Based on a qualitative study conducted at a public university in Mexico, this presentation explores how faculty beliefs and expectations shape the emotional environment of the classroom. The inclusion of students with disabilities and neurodivergence in higher education is often approached through technical adjustments, frequently overlooking the psychological impact on educational actors. This paper analyzes how the lack of comprehensive training and institutional support networks translates into psychosocial stressors for faculty, such as feelings of incompetence, frustration, anxiety, and learned helplessness. These emotional states arise when educators face a diverse student body they have not been trained to support, turning the classroom into a space of tension rather than learning.

Furthermore, it examines how beliefs and prejudices—within their psychological dimension—affect the emotional well-being of students with disabilities, the quality of the pedagogical bond, and academic achievement. Attitudinal barriers, often invisible, operate as microaggressions that undermine student self-perception, triggering processes of subjective exclusion that impact their mental health. The relationship between faculty expectations (the Pygmalion effect) and academic persistence is examined, highlighting that a stigmatizing attitude can be as disabling as the lack of physical accessibility.

Finally, we propose that inclusion be viewed not only as a matter of rights within the educational field but as a determinant of collective mental health at the university. This research suggests that successful inclusive education depends on building an ecology of well-being. This requires moving beyond individual "goodwill" toward emotional support policies, peer mentoring, and the strengthening of institutional resilience, thereby ensuring university environments that promote the mental health of both faculty and students.

Gabriela Castillo Terán holds a degree in Psychology from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and completed her PhD at the Center for Research and Advanced Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS) in Mexico City. In 2015, she was awarded the prestigious national "Fray Bernardino de Sahagún" prize by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) for her ethnographic research. She has contributed to several national and international collective works and publications on religion, psychology, and psychotherapy. As a psychotherapist with a humanistic approach, she has delivered numerous lectures and workshops in the fields of educational, clinical, and social psychology. Currently, she is a full-time professor at the Rosario Castellanos National University (UNRC) in Mexico City, within the Psychology Department. She is an active member of the research line "Disability and Educational Inclusion in Higher Education" and is currently a member of Mexico’s National System of Researchers (SNII).