Blog

This is painful. It’s something I never wanted to, or thought, we’d have to talk about. With the upheaval in our country on all sides caused by the election results, everything feels a bit tougher these past few weeks. It’s like many of us are trying to walk through mud with every step… wondering how to move forward in these uncertain times. In my counseling practice, clients who have experienced trauma work hard in therapy to feel safe enough and calm enough each day. Understandably in...

I started a weekly peer support group for women survivors of trauma in April 2018. It took a few weeks to get any uptake on the offer. In the beginning a few people who knew me trickled in to provide some encouragement. Some people working at the center that eventually agreed to give me access to a room to host the event, told me that if people got the sense that I was in it for the long haul, they would then start taking me up on my offer. I was determined to persist, so I stuck it out even...

Cissy's note: The Trauma Project posts the best stuff on Facebook and this is an example of the gems I find. The excerpts below were published in the New York Times and written by Avi Klein. Read more.

Thanks to the ever-present media and and rise in social media use, people across the economic spectrum are seeing dramatic examples of racism in our society in clear video. We’re talking about Black men shot for no reason, youth sentenced to disproportionate sentences and customers being arrested for sitting in a coffee shop, to name a few. Similarly, we are beginning to hear and understand the dramatic stories of our most vulnerable young people, young people who have been victimized,...

[DFINNEY PHOTOGRAPHY] J oy Harden Bradford, an Atlanta-based therapist who founded the mental health platform Therapy for Black Girls , is an advocate for black women’s well-being. The founder of the website Therapy for Black Girls is working to empower black women to make their mental health a priority. Slowly but surely, mental health has moved from the sidelines to the center of our national conversation around well-being. But discussing feelings and emotions is still a touchy subject in...

I just saw this video and comment on my friend Heidi's Facebook page and it made me teary. Here's the video: Here's Heidi's comment: I hope she does because she's been a mom at 16 who is poor and has an ACE score of 9 and who has had to fight to become and to feel safe. We need people like Heidi running programs and organizing support because getting it, having lived it makes one know things those who haven't don't.

Fellowship Story Showcase by Priska Neely Black babies in the United States are far less likely than white babies to reach life's simplest milestones: to form words, to learn to crawl, to take their first steps. That's because black babies born in America are two times more likely to die before their first birthday than white babies. The numbers are even worse in Los Angeles, where black babies are three times more likely than white babies to die in their first year of life. Nationwide that...

Hi everyone, I'm new here, but wanted to share a funding opportunity. Please read below: The Jewish Federations of North America’s Center for Advancing Holocaust Survivor Care seeks applications to expand Person-Centered, Trauma-Informed services for Holocaust Survivors throughout the United States. The Application can be found at www.holocaustsurvivorcare.org. An Intent to Apply is due July 16, 2018 and the Application is due August 27, 2018. Successful applicants will join a prestigious...

If a child in elementary or middle school is acting impulsively, not paying attention and doing poorly in class… the reason seems to be a given these days: ADHD! The child may then be promptly diagnosed and prescribed Ritalin, Adderall or some other stimulant medication. While ADHD is a very real executive functioning brain issue that affects 7.2% of adolescents globally ( according to CHADD )—there is major problem with this situation. All too often, nobody takes into account the other...

Having just returned from the National Association of School Nurses annual conference NASN 2018, my heart is full and my mind is overflowing with new learning and next steps. I want to thank the NASN leadership and staff for creating such a meaningful and well-designed conference. No detail was left out, including the graphic recorder who created a meaningful triplex series of illustrations from attendee input and suggestions. The hospitality of the Maryland School Nurses was palpable, plus...

Summer is flying by. Our public and private school teachers will soon return to their classrooms to face an impossible challenge. Again. They know that many of their students are coming from families that face huge challenges. Across all socio-economic levels, our students will endure (or have endured) adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), trauma, abuse and neglect. And almost none of these students will ever been seen by Child Protective Services, instead suffering in silence. This is going...

What you can’t see, can hurt you. I'm grateful to Carolyn de Lorenzo for her Bustle post on Complex PTSD (C-PTSD), featured in the July 2 ACEsConnection Daily Digest: What Is Complex PTSD? There Isn’t Nearly Enough Awareness Around This Illness. She defines it as trauma "experienced over extended periods of time... before the age of 18 without reliable adult support.” Yet digging further, the root cause of C-PTSD is usually something deeper, "developmental trauma." Developmental trauma isn't...