Faculty and staff play an important role in facilitating inclusive and accessible environments for students. A significant part of maintaining these environments is emotional regulation (Calandri et al., 2025).
Recognizing and responding to concerning behaviour, especially when it is disruptive or emotionally charged, can be challenging. Faculty and staff may be caught off guard, feel unprepared, or worry about saying the wrong thing. In such moments, emotional regulation is a critical skill.
Emotional regulation does not mean suppressing feelings; it means recognizing emotional responses, understanding their impact, and choosing how to respond in a way that supports both the student and one’s own well-being (Calandri et al., 2025). Faculty and staff may experience frustration, fear, or helplessness when a student is distressed, disruptive, or disengaged (Riba, 2025). In those moments, strategies such as pausing before responding, grounding techniques (like deep breathing or brief sensory resets), and using calm, empathetic language can support a more constructive and compassionate outcome.
For more information on Emotional Regulation, check out CICMH’s infosheet.
It is also important to acknowledge the emotional toll of this work. Repeated exposure to student trauma, distress, or high-risk disclosures can lead to vicarious trauma or secondary trauma, the emotional residue from witnessing or hearing about another person’s trauma (Baillie, 2022). This experience is often referred to as empathic strain, which captures the emotional exhaustion, sense of helplessness, or changes in one’s worldview that faculty and staff may experience. Although faculty and staff in student-facing roles may not consider themselves “first responders,” they often carry the emotional weight of being a trusted adult or point of contact for struggling students.
Institutions have a responsibility to provide training and systems that foster emotional regulation, awareness of vicarious trauma, and peer support. This might include regular debriefing opportunities, access to counselling or Employee Assistance Program (EAP) services, and a culture that acknowledges the emotional labour of student support.
By developing emotional regulation skills and recognizing the impact of secondary trauma, faculty and staff not only sustain their own wellbeing but also contribute to a safer, more compassionate, and more responsive campus environment (Baillie, 2022; Calandri et al., 2025).
For more information on secondary trauma, check out CICMH’s podcast episode with Dr. Kyle Baillie.
Campus Spotlight
- Trent University – Student Support Certificate: series of 10 workshops designed for faculty/staff at Trent University, aimed at building capacity to support students more effectively. The training covers key areas such as conflict resolution, religious diversity, Indigenous perspectives, disability support, and more, with the goal of fostering a safer, more inclusive and supportive campus environment.
- CICMH has a video overview to introduce the program.
- For additional resources, please refer to CICMH’s Mental health and the learning environment Toolkit, which complements this training to help faculty and teaching staff take steps within the classroom in a collective effort to support student mental health.
