Natalie Carney

Natalie believes that every person deserves a supportive educational environment, culturally responsive mental health support, clean water, healthcare, food, and community connection. Natalie strongly believes that housing is a human right, no person is illegal, and Black Lives Matter. Natalie is dedicated to the mission of supporting the whole child and family through developmentally appropriate, culturally responsive, anti-bias teaching.

At The Primary School, Natalie serves as a Mental Health Clinician and they earned their Master of Social Work (MSW) from New York University (NYU) with a focus on trauma. In their role, they will be providing emotional and behavioral support to students and ensuring they have the tools to support their social emotional development. Natalie brings their experiences with individuals and families experiencing homelessness, children and families within the foster care system, individuals in crisis, and LGBTQ+ children and adults to their role at The Primary School.

When people experience trauma, one of the biggest hurdles to jump is figuring out how to trust and connect with others because the sense of safety and trust have been challenged. However, humans need this connection and community in order to heal and grow, so Natalie’s favorite part of their work is helping to build those strong connections to help students heal. Natalie is incredibly excited to be able to support the students and the school family in building a healing community.

They strive to bring the values of curiosity, humility, and courage into their practice with families and children, seeing themself as a perpetual learner and parents as experts of their children. Using these values, Natalie looks forward to supporting families in finding creative, yet realistic ways to offer their children extra support in a way that is complementary to a family’s culture, beliefs, and story.