Our Signature Offerings
Mindful Leaders Project Immersive Retreats
Our retreats offer a transformative experience that empowers you to unlock your inner potential, balance your nervous system, and inspire positive change in the lives of those you serve.
Heart-Centered Connections™
Immersion Program & Retreat
Learn to cultivate inclusive learning environments that enrich students’ felt-safety, agency, and resilience through the application of educational neurobiology, culturally responsive teaching, and mind-body awareness practices.
In the HCC Program, you will experience the transformative power of equity-based social-emotional learning. Research shows that deep learning requires connection before content. From a nervous system perspective, you will learn to address the unconscious biases that often hinder our ability to connect with youth. As you learn to address your own unconscious biases, you will be able to cultivate environments that support children’s social-emotional well-being, thus improving their opportunities for deep learning. The HCC program is unique in that it teaches you how to create optimal conditions for learning by connecting with youth on a brain, nervous system, and cultural level.
The program begins with a two-day immersion retreat that introduces core foundational knowledge and mind-body practices. The immersion retreat is followed by seven live virtual learning sessions that explore the 7 pillars of Heart-Centered Connections.
The HCC program is a 25-hour certificate training that involves a 9-week commitment from child-serving professionals.
Embodied Equity Certificate
A Polyvagal-Informed Certificate for Educators & Helping Professionals
In this 25-hour certificate, you will gain a deeper understanding of how bias lives in the bodies of students who are subjected to discrimination, as well as in the education or helping professionals who are triggered to act on bias towards them. A polyvagal-informed approach to this critical topic offers a unique lens through which you will understand how bias impacts you and the students you serve.
- Session 1: Understand Identity-Threat as a Source of Trauma in Schools and Society
- Session 2: Balance Autonomic State for Resilience and Connection
- Session 3: Explore the Body’s Response to Racial Trauma and Stress
- Session 4: A.D.D.R.E.S.S.I.N.G. Bias in the Body
- Session 5: Establish Environmental and Cultural Cues of Felt-Safety
- Session 6: Live Discussion with Dr. Stephen Porges
- Session 7: Signal Cues of Felt Safety and Belonging
- Session 8: Embody Equity in Teaching, Learning, and Wellness
The next session begins in Spring 2024.
Keynotes & Transformational Speaking
About Dr. Niki Elliott
- Clinical professor of education in the School of Leadership and Education Sciences at the University of San Diego
- Founder of the Mindful Leaders Project
- Creator/facilitator of the Heart-Centered Connections Program
- Creator/facilitator of the Embodied Equity for Educators and Helping Professionals Certificate Course for the Polyvagal Institute
Keynote Topics
Below is a list of Dr. Niki’s most requested topics. She is open to discussing ways to customize her talks and programs to fit your organization’s needs.
- Mind-Body Wellness for Educators and Helping Professionals
- Neurodiversity and Inclusion
- Embodied Equity and Belonging
- Trauma-Informed Teaching
- Evidence-Based Mindfulness Practices in Education
- Applications of Polyvagal Theory in Education
Partial Client List
- San Bernardino Unified School District
- Berryessa Unified School District
- Riverside County Office of Education
- Upland Unified School District
- Peace4Kids
- St. Anne’s Family Services
- Touro University
- Pasadena City College
Are you or your team looking forward to diving into one of our programs? Are you hoping to have Dr. Niki share her expertise at your next event? Or perhaps you are not sure which program or keynote topic suits your organization best.
Either way, we’ve got you covered! Let’s start a conversation.