Shows
The Ripple Effect: Helping Teachers Thrive – Empowering Educators Through Self-CareListen: The Power of Presence and Co-RegulationFebruary is often framed as a month about love — romance, appreciation, or positivity.That’s not what we’re exploring here.In this opening episode of the February L.O.V.E. series, love becomes practice — something lived, embodied, and relational. Rather than asking educators to give more, this episode explores how listening creates safety, steadiness, and sustainable connection.You’ll hear how:Listening is a form of presence — not passivityNervous-system awareness widens choice and agencyBehavior is information, not the problemCo-regulation is a leadership skill, not a “soft skill”February’s framework:L...
2026-02-1110 minThe Ripple Effect: Helping Teachers Thrive – Empowering Educators Through Self-CareThe Big Dream Starts Inside: Intention, Purpose, and New BeginningsGuest: Mitch Matthews — host of the Dream Think DoJanuary often carries both hope and heaviness. The calendar turns, but our nervous systems don’t always follow.In this episode of The Ripple Effect, Aimee Donoho sits down with Mitch Matthews for a grounded January conversation—one that shifts the focus from pressure and performance to permission, intention, and identity beyond productivity.Mitch shares how sustainable growth begins inside, why dreaming can feel uncomfortable (especially for educators and caretakers), and how small, intentional steps can support meaningful change without perfection or burnout.This...
2026-01-2244 minThe Ripple Effect: Helping Teachers Thrive – Empowering Educators Through Self-CareIntentions, Not Just Goals: Grounding in Times of TransitionIntentions, Not Just Goals: Grounding in Times of TransitionJanuary often arrives with pressure—to reset, improve, and push forward.But for many educators, this season feels tender, unfinished, and heavy with what the first half of the year has already required.In this solo reflection, Lioré invites you to pause.To notice.To listen inward.Rather than focusing on goals, this episode explores intention as a grounding practice—one that supports resilience without burnout and allows educators to move forward without abandoning themselves.You’ll refl...
2026-01-0709 minThe Ripple Effect: Helping Teachers Thrive – Empowering Educators Through Self-CareA Life in Motion: Sustainable Self-Care Across a LifetimeIn this episode, Aimee sits down with Hannah Hedrick, a movement teacher, peer-support pioneer, and lifelong advocate whose work has quietly shaped communities across the United States for decades.Hannah’s life has been guided by service, community, and an unwavering belief in the human capacity to heal. She has created self-care and peer-support programs for individuals and families navigating HIV diagnosis and treatment, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), diabetes, polio, disability, aging, and caregiver stress - often long before systems had language or infrastructure to support this work.Her early activism began during the ci...
2025-12-2831 minThe Ripple Effect: Helping Teachers Thrive – Empowering Educators Through Self-CareRest Is the Work: A December Message for TeachersRest Is the Work: A December Message for TeachersModule: Holidays & Self-Care – Rest, Rituals, and ReflectionDecember carries a unique kind of weight for educators - emotional, physical, sensory, and relational.In this gentle solo episode, Aimée offers a grounding message for teachers who are tired, stretched thin, or simply ready for a pause.This episode is an invitation to treat rest not as a luxury, but as meaningful work - the kind of work that restores the nervous system, refills what has been depleted, and reconnects us to our hum...
2025-12-1007 minThe Ripple Effect: Helping Teachers Thrive – Empowering Educators Through Self-CareLiving in Gratitude: A Conversation with Dr. Gokul KrishnanIn this episode, we explore gratitude not as a task, but as a way of being.Dr. Gokul Krishnan, author of Gratitude – States of Being: A Transformative Guide to Living Fully, joins me for a powerful conversation about how gratitude can reshape our inner world, support our nervous system, and transform the way we show up as educators.Together, we look beyond surface-level thankfulness and step into the deeper layers of awareness, embodiment, and connection that allow gratitude to live inside us — not just on the page.What We Explore in This Episode• How gratitude becomes a state of being, not a checklist• The deeper “layers” or ...
2025-11-2640 minThe Ripple Effect: Helping Teachers Thrive – Empowering Educators Through Self-CareGratitude in Action – Leading with HeartIn this episode, Aimée Donoho talks with longtime educator and district specialist Alana Haitsuka Fernandez about how gratitude can shape leadership, strengthen relationships, and sustain educators through challenging seasons. With 30 years in Hawai‘i’s public schools, Alana shares stories of connection, creativity, and the “extra moments” that defined her teaching journey — from mentoring students to building the Teen College Counselors program now replicated across West Hawai‘i.Together, they explore how noticing what’s good, valuing community, and saying yes to meaningful opportunities help educators find balance and renewed purpose. Alana reminds us that gratitude isn’t just a feel...
