Empathy Emphasized

Individualized Plans

Customized plans that fit the needs of your teenager and build a foundation for their future.

Self Development

Expand on your teenager's sense of self through habit formation, self-efficacy, and stress regulation.

21^st Century Skills

Acquire and grow effective communication and empathy skills for high school and beyond.

The Program

Empathy Emphasized was originally intended to be an after-school intervention or summer program. While an in-person group program is not possible right now, we recognized that this type of learning is more critical than ever given the current climate. Empathy Emphasized is an individualized program for students in grades 6-12. The program focuses on strategies for the classroom or distance learning that can help your child develop self-efficacy, empathy, healthy habits, improved stress regulation, and an overall better understanding of themselves.

How It Works

This program is incredibly individual and personal to each student and their family. Every child has a unique experience and may need different areas of focus. After an initial Zoom meeting, we would begin to target areas of focus that make the most sense as a team. Meetings would be bi-weekly after setting up a flexible schedule.

Areas of Focus

While the program is individual to each student and family, here are the areas of focus that are typically covered. These areas are addressed through a variety of techniques including discussion, reflection, skill building, and habit development.

Self-Efficacy and Growth Mindset - The belief in one’s own ability to succeed in achieving an outcome or reaching a goal.
Control based thinking - Understanding what you can control vs. what you can’t.
Social awareness - Empathy for others, cultural awareness, & advocacy.
Sense of Self Development - Identifying passions, hobbies, boundaries, & better understanding of one's self.
Social Media and Cognitive Distortion - Screen time, comparison, cybersecurity, & privacy.
Not all thoughts are true - Managing negative thoughts or negative feelings about oneself (ie: body-shaming).
Boundaries with friends and others - Emotional, physical, verbal, & internal.
Habits & productivity - Establishing healthy habits, understanding neuroscience behind habits
Time management - Balancing time and classes especially during distance learning.
Stress regulation - Knowing what you need when you are stressed, & having a plan.
Self-soothing skills Breathing, responding vs. reacting, & identifying triggers.

About Me

My name is Susanna Wilkins and I teach Middle School Science in Los Angeles, California. This school year will be my sixth in the classroom. While I love teaching Science, I have realized that my true passion is developing empathy and a true sense of self and self-efficacy within my students. After getting my Master's Degree in Education with a focus in Educational Technology, I began to focus more on social emotional development courses.

Working with the LA Promise Fund, I received a grant to help girls develop both a sense of self and social emotional skills through the Girls Build Program. We spent the year at a nursing home connecting with isolated seniors and growing their technology skills. Mentoring those girls and developing their empathy for a population different from themselves was one of the most rewarding opportunities I have experienced. It encouraged me to think about how this kind of learning often gets overlooked in the traditional classroom due to the immense amount of pressure that teachers face to focus on standards- based learning or teaching to the test.

The average secondary learner today is bombarded with media and information constantly. This information overload can lead to anxiety and a distorted sense of self. Traditional school intervention fails to help so many students and many times their issues in school do not lie in an inability to understand the content but rather in an inability to understand themselves and how to manage their responses to the world around them. We live in a rapidly changing world. It can be hard to keep up. The Empathy Emphasized goal is to help students better understand themselves so that they can consciously respond rather than react to the world around them.