January 2022

We are excited to resume the Resilience Presentation Series of the ETSU Ballad Health Strong BRAIN Institute next Tuesday, January 11 th from 12:00 to 1:00 EST. Michael Cull, Ph. D ., Associate Professor in the Department of Health Management and Policy at the University of Kentucky will discuss strategies for crafting more resilient health systems by focusing on team dynamics, and workplace culture and decision making. A zoom registration for the presentation can be found here:...

Happy, Healthy New Year’s Wishes for You! Most of us have heard this phrase multiple times over that past week. Where exactly do happy and healthy start?? I believe the felt sense of safety is the common denominator. We are all looking for relief from the stress of the past few years, but some of us also continue to help ourselves or others cope with and learn from the adversities and toxic stress from our past. Research tells us that connection to competent and caring people and...

By Samara Grossman, Zara Cooper, Heather Buxton, et al., Photo: Unsplash.com, Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open, December 20, 2021 Abstract Trauma is often viewed as an individual or interpersonal issue. This paper expands the definition of trauma to include the impact collective and structural elements on health and well-being. The need for a trauma-informed response is demonstrated, with instruction as to how to implement this type of care in order to resist re-traumatization. Three...

It is great to see that my former roommate from when I lived in NYC in 2014, Dr. Jet Vonk, now a researcher at Columbia University, just published research on child maltreatment in the Journal of Affective Disorders, Volume 299, 15 February 2022, Pages 559-567. I am so grateful this research is being done. May 2022 be filled with such research! Although disheartening, we can only change the problem once we see it clearly. Please click here to read the study. Available until Feb 13, 2022.

The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) Foundation has awarded the Trauma-informed Design Society a $30,000 grant to conduct a pilot project culminating in the creation of a tool schools can use to evaluate their physical space and identify changes that can lower the stress levels of students and staff! PROJECT OVERVIEW The space in which students learn can communicate safety and promote secure attachments with teachers, or it can symbolize lack of dignity and agency, encouraging...

By Vikram Dodd, Photo: David Johnson/Cambridge University/PA, The Guardian, December 19, 2021 Women and ethnic minorities are being held back by white male supremacy and affirmative action is needed in Britain to tackle longstanding injustices, the US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson has said. Jackson, a former presidential candidate and veteran civil rights leader who worked alongside Dr Martin Luther King in the 1960s, on Sunday finishes a tour of the UK to mark his 80th birthday. Jackson...

Hosted By Elaine Miller-Karas, VoiceAmerica, June 14, 2021 The internet and social media are often perceived as the bad guys as they have unfortunately been abused by perpetrators to target children, teens, and adults for bullying, sexual harassment, predatory grooming and sex-trafficking. But what if this same technologies could be used in a positive way to provide individuals, organizations, and communities with the knowledge and tools they need to address and prevent sexual violence?

By Kassie McClung, Photo: The Frontier, Center for Health Journalism, December 6, 2021 Laughter filled the living room of Carmen and Daniel Gibson’s second-floor apartment in Tulsa as they practiced swaddling a baby doll, gently wrapping it in a white blanket. Their doula, Ashlee Wilson, sat nearby and offered advice and words of encouragement. “So, the first thing is, it doesn’t have to be perfect, right,” Wilson said as Daniel carefully crossed a corner of the blanket over the doll. “A...

By Cal Newport, Photo: Getty/Hulton Archive, The New Yorker, January 3, 2022 In early December, the Congressional Progressive Caucus endorsed the Thirty-Two-Hour Workweek Act. This bill, introduced by a California Democrat, Mark Takano, amends the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act to reduce the federally recognized standard workweek from forty hours to thirty-two. The direct beneficiaries of this change would be hourly wage workers, who could potentially earn more overtime pay. But salaried...

Written in 2018. I’m reading one of Maria Popova’s essays on Brain Pickings and listening to When Rivers Cry by Rwanda singer, Somi. In the essay, Popova quotes Nietzsche , who claimed that heroism is the ability “to face simultaneously one’s greatest suffering and one’s highest hope.” I think about this. I think for a moment about my time in Yonago, Japan. While there two years ago, I fell several times from my bike – grief-stricken, motionless – onto the street. I moved to Japan in...

Hello, The Ethical Self-Care training has been updated, and while I don't have it set up as a webinar yet for CEUs, the video of the live training from 12.29.21 is available here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktkBwFjh5HA for learning purposes. Whether you want to be as ethical as possible in your field, or be more informed and able to hold others accountable as needed, the materials provided in this training are for you. Description for the training: To optimize ethical practice, it is...

Please register now at this link to reserve your spot. You’re invited to participate in Building the Movement with Coalitions, the first of eight remarkable workshops featured in the series, “ Building a National Movement to Prevent Trauma and Foster Resilience ”. The first half-day workshop will occur virtually on January 7th from 1-5pm ET/10am-2pm PT. It focuses on the history and future of the movement and building community-owned, trauma-informed, prevention-focused, and healing-centered...