2025-11-1934 minThe Ripple Effect: Helping Teachers Thrive – Empowering Educators Through Self-CareGratitude and Regulation: Rewiring Stress into ConnectionWhat if gratitude could do more than make us feel good, what if it could rewire the way we respond to stress?In this conversation, host Aimée Donoho speaks with Dr. Hayley Watson, clinical psychologist, author, and founder of Open Parachute, about how gratitude supports nervous system regulation and emotional resilience in schools.Drawing on more than 20 years of experience, Dr. Watson explains how awareness, connection, and gratitude can help educators move from survival mode to a state of calm leadership—creating classrooms where both teachers and students feel safe and supported.💡 In thi...
2025-11-1236 minThe Ripple Effect: Helping Teachers Thrive – Empowering Educators Through Self-CareThe Science of Gratitude: How Appreciation Rewires the Nervous SystemGratitude isn’t just a feeling—it’s a powerful practice that changes the way our brains and bodies respond to stress.In this solo episode, host Aimée Donoho explores how gratitude transforms not just our mindset, but our biology. Drawing on neuroscience and research from the Greater Good Science Center and Harvard Health Publishing, Aimée shares how daily gratitude practices calm the nervous system, strengthen relationships, and renew resilience.Through personal storytelling, reflection, and practical tools for educators, she reveals how even two minutes of gratitude a day can shift the brain from stress t...
2025-11-0519 minThe Ripple Effect: Helping Teachers Thrive – Empowering Educators Through Self-CareGrace Under Pressure: How Teachers Build Belonging Across DifferencesIn this powerful conversation, Dr. Alain Sykes invites us to rethink what grace truly means in education.Grace isn’t passive—it’s a courageous act of inclusion, presence, and dignity that allows us to see every student in their wholeness.Together, we explore how educators can honor differences, hold boundaries, and create spaces where both teachers and students feel seen and valued.From practical insights on collaboration and classroom culture to reflections on self-grace and community care, this episode offers a grounding reminder: belonging begins with how we show up for one anothe...
2025-10-2937 minThe Ripple Effect: Helping Teachers Thrive – Empowering Educators Through Self-CareGrace as a Compass: Navigating Burnout and Boundaries with Compassion — A Conversation with Britta EskeyEpisode Description:Grace isn’t just a personal virtue—it’s a professional necessity. In this heart-centered episode, host Aimée Donoho talks with Britta Eskey, co-founder of COR Experience and author of Initiations in Love, about how educators can use grace as a compass when navigating burnout, boundaries, and emotional overwhelm.Together, they explore:How to bring compassion into moments of exhaustion and self-doubtThe link between grace, nervous system regulation, and sustainabilityWays to model boundaries with kindness in professional communitiesThe cultural role of grace in creating safe, compassionate schoolsSimple daily practices that help teachers reco...
2025-10-2234 minThe Ripple Effect: Helping Teachers Thrive – Empowering Educators Through Self-CareThe Heart of Teaching: Grace, Connection, and Loving Every Student with Jo PiltzIn this heartfelt episode of The Ripple Effect: Helping Teachers Thrive, Aimee Donoho sits down with beloved educator Jo Piltz, who spent over 30 years teaching English and History at Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy. Known for her calm strength and deep compassion, Jo shares what it truly means to teach with grace—loving every student, even the ones who challenge us most.Through stories of connection, reflection, and quiet resilience, Jo reminds us that the heart of teaching lies not in perfection, but in presence. Her words invite us to slow down, meet others where they are, and extend...
2025-10-1545 minThe Ripple Effect: Helping Teachers Thrive – Empowering Educators Through Self-CareThe Science of Grace in Teaching: How Self-Compassion Protects Teachers from BurnoutModule Theme: GraceThe Science of Grace in TeachingTeaching is beautifully human—and often messy. Mistakes, misunderstandings, and overwhelming days are part of the job. Without grace, these moments can spiral into self-criticism and burnout. With grace, we create space for forgiveness, renewal, and authentic connection.In this solo episode, Aimee Donoho explores the science and practice of grace—drawing from psychology, neuroscience, and lived experience. You’ll learn why grace matters for educators, how it supports resilience, and two simple practices you can try this week.🌿 Key Takeaways:Grace ≠ G...
