.

That’s where things start to break down.

I created the CARE Model (Connect, Accept, Respond, Enough) to help Christian educators and ministry leaders care for children in a way that reflects the heart of Christ while also understanding how the brain responds to stress.

This isn’t about lowering expectations.

It’s about knowing how to reach a child so they can actually meet them.

If you’re a teacher, ministry leader, or parent trying to support kids well, you’re exactly who this is for.

I’m beginning to offer trainings and support for Christian schools and children’s ministries who want to build environments where kids feel safe, seen, and ready to learn.

Feel free to message me if you want to learn more or bring this to your team.

-Joan W. Brandenstein, M.Ed.

I’m excited to share that my book on emotional regulation in children’s ministry is now available in paperback and hardback.

This work is the result of 18 months of graduate study in neuroscience and trauma as part of my M.Ed., along with more than 15 years of experience serving in children’s ministry.

At the center of the book is the CARE Model of Emotional Regulation, which I developed and tested under IRB approval for my thesis at Tabor College. CARE stands for Connect, Accept, Respond, Enough, and it’s a practical framework for supporting coregulation with children and students as they learn to regulate emotionally and engage in learning environments.

While the context of the book is children’s ministry, the principles translate directly into classrooms, homeschool settings, and any educational environment working with children who struggle with regulation, disengagement, or overwhelm.

As an educational systems consultant, this is the kind of work I care deeply about. Helping adults build environments where children are more likely to feel safe, connect, and thrive.

If you’re interested in learning more about trauma informed, neuroscience aligned approaches for working with children, I’d love to connect!

Joan Brandenstein, M.Ed.

Hardback:

Pausing to CARE: The Importance of Emotional Regulation in Children’s Ministry Pausing to CARE: The Importance of Emotional Regulation in Children’s Ministry

I’m building a consulting practice focused on helping Christian schools and child-serving programs understand how stress and adult response systems shape children’s access to learning.

My work looks at the environments around
children rather than the children themselves, with the goal of identifying where systems unintentionally disrupt regulation and readiness to learn.

I developed the CARE Model of Emotional Regulation just for this!

More coming soon!!