Trusted Adults & Healthy Boundaries: Sustainable Student Relationships

What does it actually mean to be a trusted adult — and are you doing it in a way that's sustainable? In this episode of The Table Podcast Series, host Bridget Johnson sits down with Dr. Brooklyn Raney to explore the real cost of blurred boundaries in schools and what it takes to build authentic student connections without burning out.

Dr. Raney brings both personal experience and rigorous doctoral research on teacher-student care to the conversation. Drawing from the newly released second edition of One Trusted Adult, she introduces her ABCs framework — Accessible, Boundaried, and Caring — as a practical lens for student life professionals navigating the impossible standard of being everything for everyone. Together, Bridget and Brooklyn tackle the warning signs of boundary drift, why students themselves identify oversharing as a top trust-breaker, and how building a culture of trusted adults is fundamentally a team effort.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why trust actually requires boundaries — and how to communicate them without pushing students away

• The 3 most common boundary blurs that erode student trust (backed by student focus groups)

• How the ABCs framework — Accessible, Boundaried, Caring — protects both students and educators

• Why prioritizing likeability over authentic connection is the #1 mistake student life professionals make

• A practical ABC self-assessment you can use this week to reset unsustainable patterns

Featured Guest: Dr. Brooklyn Raney is a leadership researcher, speaker, and author whose doctoral work focused on the ethics of care in schools. She is the creator of the One Trusted Adult framework and the author of the newly released second edition of One Trusted Adult: How to Build Strong Connections and Healthy Boundaries with Young People — a research-backed guide used by schools and youth-serving organizations to build cultures where every student has a trusted adult in their corner.

Recommended Resources:

• One Trusted Adult (2nd edition) — available everywhere books are sold

• Free resources, courses, advisory programs & the "Too Loose, Too Rigid, Just Right" quiz: https://onetrustedadult.com

• Student Life Assessment Program: https://deansroundtable.org/k-12-student-life-assessment-program-independent-school-evaluation/

Visit the Deans' Roundtable: https://deansroundtable.org LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bridget-johnson510/ Email: [email protected]

The Table Podcast Series: Where student life professionals connect, learn, share, and grow together.