March 2020

By Rutger Bregman, The Correspondent, March 13, 2020 Disasters and crises bring out the best in us. This simple fact is confirmed by more solid evidence than almost any other scientific insight, but we often forget. Now more than ever, in the middle of a pandemic, it’s crucial to remember this. Sure, our news feeds are flooded with cynical stories and comments. A report on armed men stealing rolls of toilet paper in Hong Kong, or a passing comment about the Australian women who got into a...

“Healing the Wound That Won’t Heal: the Reality of Trauma.” In this book I share my in-depth work to understand the psychology and neurobiology regarding trauma and neglect in the first two years of life. My father was suffering extreme shell-shock due to his WWII mission to bomb the oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania. He was too ill to care for himself: yet, I was left with him everyday as my mother worked as a waitress. When I was thirteen-months-old, he died on the floor in front of my...

By Guest Author, Pamela McVeagh-Lally As the spread of COVID-19 causes more and more school closures across the United States, we, parents and caregivers, are faced with the daunting reality of needing to stay at home with our children for weeks and possibly months. While educators are working hard to prepare take home packets and online resources to support our children’s continued academic learning while schools are closed, intentionally supporting our children’s emotional well-being...

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Interpersonal Relationships Nicole Zlate 527-1 Special Topic: Trauma-Informed Approaches Adler Graduate School Adverse Childhood Experiences Adverse childhood experiences (or ACES) is defined as childhood exposure to traumatic events such as emotional abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse, exposure to violence, neglect, abandonment, exposure to substance abuse, and other harmful events that the child may carry with them into adulthood. When...

By Erin Allday, San Francisco Chronicle, March 16, 2020 Six Bay Area counties are expected to announce a “shelter in place” order for all residents on Monday, directing everyone to stay inside their homes and away from others as much as possible for the next three weeks as public health officials desperately try to curb the rapid spread of coronavirus across the region. County authorities were expected to announce the move at 1 p.m. and gave a draft of the order to media outlets to prepare.

From Tokyo Metropolitan University, Eurekalert!, March 14, 2020 Scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University have discovered that Drosophila flies lose long-term memory (LTM) of a traumatic event when kept in the dark, the first confirmation of environmental light playing a role in LTM maintenance. The team also identified the specific molecular mechanism responsible for this effect. LTMs are notoriously difficult to erase; this work may lead to novel treatments for sufferers of trauma,...

By Prizmi Tripathi, The Cinemaholic, March 14, 2020 ‘Steven Universe Future’ AKA ‘Steven Universe’ Season 6, is an animated sci-fi fantasy series that follows Steven, as he aims at tying up all the loose ends after rescuing the Gem empire. Now that the world is rescued and no new threats are looming over the Gems, Steven finds it challenging to relax and focus on himself. Created by Rebecca Sugar, the limited series serves as an ultimate epilogue to ‘Steven Universe.’ It premiered on...

By David Greene, National Public Radio, March 12, 2020 When you collapse on the couch after a long workday and start scrolling through social media, you're not doing your tired brain any favors, says author Celeste Headlee. "Your brain sees your phone as work," she explains. "To your brain, any time that phone is visible, part of your brain is expending part of its energy on preparing for a notification to come in. It's like a runner at the starting gate." Researchers have found that simply...

By Tian Dayton , Senior Fellow @ The Meadows, Clinical psychologist, psychodramatist, author Emotional Sobriety,ACoA Trauma Syndrome, The Soulful Journey of Recovery (2019),Trauma and Addiction, Forgiving and Moving On at tiandayton.com Uncertainty is one of our most difficult feelings to manage. We humans like to wrap our minds around things, we like to know what’s going to happen. But do we? HHHmmm that’s the age old question. It is times like these that pull us into the present, that...

Overcoming the Fear of Touch For survivors, like me, just the thought of someone touching us can be terrifying. When someone gives us an uninvited hug or a partner decides to surprise us with a kiss, the alarms immediately sound in our brain. The best illustration of what touch can be like for a survivor I have ever read comes from Stephen J. Bradley, LICSW, LMHC that he gave to Northampton Couples Therapy.

This has been quite a week, and we are now facing major disruptions in our own family lives. There is no doubt that the events of this winter and spring will be memorable for children. In that spirit, here are a few ideas to help make those memories (at least somewhat) happy.

By Danielle Render Turmaud, Psychology Today, March 14, 2020 As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads across the globe, we are amidst a time of uncertainty and upheaval. Where the focus may often be on recognizing COVID-19 symptoms during this time, it is also important to recognize that this time of crisis and trauma may lead to mental health challenges for many. What are the mental health consequences of a pandemic and how do we cope when there is much that is out of our control? First, it is...