March 2022

By Christina Caron, Illustration: Seb Agresti/The Washington Post, The Washington Post, March 14, 2022 Coronavirus cases are receding across the United States, and face masks are coming off. Little green shoots are finally poking through the earth, signaling the arrival of warmer weather. The pandemic has not been declared over, but after living in survival mode for the last two years, some would say we are emerging into a “new normal.” Though that doesn’t mean our minds are at ease. Many...

By Zoeann Murphy and Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, Illustration: The Washington Post, The Washington Post, March 15, 2022 The wave of refugees flooding through Europe is striking not just for its historic scale and speed, but because half the people who have fled the war in Ukraine are children. Many have had to say goodbye to their fathers before undertaking difficult and disorienting journeys with mothers and siblings, sometimes waiting more than a dozen hours in the cold before being allowed to...

Build on our Reimagining Resilience 1 workshop , OR your own knowledge and experiences, with our NEW online workshop - Reimagining Resilience 2: Developing Firmness Tools , Thursdays March 24 & 31, 4:30-6:30pm PDT. This workshop is facilitated by Corrina Skildum & Alan Wong . Alan shares how Reimagining Resilience 2 helps educators and other adults who work with youth during these challenging times: "More than ever we need tools that can help us meet the need of all students and...

I attended my first funeral at age eighteen. He was a friend, a gifted musician, and a troubled teen caught up in the juvenile delinquent system of Flathead County in northwestern Montana. The funeral took place in February, 1990, the same week an Arctic storm plunged temperatures to brutal lows. Leafless tree branches reached out like fingers desperate for warmth. I stood in a huddle with my friends, probably not wearing a coat, mourning a friendship that took decades to process the real...

In Part 4 of his new book UNLEASHING INDIVIDUALITY Organizational development strategist Glenn Llopis discussed "Restoring Dignity". Here he introduces ACES methods and findings to provide a lens to understand how dignity in childhood is violated and can be supported in the various hierarchical organizations within which we work! Worth a read to provide a prod to finding applications! Unleashing Individuality

In this episode of Transforming Trauma, our guest is Althea Simpson, the founder of Brighter Day Therapeutic Solutions, Unicorn Life Training and the Black Play Therapy Society. Althea is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker specializing in Trauma Recovery, a Registered Play Therapist, and a Certified Lego Serious Play Facilitator. Her approach to treatment is tailored to the unique needs of her clients and she brings a range of educational, professional, and life experiences to her work as a...

[Editor's note: Dr. Harise Stein at Stanford University edits a web site — abuseresearch.info — that focuses on the effects of abuse, and includes research articles on PACEs. Every month, she posts the summaries of the abstracts and links to research articles that address only ACEs, PCEs and PACEs. Thank you, Harise!! — Jane Stevens] CHILD ABUSE Segal L, Doidge J, Armfield JM, et. al. Association of Child Maltreatment With Risk of Death During Childhood in South Australia. JAMA Netw Open.

Tom Weidlinger, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and author, realized his childhood was traumatic when he was a teenager. He tells the story in his memoir, The Restless Hungarian. He was in a car with his mother. She had just picked him up from boarding school where he had been sent after his parent’s divorce. She was speeding and swerved violently off the road. “We almost had a crash,” he said, still shaken by the close call with death. “Didn’t you see him,” his mother asked, “the man...

“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” - Frederick Douglass. - https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/frederick-douglass “The butterfly does not look back at the caterpillar in shame, just as you should not look back at your past in shame. Your past was part of your own transformation.” - Anthony Gucciardi - https://anthonygucciardi.com/ “This is why people who have experienced severe abuse and trauma often have difficulty explaining their experiences. They...

By Lydia Dentworth, Photo: Lambert/Getty/The Atlantic, The Atlantic, March 11, 2022 Two years is a long time in any child’s life. It’s half of high school and most of middle school, time enough for a grade schooler to notch several inches on the kitchen doorframe and for toddlers to leap from first words to conversations. For the babies born in March 2020, just as the pandemic was declared, two years make up their whole lives. From the minute these children were born in empty maternity wards...

By Rhitu Chatterjee, Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images, National Public Radio, March 10, 2022 Americans say that they feel more anxious about inflation, global uncertainty and the war in Ukraine than they have reported feeling about any other issue in recent years, according to a new survey released Thursday from the American Psychological Association. "Over 80% of Americans said inflation and issues related to invasion of Ukraine are significant sources of stress," says psychologist Vaile...

By Marisa Meltzer and Dani Blum, Photo: Victor Llorente/The New York Times, The New York Times, March 14, 2022 The décor of the Nushama Psychedelic Wellness Clinic was designed to look like bliss. “It doesn’t feel like a hospital or a clinic, but more like a journey,” said Jay Godfrey, the former fashion designer who co-founded the space with Richard Meloff, a lawyer turned cannabis entrepreneur. The “journey,” in this instance, is brought on by ketamine, administered intravenously, as a...