After 2,000 years of practice, Buddhist monks know that one secret to happiness is to put your mind to it. What is happiness, and how can we achieve it? Happiness can’t be reduced to a few agreeable sensations. Rather, it is a way of being and of experiencing the world—a profound fulfillment that suffuses every moment and endures despite inevitable setbacks. [For more on this story by Matthieu Ricard, go to...
The wrenching testimony of Christine Blasey Ford, who is accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of a sexual assault years ago, raises questions about the long-term emotional and physical toll this kind of trauma takes on survivors and how our society responds to those who come forward long after the assault. Emily R. Dworkin , a senior fellow at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, studies how the social interactions of trauma survivors can affect their...
A new California survey of pregnant and new mothers paints a bleak picture of what it’s like to be a black mother. In Listening to Mothers in California, black mothers reported not being heard by their health providers and said they experienced discrimination during childbirth. They also experienced higher rates of anxiety and depression during and after pregnancy than white women. The findings add fuel to a growing sense of urgency on maternal health. On Wednesday, California Gov. Brown...
Avis and her brother, Bruce, have seen some hard knocks in their lives. At 60, she's his sole caretaker. She's taught school, worked as a receptionist, always worked, or wanted to work. Since she started caring for her brother, full-time work has seemed hard to find. He was born with autism 51 years ago. They share her little house in Pamlico County, North Carolina, where she now hopes to be called in to substitute teach, and he looks forward to her home cooked meals. Their lives revolve...
In early August, after a full day of cutting lentils in eastern Montana, Tracy and Jim Zeorian, the married team that make up Zeorian Harvesting, completed the 45-minute drive back to their camper in Jordan, Montana, population 343. They had finished early that day, so the fact that some light still hung in the sky was unusual. But Tracy’s day was far from over. In addition to running the combine that is the centerpiece of their operation and preparing meals for her and Jim, Tracy has become...
A STUDENT ARRIVES LATE to school each morning, downtrodden and listless. A girl can't concentrate in class. Teachers deal with a boy's daily emotional outbursts. A pediatrician is puzzled by a young patient's dwindling appetite. Another child is tormented by anxiety and nightmares. The common denominator for all these kids could be trauma. Poverty, violence, natural disasters or insecure housing may affect a child's mental health. Growing evidence highlights the effects of toxic stress and...
State leaders in education, criminal justice and health came together Tuesday to begin to confront an alarming, new statistic: Oklahoma’s youngest, most vulnerable children suffer more trauma than those in any other state in the nation. A summit titled, “It Starts Here: Trauma-Informed Instruction,” brought thousands of educators from across the state to hear from national experts on childhood trauma and what brain science reveals about what teachers can do to help students both learn more...
Oct 3, 2018, 11:00 AM, Posted by Martha Davis Collaborative approaches can help ensure kids grow up with a solid foundation of safety and with a support system for those who are affected by violence. As the executive director of Philadelphia Physicians for Social Responsibility in the late 1990s, I worked closely with the local police department, the Women’s Law Project , and the district attorney. At the time, these forward-thinking professionals were frustrated. They were arresting the...
As a psychologist who works with trauma, I am very much aware of how difficult it can be to recall details of a traumatic experience. Even the question, “can you tell me about your trauma?” can be befuddling, if not somewhat disturbing, to one who has experienced it. In fact, it is the very nature of our human response to trauma that we defend against taking in the frightening experience in its entirety. We are designed by nature to not let the full weight of the experience become conscious,...
Each month we will share more about our growing membership and communities , including announcing new communities such as the Community Resilience Collaborative of Middlesex County-CT , Youth (TCCY) East Tennessee ACEs Mobilization Team and Florida ACEs Connection . We've heard that many do not know where or how to find communities on ACEs Connection. We've heard you and will make that easier to do. Each month, we'll list our newest geographic, interest-based, organizational and...
Recovering From Trauma And The Lure Of Abusive Relationships
Here, my friends, is a symbol in perseverance, resilience, determination and healing. This is my forever sign of hope.
A recent study found that “individuals who engage more frequently in interpersonal touch enjoy better physical and psychological health and improved relationships.” This is helpful for understanding just how important physical contact is with regards to human interaction. By beginning to establish the effects of touch on individuals going though conflict, these researchers have laid the foundation for a further discussion of how physical contact affects individuals who have experienced...
Receiving hugs may buffer against deleterious changes in mood associated with interpersonal conflict, according to a study published October 3rd in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Michael Murphy of Carnegie Mellon University, along with co-authors Denise Janicki-Deverts and Sheldon Cohen. Individuals who engage more frequently in interpersonal touch enjoy better physical and psychological health and improved relationships. Theorists have proposed that interpersonal touch benefits...
Inside an immigration detention center in the desert outside Los Angeles, guards threw detainees into solitary confinement without hearings, routinely forced them into shackles, and cut off visits with family. Doctors signed off on medical assessments that never happened. Detainees were allowed to hang knotted sheets inside their cells, despite the facility’s extensive history of suicide attempts. And an extraction-happy dentist refused to fill cavities while suggesting detainees floss with...