Too Many Open Tabs: Executive Function Supports for Overloaded Brains (Series Begins Mar. 25, 2027)

For this webinar series, participants will automatically be enrolled in all 5 sessions.

Speaker

Julie B. Cullen, LICSW, Ed.M.

Description

Executive function challenges can affect everything from organization and attention to emotional regulation and classroom behavior. This engaging 5-session webinar series helps educators understand executive functioning through a neurodiversity-affirming, brain-based lens. Each session focuses on a specific executive function skill area and provides practical, classroom-ready supports participants can implement immediately. Through real-life examples, interactive activities, and strategy toolkits, educators will learn how to support students struggling with task initiation, working memory, flexibility, planning, time management, and regulation—while reducing overwhelm and increasing independence.

To receive PDPs and CEUs, participants must attend all 5 sessions, either live or via the recording, and successfully pass a quiz following Session 5. Within 24 hours of the live webinar, registrants will be emailed a link to view the recorded webinar. The recording will be made available for 7 days after each session.

Why do some students stare at a blank page, avoid beginning work, or shut down before they even try? This session explores task initiation and motivation through a brain-based lens, helping educators distinguish between avoidance, overwhelm, and genuine difficulty getting started. Participants will examine the role of activation energy, anxiety, perfectionism, and executive overload while learning practical classroom strategies that support engagement without increasing pressure or shame. Educators will leave with concrete tools to help students take those often-difficult first steps.

Executive function challenges are often invisible—and working memory may be one of the most misunderstood. Students may forget directions, lose track of assignments, or struggle to hold and manipulate information in real time. In this session, participants will explore how working memory and attention impact learning and behavior while experiencing firsthand what cognitive overload feels like. Educators will learn strategies for reducing mental load, externalizing memory demands, and creating classrooms that support success rather than overwhelm.

For many students, flexibility is not a preference—it is a neurological challenge. Difficulties with transitions, unexpected changes, problem-solving, and “Plan B” thinking can lead to frustration, rigidity, or emotional shutdown. This session examines cognitive flexibility and the ways stress, anxiety, and neurodivergence influence adaptable thinking. Through practical tools and real-life examples, educators will learn how to support smoother transitions, foster problem-solving skills, and help students move from feeling stuck to feeling capable.

Missing assignments, backpack disasters, unfinished projects, and chronic lateness are often signs of executive function challenges rather than carelessness. This session focuses on planning, organization, prioritization, and time management while exploring the very real experience of time blindness and executive overload. Participants will learn practical systems for helping students organize materials, break down long-term tasks, manage deadlines, and build independence without relying on constant adult reminders.

Executive function is about far more than academics—it also shapes how students manage emotions, impulses, frustration, and recovery after setbacks. This closing session explores the powerful connection between regulation and executive functioning and how stress can quickly disrupt thinking, behavior, and learning. Participants will learn co-regulation strategies, supportive classroom language, and nervous-system-informed approaches that reduce escalation while building emotional awareness, self-monitoring, and resilience. The series concludes with a focus on compassion, connection, and helping students understand—and work with—their own brains.

About the Speaker
Julie B. Cullen, LICSW, Ed.M.

Julie B. Cullen, LICSW, Ed.M., (she/her) is a therapist, educator, and lifelong student of how kids’ brains, and school classrooms, actually work

She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Vermont and went on to receive both her Master of Social Work and Master of Special Education from Boston University. Her early clinical career began in residential treatment, where she received intensive training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and developmental trauma treatment. She served as both clinician and Clinical Director at this agency, before transitioning into therapeutic public school work.

In 2012, Julie opened her private practice and continues to work closely with children, adolescents, and families. She also provides integrated behavioral health services at Bedford Pediatrics in Bedford, MA, partnering with pediatric providers to support the whole child.

As a course instructor, Julie blends neuroscience, real-world case examples, and just enough humor to make complex concepts feel accessible and immediately usable. She is especially passionate about helping educators and clinicians understand executive function, regulation, trauma, and neurodiversity through a strengths-based lens. Participants leave her sessions with practical tools they can use the very next day — and a refreshed perspective on the students (and children) in their lives.

Julie believes that when we understand behavior through the lens of stress and skill development, everything changes — including outcomes.

Membership Information

Most MPY webinars are available ONLY to current staff from member districts and organizations. Public school memberships include police and fire personnel. Former and retired employees and members of committees, including but not limited to, PTO/PTA, PAC, School Improvement Councils, Health Councils, Drug/Alcohol Councils, and school volunteers, are not considered MPY members.

PDPs and CEUs

MPY is an approved Professional Development Provider through the Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education (Provider No. F20180079). Professional Development Points (PDPs) are offered for most MPY professional development webinars. PDPs are issued in 10 hour increments, per DESE requirements.

Continuing Education Units (CEUs) are available for clinical staff through the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the Massachusetts Mental Health Counselors Association, Inc. (MaMHCA). The NASW and the MaMHCA approve each event individually. CEUs may be given in hourly increments.

To receive PDPs and CEUs, participants must pass the quiz.

Event Cancellation Policy

If you are unable to attend a MPY webinar you must cancel, through Bonnie Mullen at bonnie@mpyinc.org, one business day before the webinar.

For MPY hybrid conferences, the date in-person registration closes will be posted on MPY’s website. Virtual conference registration will close one business day before the hybrid conference. You cannot cancel or switch your registration from in-person to virtual after in-person registration closes. Please email Bonnie Mullen at bonnie@mpyinc.org with any questions regarding registration.

 

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All sessions are 12:00 – 2:00 pm

  • Session 1: March 25, 2027, GETTING STARTED – Task Initiation, Motivation and “I Can’t Start” Brain
  • Session 2: April 8, 2027, TOO MANY OPEN TABS- Working Memory, Attention and Overload
  • Session 3: May 6, 2027, FLEXIBLE THINKING- Transitions, Problem Solving & Stuck Brains
  • Session 4: May 13, 2027,TIME, PLANNING and THE BACKPACK DIMENSION- Organization, Planning and Time Blindness
  • Session 5: May 20, 2027, BIG FEELINGS, BIG BRAINS- Emotional Control, Impulse Control and Self-Regulation