December 2020

I'm excited to share a new page we've put together with multiple SEL & self-care resources for kids, families, and practitioners. These are drawn from our webinar yesterday, when we also crowd-sourced both SEL resources and self-care ideas from the over 400 participants. If you have additions, please add them to the comments. We want to share as many great resources as possible with our community! Access the SEL & Self-Care Resources >>

This is a one-hour webinar on December 16 from 3-4pm PST by Dovetail Learning is cosponsored by the Center for Care Innovations and ACEs Connection. It is second in a webinar series on health care provider wellness. Please click here to register. Healthcare providers are experiencing high levels of stress from the COVID surge. Add vicarious trauma from screening for ACEs and it can feel overwhelming. We Are Resilient™ designed to improve our own resilience as healthcare providers. It also...

T ransforming Trauma Episode 030: Complex Trauma, Self-Sabotage, Diet Culture, and Eating Disorder Recovery with Iris McAlpin In this episode of Transforming Trauma, our host Sarah Buino interviews NARM Practitioner and coach Iris McAlpin. Iris specializes in eating disorder recovery, complex trauma, and self-sabotage. Iris also hosts a podcast called Pure Curiosity which seeks to facilitate nuanced conversations about the human experience and de-stigmatize mental health challenges. Iris...

February Professional Development Courses People around the world need the skills and training we offer, but many are unable to come to Harrisonburg to attend courses. To help those who cannot attend in person during our traditional sessions, the "Summer" Peacebuilding Institute is trying something new - winter online courses. Dates for February online courses: February 15 - March 19, 2021 The following courses will be taught at the February online session of SPI (click the course title...

Chloe Yang, 12/9/20, positiveexperience.org/blog At the HOPE National Resource Center, one of our greatest joys is having opportunities to work with and learn from those engaged with HOPE—from workshop participants, advisors, and collaborators, to blog readers and commenters. This engagement and co-learning both spreads HOPE and improves our materials, resources, and core concepts. In that spirit, we partnered with Corey Best (Community Curator, Mining for Gold, and HOPE National Advisory...

If your life feels empty and lonely, despite the fact that you do all the things that are supposed to fill up your life, you might be a “covert avoider.” You might have a good career, you’re friendly, you’re interesting, there are people in your life -- but if you feel like nothing is connecting it’s all superficial and not giving you happiness -- It’s time to ask yourself if you’re secretly avoiding your own life. Avoidance is really normal for people who had trauma when they were kids. If...

Thoughts - “Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone.” - Fred Rogers “ Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” - Desmond Tutu “ Everything that happens to you is a lesson. Everyone you...

Resilience Week had to live up to its name. Virginia’s recognition of resilience-building efforts, originated by the Greater Richmond Trauma-Informed Community Network (GRTICN) and planned in collaboration with TICNs across the state, was set for May 3-9, 2020. Then COVID-19 came. A work group of GRTICN members collaborated with businesses, movie theaters, libraries, schools, local government agencies and non-profit organizations to swiftly pivot their plans to take place virtually: story...

LeAnne Simpson’s 6-year-old daughter had thrown plenty of tantrums before the pandemic. But after a few weeks of lockdown, minor frustrations that used to lead to short-lived outbursts were now setting off writhing-on-the-floor freakouts . “First, she’d get so frustrated she couldn’t talk,” Simpson said. “Then she would start screaming, drop to the floor and roll around flailing her arms, often kicking or hitting me if I came close to her.” Simpson tried every tantrum-defusing strategy she...

In 2017, Children’s Hospital of Richmond (CHoR) at Virginia Commonwealth University took a huge jump in a new direction. Its CEO assembled 50 leaders from every unit and across disciplines to work on infusing a trauma-informed approach into its entire 182-bed hospital environment. Brittany Corker Kiefer What sent them down this path was a fervent belief that something was missing in standard care. “Being admitted to the hospital can be traumatic enough, without even factoring in past...

During this extraordinary period of time, there is both an opportunity and a heightened need to examine our societal role in keeping families safely together. In this issue of insights, we provide a framework for prevention and family strengthening strategies that is guided by data on disparities in child welfare involvement, includes innovative county approaches, and offers perspectives from stakeholders including those with lived experience. Our goal is to help inform the many state and...

Six new communities have joined ACEsConnection.com. Details about each of them are below as is information about starting and growing your community initiatives and joining the Cooperative of Communities . 16 Strong Project 16 Strong works with adolescents to empower resilience to ACEs through educational workshops, school partnerships, and community outreach. We strive to continue conversations that help young people recognize and navigate the challenges they are facing as a result of ACEs.