2025-10-0815 minThe Ripple Effect: Helping Teachers Thrive – Empowering Educators Through Self-Care“Roots & Resilience: What Forests Teach Us About Ourselves”Guest: Kumu Kuwalu — nā kumu hula & cultural guide🌳 About This EpisodeIn this conversation with Kumu Kuwalu, we explore the wisdom of forests as mirrors of society, and how cultural self-awareness can help educators reconnect with themselves and their communities.Forests teach us:Interdependence – every tree belongs to a larger systemRootedness – health begins beneath the surfaceReflection – our environments mirror our inner statesKumu’s stories and practices invite us to slow down, ground ourselves, and cultivate cultural awareness as a foundation for resilience.📺 Bonus: Video HighlightKumu Kuwalu on forests as ref...
2025-09-2438 minThe Ripple Effect: Helping Teachers Thrive – Empowering Educators Through Self-CareTide, Time, and Turtles: Self-Awareness through the Lens of NatureGuest: Laura Jim – Educator, Sea Turtle Researcher, PhotographerModule Theme: Self-Awareness & Nervous System LiteracyIn this episode of The Ripple Effect: Helping Teachers Thrive, we continue our monthly theme of Awareness with a conversation that invites us to slow down and notice the wisdom all around us in nature.My guest is Laura Jim—a science teacher, photographer, and Associate Director of HPA’s Sea Turtle Research Program. Laura lives with deep attunement to the ocean, her students, and her surroundings, and she brings that awareness into every space she enters.Together, we...
2025-09-1723 minThe Ripple Effect: Helping Teachers Thrive – Empowering Educators Through Self-Care Seeing with the Witness – Self-Awareness and Compassion in the ClassroomGuest: Martha White, Founder of Keala Kea CounselingModule Theme: Self-Awareness & Nervous System LiteracyIn this episode of The Ripple Effect: Helping Teachers Thrive, therapist and mindfulness educator Martha White introduces us to “The Witness”—a calm, observing presence within each of us that helps reduce reactivity, foster empathy, and ground our nervous system.Together, we explore how cultivating self-awareness in educators creates ripple effects across classrooms, especially in diverse learning environments. Martha offers concrete tools to begin this journey and reminds us that presence—not perfection—is the foundation of connection.📥 Downloadable...
2025-09-1027 minThe Ripple Effect: Helping Teachers Thrive – Empowering Educators Through Self-CareWhat Is Emotional Awareness and Why It MattersIn this first solo episode, Aimee explores why emotional awareness is the foundation of sustainable self-care for educators. Learn how the nervous system shapes presence in the classroom, how to notice body cues before they escalate, and how small awareness practices ripple outward to students and colleagues.🧠 What You’ll LearnWhy awareness is the first step to self-regulation.The role of the sympathetic (fight/flight) and parasympathetic (rest/digest) systems.How the vagus nerve supports calm and connection.The three Polyvagal states (ventral, sympathetic, dorsal).A simple tool: the 3-Minute Daily Check-In.📚 Resources MentionedStephen Porges –...
2025-09-0320 minThe Ripple Effect: Helping Teachers Thrive – Empowering Educators Through Self-CareWelcome to The Ripple Effect: Cultivating Teacher WellnessIn the debut episode of 'The Ripple Effect,' host Aimee Donoho explores the critical importance of self-care in education. Rooted in her Aloha Connect program, the podcast initiates a journey into emotional health and professional growth for educators. Aimee shares personal stories and insights on how developing emotional resilience not only benefits teachers personally but also creates a positive ripple impacting students, classrooms, and communities. Listeners can expect monthly themes exploring key aspects of teacher wellness, encouraging educators to thrive while enhancing school culture and fostering a supportive learning environment.Resources Mentioned:Dr. Dan Siegel’s...
2025-08-2716 minThe Ripple Effect: Helping Teachers Thrive – Empowering Educators Through Self-CareThe Ripple Effect – TrailerWelcome to The Ripple Effect: Helping Teachers Thrive – Empowering Educators Through Self-Care.I’m Aimee Donoho: educator, therapist, and advocate for teacher wellness.This podcast is for educators who keep showing up, even on the hardest days. Through real conversations, brain-based tools, and practical strategies, we’ll help you reconnect with yourself and create thriving classrooms.💙 Our Pilot episode drops on August 27. Subscribe now and share this podcast with a colleague.I can’t wait to share this journey with you.Disclaimer:The content shared on The Ripple Effe...
2025-08-1801 min