Introduction

We are living in uncertain times. Most adults can agree, the recent years beginning with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 led to isolation and resulted in human divisiveness and now polarization. These ways of being are not natural to humans ordinarily and by nature, humans crave connections and unity around our commonalities (Lieberman, 2013). The additional significant events in the United States including the traumatic and public display of human violence in the George Floyd murder on May 25, 2020, and the political ramifications of divisiveness leading to the January 6, 2021, insurrection have contributed to this current state of being. These three significant events, I have named the Trifecta+ social phenomenon. The plus sign represents the increasing violence in the United States including violent rhetoric, violent behavior, and gun violence (Kleinfeld, 2021; Rosenfeld et al., 2023; Rosenfeld & Lopez, 2022). Many researchers have identified that we are experiencing a mental health crisis at a level never seen before (Reinert et al., 2022). Additionally, research has identified the COVID-19 pandemic as the cause of individual and collective trauma, post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and racial trauma (Ashby et al., 2022; Blume, 2021; Gay et al., 2020; Hong et al., 2021). This is most prevalent in education at all levels and significantly in public schools where the research for this book was conducted. Educational practitioners and leaders put mental health support at the top of the list of what is most needed in our schools right now.