15-Minute Focus: Relationships and Belonging: Why Students Struggle in Isolation But Thrive in Connection - Paperback
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Do you know a student who is surrounded by people every moment of the day, yet feels completely alone?
In 15-Minute Focus: Relationships and Belonging, Amy Baltimore gives educators, counselors, and school leaders the neuroscience, practical strategies, and real-world tools to recognize student isolation, build genuine connection, and create school cultures where every student feels safe, seen, and supported.
When a student is struggling to connect, withdrawing from peers, or moving through the school day emotionally invisible, it is rarely a choice. Isolated students are often the quietest ones in the room: compliant, high-achieving, and easy to overlook. Most adults want to help but aren't sure what to look for or where to start. This book reframes disconnection not as a personality trait but as a neurological state, one that is identifiable, addressable, and preventable when adults know what to do.
You'll discover:
- How the brain treats belonging as safety and disconnection as danger
- The hidden masks of student isolation and how to recognize them
- Practical tools for building schoolwide belonging at every tier
- The SAFE Framework for weaving connection into daily interactions
- How to repair rupture, restore dignity, and rebuild trust after conflict
- Actionable strategies, resources, and more!
15-Minute Focus: Relationships and Belonging will ask you to look again at the students in your care, not only at what they are doing, but at what their nervous systems may be experiencing. When belonging becomes the system, not the exception, everything changes.
Dr. Amy Baltimore is a former missionary kid who grew up experiencing first hand what it is like to serve the needs of children with deep developmental trauma. With an undergraduate degree in musical theater and a masters degree in school counseling, she began her career by leaning into her passion for supporting the positive growth and development of students primarily in grades K-8 through musical theater programming and school counseling.
After 12 years of serving in schools as a school counselor, she realized the adults need just as much support as the students. So, after obtaining a specialist degree in Education Leadership, she stepped into the role of serving as a school counseling district leader and completed her personal educational journey by completing doctoral programming at Lipscomb University focused on the development of learning organizations, and strategic change.
Her professional experiences also include serving as Chair of the Board of Directors and legislative liaison for the Tennessee School Counselor Association, adjunct professor and frequent speaker at various higher ed events and state conferences, and advisory council for the Tennessee Department of Education school counseling department. She is a Nationally Board Certified Counselor and a certified trainer for Restorative Practices, Building Strong Brains (ACEs/PCEs), The 6 Pillars of Trauma-Informed Schools, and Youth Mental Health First Aid. Amy is the author of multiple books, including 30-Minute Groups: Relationships and Belonging and 15-Minute Focus: Relationships and Belonging.
Amy Baltimore has been happily married for 26 years and has two amazing children who have grown and flown. She loves any activity involving sunshine and warm weather. On any given sunny day you can find her at the lake on her paddleboard, or on a bicycle riding the greenway, or hiking with her husband toward one of the many waterfalls found in middle Tennessee.
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