March 2017

In 1992, Zindel Segal, John Teasdale, and Mark Williams collaborated to create an eight-week program modeled on MBSR. Jon Kabat-Zinn —who developed MBSR—had some initial misgivings about the program, fearing the curriculum might insufficiently emphasize how important it is for instructors to have a deep personal relationship with mindfulness practice. Once he got to know the founders better, he became a champion for the program. In 2002, the three published Mindfulness-Based Cognitive...

Research suggests that we turn towards pain and discomfort, we can experience less of it. Plus — a guided meditation for being mindful when things get tough . Research into mindfulness has shown the benefits of staying present, and of gently turning towards difficulty. Mindfulness-based relapse prevention (MBRP) trains people with addictive habits to manage their cravings mindfully by staying present to the sensations of craving, rather than trying to distract from them, avoid them or defeat...

Here is the final schedule for Echo's conference. It is brimming with powerful and timely workshops for the world we find ourselves in today and full of deep reflection on how we got here. Come hear the voices that have so long been silenced. Add your voice to the long tradition of nonviolent resistance to injustice. None of us can afford to stand by. Please contact us if you need a partial scholarship - we want to fill the halls of The California Endowment with those who are passionate...

Bruce Perry, Gabor Mate, Janina Fisher and many other of the world’s leading master therapists, thought leaders and game-changers who specialize in PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, trauma and complex trauma and related fields, join Guy Macpherson, PhD at westcoasttraumaproject.com for inspiring interviews about the demanding field of trauma therapy, the crucial mistakes they’ve made and what they’ve learned, and advice they have for aspiring trauma therapists. ...

Prescribed narcotic painkillers continue to fuel a nationwide opioid epidemic—nearly half of fatal overdoses in the United States involve opioids prescribed by a doctor. But people don't seem to be avoiding the medications, despite the well-documented risks. In the latest NPR-Truven Health Analytics poll , over half of people surveyed, or 57 percent, said they had been prescribed a narcotic painkiller like Percocet, Vicodin or morphine at some point. That's an increase of 3 percent since we...

DMC (disproportionate minority contact) is no longer simply about the over-representation of black and brown youth in the juvenile justice system. In recent years, it has come to mean something far broader and deeper to those in the reform trenches. As part of their DMC reduction efforts, practitioners and reformers are now paying much closer attention to the special needs of other groups who are minorities in the general youth population — like LGBT youth, young people with behavioral and...

You’re 16, homeless and sleeping on a park bench when police grab you at 3 in the morning. Vagrancy, trespassing or a host of minor offenses send you tumbling into the juvenile justice system. Or you’re 16, do something stupid with marijuana, get caught trespassing, missing curfews or skipping school. You have a home but no true family support system, and suddenly, with a criminal record, nobody’s hiring, school expelled you and your family tossed you out of the house. You too wind up...

In his book, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, author Bessel van der Kolk describes what makes the most difference in determining those children and eventually those adults who perpetuate self-destructive behaviors. This means while they continue to experience suicidal thoughts and behaviors that are self-injurious, they can be healed through therapy, so they no longer pursue self-harming behaviors. Most parents have heard about children and...

As downward spirals go, Mark’s was early and precipitous. He first tried alcohol at 13, began binge drinking shortly afterward, and graduated to pot, Percocet, then heroin. When he was 22, snorting drugs alone in a cheap motel room, he passed out on the floor, where he lay for hours in a position that cut off circulation to his right leg. It had to be amputated above the knee. While recovering in the hospital Mark had unfettered access to opiates, in severe pain but almost enjoying the...

Nearly one in four American adults under the age of 65 has medical debt, according to the results of a new study by the Urban Institute, and southerners are hit hardest by past-due doctors’ bills. The study authors, Michael Karpman and Kyle J. Caswell, found that eight of the ten states with the highest rates of past-due medical debt were in the South: Mississippi, Arkansas, West Virginia, South Carolina, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Georgia. The rate was lowest in Hawaii, at 6 percent...

Brandy Ramos’ 9-year-old daughter has spent the school year learning about adding decimals and the difference between cold-blooded and warm-blooded animals. So earlier this month, Ramos was shocked when she picked up her daughter from school and the third-grader asked her to explain a sex act. The same day, her 11-year-old son, who’s in sixth-grade, asked her about another sex act. The children’s questions came after they were given a survey at school. A group of parents — including Ramos —...

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Starting in the 1970s, U.S. policymakers embraced draconian criminal-justice policies as part of the war on drugs. Tough-on-crime politicians rose to power by pledging longer mandatory-minimum sentences and more intense policing practices. The American legal system became the primary tool for addressing the nation’s social ills. And as incarceration grew rapidly in the following decades, so, too, did the coffers of an emerging prison-industrial...