Beyond The "Green Zone" & Beyond Labeling Feelings: Supporting Social Emotional Learning with Katrina Martin

If you’re anything like me, you learned how masking can harm the mental health of your Autistic clients….and then you never learned anything to put in its place. This leaves a huge gap for our Autistic clients who need us to know how to support their social and emotional well-being in an affirming way.

Today’s guest, Katrina Martin, Ph.D., helps us answer questions like:

• What do I say when a parent is asking for traditional “social skills training”?
• What do I do when a school is using Zones of Regulation in a way that doesn’t feel affirming?
• Should I ever have kids match emotion words to faces? When is this helpful, and what is it missing?
• And so much more.

Our guest, Katrina Martin, Ph.D. is a neurodivergent parent to neurodivergent kids, the creator of our online course Bridging Perspectives: Transformative strategies for neurodiversity- affirming social-emotional learning, and the founder of Bridges Learning System. 

Katrina speaks from her own experience and her extensive work to show us all how we can support social-emotional well-being while respecting authentic Autistic ways of being, connecting, and communicating.

And a big update from Learn Play Thrive: All Learn Play Thrive courses will be available for sale only through December 16, 2025, with our final CE summit taking place in February and March of 2026. This is your last chance to take any of our affirming continuing education course. All courses include one year’s on-demand access and various CE board approvals. Visit learnplaythrive.com/trainings before registration closes forever.

View show notes and transcript at learnplaythrive.com/podcast