Psycho-education, a multidimensional model to the education and treatment of children with
emotional and behavioral difficulties, trains children in understanding how feelings and emotions
relate to their behavioral difficulties. To help change dysfunctional behavior, this therapeutic
model contains a mixture of affective (emotions), cognitive (thinking), and behavioral (behavior)
elements, so that students with recurrent behavior problems learn to recognize and understand
how their emotions and way of thinking drive their particular pattern of behavior. This
therapeutic model is based on the principle that behavioral change comes when children are able
to understand the motives behind their behavior and are properly trained in productive and more
positive ways of behaving.
What Therapeutic Teachers Do for Habitually Disruptive and Acting-Out Students
Focusing on the unique socio-emotional needs of the acting-out child, a therapeutic teacher
develops an adult-child relationship that is conducive to a new insight, and is growth promoting.
The therapeutic teacher coaches children in finding alternative ways of meeting their socio-
emotional needs in a more effective and socially appropriate fashion. The teacher-student
therapeutic relationship takes into full consideration the cognitive and affective factors that are
influencing behavior, and involves the student in finding and implementing alternative ways of
behaving. Students are actively involved throughout this process in their own emotional and
A therapeutic model is ingrained in the belief that all troubled behavior is determined by a
multiplicity of factors in interaction, and that, to be able to change problem behavior, every
aspect of the child’s personality -feeling, thinking, and behaving- needs to be taken into
account. The therapeutic teacher explains psycho-educational concepts and techniques to
children, and trains disruptive and acting-out students in how to self-manage emotions and
behavior. The therapeutic teacher develops an accepting and trusting relationship with the
difficult student, seeing the child’s disruptive and acting-out behavior as a challenge for both the
teacher and the student to master, and a rich opportunity to help the student develop more
productive ways of feeling, thinking, and behaving. The therapeutic teacher never ―gives up‖ on
the difficult student, perseverating in strengthening a mutually trusting relationship while
implementing skilled child guidance techniques to help the child. The therapeutic teacher always
