Tiana Oaks
QMHP-R
Tiana Oaks is a Registered Qualified Mental Health Professional (QMHP-R) holding a bachelor’s in early childhood education, a master’s in Special Education with dual concentrations in Emotional and Behavioral Disorders and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, as well as a Graduate Certificate in Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Tiana has dedicated over a decade of her career to Early and Special Education, with an emphasis on behavior management and positive behavior support. She has worked in a variety of roles, including as a lead teacher in an early inclusion room, early intervention in-home support in the rural Appalachian Mountains, inclusion support in Head Start/Early Head Start classes and transition to employment support for students exiting special education and taking their next steps as adults.
Tiana is also a Certified Forest Therapist, who has also worked and interned in a variety of non-traditional educational placements; most notably, Reggio Emilia early learning Italy, and Asheville Farmstead School, a German forest school model. Additionally, Tiana has created several special programs to foster greater equity in outcomes for historically underserved communities, including Creating the Classroom Climate, a training program teaching inclusion practices for students with complex needs in outdoor education; Peer2Peer work readiness, a work transition program for high school students with IEP/504’s; and EPIC (Employment Planning Internships and Coaching) a WIOA based work experience and stabilization program for transition-aged opportunities youth.
In her current role as a Behavioral Health Services Administrator at Douglas ESD, Tiana oversees services for 13 school districts, 10 community pre-schools, as well as collaboratively supporting 4 EI/ECSE classrooms and 26 Headstart and Early Headstart rooms. She is proud to lead a team of contracted skills trainers, behavioral health instructional assistants, behavior interventionists, a school safety and prevention specialist and behavioral health interns in training, doing important work in the lives of the most vulnerable children in our community.
SESSION DESCRIPTION
When Trauma Shows Up in the Room: Reading the Body, Reducing Escalation, Restoring Safety
This interactive session introduces trauma-informed strategies and behavioral health best practices grounded in nervous system science and principles, to help therapists recognize dysregulation in real time and identify ways they can respond with immediate regulation-focused approaches. Participants will learn practical vagal-supportive techniques that can be safely integrated into treatment sessions, and offered to clients to maintain well-being between sessions, while maintaining scope of practice. The session also addresses a call for responsive policies to the often-overlooked responsibility in rehabilitation settings: recognizing suicide risk and implementing clear protocols. Attendees will learn how to advocate with your administration team, identifying suicide prevention trainings your organization can explore and how to establish referral pathways to behavioral health providers.
Through case examples, brief experiential exercises, and practical implementation tools, therapists will leave with strategies to support nervous system regulation, protect clinician wellbeing, and strengthen interdisciplinary care.
Learning Objectives:
1. Identify signs of autonomic nervous system dysregulation in clients during physical or occupational therapy sessions.
2. Apply basic regulation techniques that can be used to stabilize patients experiencing emotional or physiological overwhelm and/or to address clinician overwhelm.
3. Advocate for clear safety protocols with administration 4. Advocate for referral pathways to behavioral health professionals within rehabilitation settings.
3. Advocate for clear safety protocols with administration 4. Advocate for referral pathways to behavioral health professionals within rehabilitation settings.