Safety comes first — always
Nobody learns, heals, or changes while their nervous system is braced for impact. Before strategy, we build safety: predictable rhythms, honest language, and adults who can stay regulated in hard moments.
About
I love to hold stories, lean into curious imagination, find the beauty, and nurture hope.
Dr. Danielle Gettings is a mental health professional, educator, and speaker who listens before she teaches. Her work sits at the intersection of child development, neuro-emotional regulation, and the relational systems that surround a child. Her work is to make room for the stories people carry — so they can be held, spoken, and met with dignity.
The long version
Danielle's path into this work began with listening. In classrooms and family meetings, she kept meeting children and adults whose stories didn't fit the systems built to serve them. She learned early that before any strategy or intervention, someone has to be willing to hold the story — all of it, even the parts that are hard to name.
I was born being a witness. A witness of harm, injustice, and abuse. And I have learned, slowly and across many years, that hope is often birthed in the quiet space of listening and witnessing. Not by fixing. Not by rushing. But by moving toward one another, and together, choosing to see what is real and hold it with care.
So she went looking for frameworks that could help her do that well. Her training draws on neurorelational and neurosequential work (Bruce Perry), attachment theory, somatic and regulation-based practices, and relation-centered approaches—all held through a culturally sensitive lens. But what makes her teaching land isn't the research itself — it's that she translates it into language a kindergarten teacher, a superintendent, and a grandmother can all use to keep hope alive in hard moments.
Much of her consulting has focused on spaces of disparity: rural districts, ESDs, early childhood programs, Indigenous and culturally diverse communities, migrant students, and nonprofit teams carrying vicarious trauma with almost no support of their own. She holds their exhaustion seriously. Sustainability, not heroics, is the goal — because hope only grows when the people doing the caring are also cared for.
Danielle is currently completing credentialing for a private LMHC practice while continuing to speak, train, and facilitate wellness groups for school districts and organizations across the Pacific Northwest and Spanish-speaking communities.
A reason for being
Ikigai is a Japanese idea for the place where what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for all overlap. I sat with those four questions honestly. What came back is the clearest description of my work I've found. Jeremy Snowden served as a supportive guide through this process of discovery. Visit his site to learn more.
“I want to create a stage for those who are unheard. Not because I have the answers — but because listening, and letting a voice be heard, is the next step toward healing.”
My father — who always inspired hope in me. Much of what I know about holding a story gently, I learned sitting beside him.
What I believe
Behavior is communication
What looks like defiance is often a body doing its best to survive. Curiosity replaces correction when we understand development and the stress response.
Healing happens in relationship
Neurorelational research and lived experience agree: connection is the intervention. Programs matter, but people are what children remember — and what staff need to keep going.
Grief and ceremony belong in this work
Loss is part of many school communities, especially among displaced students and frontline staff. I hold space for grief and ceremonial wellness with cultural humility and no imposed dogma.
Professional journey
Doctoral research
Doctoral work on trauma, attachment, and healing — examining how relational rupture and repair shape development across systems and generations, with attention to displaced and marginalized youth.
Schools & MTSS
Years inside school systems, ESDs, and districts building tiered emotional supports, coaching teams through behavior that felt unsolvable, and helping leaders design structures that hold both students and staff.
Early childhood & community
Consultation with ECEAP, ESIT, Head Start, family advocates, and nonprofit teams serving rural, Indigenous, migrant, and culturally diverse communities where care is too often fragmented.
Now
Speaking and consulting with school districts, early childhood programs, and community and advocacy organizations across the Pacific Northwest and Spanish-speaking communities, while completing licensure requirements for an LMHC private practice and ceremonial wellness group offerings.
Bring this work to your team
Whether you're planning a PD day or rebuilding your supports from the ground up, let's talk about what would actually help.
Start a speaking inquiry