February 2023

A homeless encampment that was threatened by rising waters in Sacramento last month. Credit... Max Whittaker for The New York Times By Soumya Karlamangla, The New York Times, February 21, 2023 Yvonne Soy had to move out of her apartment in Contra Costa County because she couldn’t pay her rent. She began living in her car, with her two cats, and tried to get work as a secretary or a legal administrator. But the showers at the local homeless shelter didn’t open until 8:30 a.m., too late for...

Online Class Only! Monday Night Meditation 7pm to 8pm Pacific time ONLINE information at www.apositivelight.com Because of Icy Roads, this Monday February 27, 2023 we will be offering ONLINE ONLY Joanie Lane offers two sittings and a talk on: How to bring Mindfulness into our lives Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, describes mindfulness as “Awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally, in the service of...

Isn't this a blog about Foster Care and adoption? Why is the title, "Don't Adopt from Foster Care"? I literally heard these words from a friend of mine who was a social worker by trade. I think she had quit her job and was teaching a few classes to potential foster parents. She heard a lot of stories. If you want to choose an agency for fostering or adoption, use this one https://kristenadkins.podia.com/agency-interview-form

Image from news4jax.com I live in a city of about 300,000 in the state of Arizona. We are about 78% white, 17% Latinx, 4% black and 1% Native American. Every year we are mentioned on the list of the 10 most desirable and safest cities in America. This year, I have a contract with the police department to train all 500 sworn officers and civilian workers in a form of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion but with a historical trauma perspective and filtered through a PACEs lens. Since the murder of...

Before you read this, please know it is an account of my newborn adversity. Some may say I am “trauma dumping” to set up my own hero story. However, this is not my hero story. This story is about the heroes who made my story. In one week it will be the day I entered the world, the day I was born. There is no true record of that day, except me. When I was born there were no pictures taken, no cigars handed out, no family waiting for the news. My birth mother was only 17 years old and decided...

May the delusion blooming in your brain be a prophecy for you, a grand musical you wrote coming true: a bicycle utopia, where nobody goes lonely or hungry, and gravity is erratic, where everybody fly-cycles, and the only currency is songs. Bless every overdose, every suicide, every broken hope to the rehabilitation of the spirit and the miracle of all souls going wherever the dead heal and gladden together. May we be as trees, walking each loss that is a cross, light as ash, branch to our...

Kindle Just Announced a .99 limited-time special on my new book "It's Not About Food, Drugs, or Alcohol: It's About Healing Complex PTSD"! I'm thrilled to announce my new book has already received 18, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Five Star reviews between the paperback and Kindle versions on Amazon within 48 hours! If you're curious about how the adversity you experienced in childhood may be why you continually struggle with relationships, food, weight, or substances and want to find a permanent solution by...

By Gretchen Kell, Greater Good Magazine, February 17, 2023 There’s a resurgence in psychedelics, banned in the U.S. since 1970 by the federal Controlled Substances Act. That law, signed by then-President Richard Nixon, halted what had been promising research into the drugs’ therapeutic and medicinal potential. Today, psychedelics have been shown in recent, approved clinical trials to alleviate mental distress, even addiction. As a result, efforts to legalize their use also are on the rise.

By Melissa Whippo, Illustration: Celia Jacobs/The Washington Post, The Washington Post, February 8, 2023 “All of my mom friends are microdosing mushrooms, and I want to try it, too,” one of my patients said during our therapy session. A 34-year-old woman with two children under age 4, my patient lives in the Bay Area — home to one of the epicenters of what is known as the “ psychedelic renaissance ,” making it more common for moms to discuss microdosing at play dates. As a therapist who...

By Antonia Hitchens, Illustration: João Fazenda, The New Yorker, February 20, 2023 Late last month, the Biden Administration announced that the U.S. would send thirty-one M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. Meanwhile, in New York, a Ukrainian delegation, including a representative of the Territorial Defense Forces, had gathered to consider other types of aid. The goal, according to an ad for the event, was to promote “the psychological and spiritual resilience of Ukrainian people living in trauma,...

By Laura Newberry, Illustration: Patrick Hruby/Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, February 21, 2023 Post-traumatic stress disorder is one of the most common mental health conditions in the world, with an estimated six out of every 100 people in the United States alone experiencing PTSD at some point in their lives — a figure that doesn’t account for people who live with complex trauma . Yet despite its pervasiveness, available treatments for PTSD don’t work for at least a third of people...

By Lexi Pandell, Illustration: Marcos Chin, UCSF Magazine, Winter 2023 When Tom Solis, a renowned chef and baker, fell ill with AIDS in the 1990s, he believed he would soon die. But breakthrough drugs called protease inhibitors quickly put him back on a path to a fairly normal life. Still, he struggled for years with the challenges of managing his disease and the deaths of loved ones in his community. “I felt I always had this tight armor that I could not get out of,” he says. Then, in 2016,...