Everything You Need to Know Before We Begin: Your Guide to The ND Teacher's Summer Recovery Series
If you've been following along during this pre-launch, you're ready. If you're just finding this now — welcome. You haven't missed anything that can't be caught up in the next few minutes, and everything you need to get started is right here.
The ND Teacher's Summer Recovery Series begins in June. This post is your official orientation.
What We've Been Building
Over the last few weeks we've been laying a foundation. The series doesn’t require a research background, but understanding the framework makes the experience richer. Here's the short version of what we covered:
In the first pre-launch post, I introduced the premise. You are a rich source of data about your own experience, and this series is going to make collecting and using that data intentional. We talked about what data means in a personal context and introduced the two types of data we'll be working with all summer.
In the second post, we went deeper into those two types. Quantitative data (numbers, ratings, frequency checks) give us something to track across time. Qualitative data (narrative, description, honest free writing) give us the story behind the numbers. Neither tells the whole truth alone. Together, they give you a picture of yourself that most wellness content never tries to build.
In the third post, we introduced qualitative coding, the process of reading back through your own writing and identifying the patterns and themes your nervous system has been signaling. It's the skill at the heart of Week 7, and it's more accessible than it sounds, especially for ND brains that are already wired for pattern recognition.
If you want to go deeper on any of those concepts, all three posts are linked below. But if you're ready to jump in, everything you need will be built into the series itself.
What's Coming: The Full Eight-Week Arc
Here's what the summer looks like, week by week.
Week 1 — Establish a Baseline We start by naming where you are right now. Overwhelm, burnout, shutdown — what they look and feel like for ND teachers specifically, and how to tell the difference between them. This week introduces a simple rating system to help you locate yourself on the continuum from regulated to shutdown. Your journal this week is all about the starting point. What does your body feel like right now? How long does it take your mind to quiet? We'll track that in real time.
Week 2 — Let Me Hear Your Body Talk Our bodies tell the story long before our minds find the words. This week we explore alexithymia, the experience of not easily recognizing your own emotional state, and why it matters so much for ND recovery. We'll also look at hyperempathy and the particular emotional load it places on teachers. The journal this week moves away from emotional labels and toward physical signals. What does your body actually do when something is wrong?
Week 3 — Boundaries as Flexible Structures This week reframes boundaries, not as walls, not as rules, but as flexible structures that can move with your changing needs. We'll draw on some DBT principles here, including the practice of holding two truths at once. The focus is on masking, people-pleasing, and the specific exhaustion of navigating neurotypical professional spaces all year. The journal this week includes a boundary audit and some tools for beginning to define what protection and self-advocacy actually look like for you.
Week 4 — What ND Rest Actually Looks Like This is where the series starts to shift from naming experience into building practice. Week 4 is a validating, accepting exploration of what rest and restoration genuinely look like for ND brains (which is often nothing like what wellness culture tells you it should be.) You can crave connection and need solitude to recover. You can love routine and need novelty to feel alive. Both are true. Both are valid. The journal this week is full of probing questions about rest — not what you think you should need, but what actually works for you.
Week 5 — Decompression in Practice We move from reflection into action. This week is about building your personalized decompression framework, grounded in ND neurology and built from everything you've been reflecting on in the previous four weeks. You'll define your needs, name your boundaries, and begin to sketch the structure of a support system that's actually designed for your nervous system. The journal this week is the first draft of that framework.
Week 6 — Unmasking Who are you when the mask is off? Who are you outside of your profession, outside of your role, outside of what everyone needs from you? This week is about pulling back into your own identity. We will focus on remembering or rediscovering your special interests, giving yourself permission to exist without performing, and defining what it feels like to simply be yourself. The journal this week helps frame your discovery of who you are when no one needs anything from you?
Week 7 — Uncovering Patterns This is the week everything comes together. Using the qualitative coding process introduced in Pre-Launch Post 3, I'll walk you step by step through reading your own journal entries and identifying the themes your nervous system has been pointing to all summer. This week's journal page is a coding guide and reflection template. By the end of this week, you'll have a set of personal insights drawn directly from your own data — not from a quiz, not from a framework someone else built, but from eight weeks of honest self-observation.
Week 8 — The Year Ahead We close by putting self-discovery into action as self-advocacy. What did you learn? What do you want to carry differently into the new school year? This week also celebrates something important — the particular gifts ND teachers bring to their students and their schools. The empathy, the creative problem-solving, the pattern identification, the outside-the-box thinking. This week also includes a look ahead at what's coming next from CLS — including something designed to carry this work into the fall.
What You'll Have When It's Over
By the end of July you will have:
eight weeks of honest journal entries that document your summer in real time
a personalized set of themes and patterns drawn from your own writing
a decompression framework built specifically around your nervous system
a clearer sense of what restoration actually looks like for you
a foundation for carrying that self-knowledge into the new school year with intention rather than just survival
This is not a passive series. It asks something of you every week — a little reading, a little reflection, a little honesty on the page. But it gives something back too: transformation.
Logistics
Each week's content will include a blog post published on the CLS website, a downloadable journal page, and social media content with space for community reflection. The blog posts will go live at the start of each week. Journal pages are designed to be used throughout the week — not necessarily completed in one sitting.
If you want to make sure you don't miss a week, the best thing to do right now is follow the CLS social media pages and bookmark the blog. Everything will be linked as it drops.
If you've been journaling since the pre-launch posts began, you're already ahead. If you haven't started yet, this is a great time. Write about where you are as the school year ends. Write about what you're hoping summer gives you. Write without editing. That entry will mean something when you get to Week 7.
One More Thing
I built this series because I am an ND educator, and I spent too many summers trying to recover using tools that weren't designed for how my brain works. I know what it feels like to white-knuckle it to June and then spend July feeling guilty for not bouncing back faster.
I know what it feels like to need something that doesn't exist yet and decide to build it yourself.
This is me building it. For you, and honestly, for me too.
I'll see you in June.
~Dr. Henderson
The ND Teacher’s Summer Recovery Series: Launching June 2026
Sign up HERE to be notified when the series drops.
The ND Teacher’s Summer Recovery Series. Week1: Establish a Baseline. Week 2: Let Me Hear Your Body Talk, Week 3: Boundaries as Flexible Structures, Week 4: What ND Rest Actually Looks Like, Week 5: Decompression in Practice, Week 6: Unmasking, Week 7: Uncovering Patterns, Week 8: The Year Ahead.