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Standing on top of Ogun Mountain, in the Sacred City of 41 Mountains, West Africa, I knew my life would forever change. The women from the royal house danced for me. The men drummed me into a trance. They called me by my African name as they welcomed me home. On the soil of my ancestors, the healing began. I am a black woman born in the 1970’s. Nine generations ago, my ancestors were on the continent of Africa inhabiting the Kingdom of Dahomey. We were thriving. Unbeknownst to most, we were...

Although things are changing within mental health communities, only a few mental health professionals have competent awareness of cultural and racial identity, let alone incorporate this awareness in clinical treatment. ILLUSTRATION BY GOOD STUDIO/ADOBE STOCK To read more of Gabes Torres' article, please click here. July is BIPOC Mental Health Month, a month that recognizes the mental health experiences and struggles unique to Black, Indigenous, and people of color in North America. Not many...

Last week, the HOPE National Resource Center held our annual retreat. Team members flew in from across the country to meet in person in Boston. This was a great opportunity to network and meet with people we partner with every day in a virtual setting. We also used this time to talk about the future direction of HOPE. Over the past year, HOPE leaders have been looking at our organizational structure closely and developing a 3-year business plan. Our first step is defining our organization...

In this episode of Transforming Trauma we connect with professor, author, and renowned psychoanalytic psychotherapist Nancy McWilliams, PhD. Nancy teaches psychoanalytic theory and therapy at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers–The State University of New Jersey. Nancy is also a senior analyst with the Institute for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy of New Jersey and the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis. Nancy’s genuine curiosity for...

By Claire Healy, Photo: iStock/Washington Post Illustration, The Washington Post, July 25, 2022 When Mark Patterson took over as administrator of the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility in 2014, he inherited 500 acres of farm ranch — and the care of 26 boys and seven girls between 13 and 19 years old. By 2016, his facility, in Kailua, Oahu, was only holding between five and six girls at a time. And in June, the last girl left the facility. For the first time, there are no girls incarcerated...

By Sara Miller Llana, Photo: Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian Science Monitor, The Christian Science Monitor, July 25, 2022 C hristine M’Lot grew up feeling her culture was invisible. Throughout most of her public education in Winnipeg, the Anishinaabe educator says she saw almost no representation of Indigenous voices, save for a single book assignment her senior year. It wasn’t until university that she had her first Indigenous teacher and was introduced to modern Indigenous culture –...

By Dhruv Khullar, Photo: Supranav Dash/The New Yorker, The New Yorker, July 25, 2022 T he Bhalswa landfill, on the outskirts of Delhi, is an apocalyptic place. A gray mountain of dense, decaying trash rises seventeen stories, stretching over some fifty acres. Broken glass and plastic containers stand in for grass and stones, and plastic bags dangle from spindly trees that grow in the filth. Fifteen miles from the seat of the Indian government, cows rummage for fruit peels and pigs wallow in...

By Kevin Mahnken, Photo: Glen Cooper/Getty Images, The 74, July 24, 2022 With the Supreme Court poised to reduce or even eliminate affirmative action in college admissions, a recent study has offered a unique window into the magnitude of racial preferences in America’s elite colleges. The paper , part of a series of studies conducted in the wake of high-profile litigation against Harvard and the University of North Carolina, shows that Hispanic and African American applicants to both...

By Jill Suttie, Greater Good Magazine, July 25, 2022 Everyone keeps secrets, at least occasionally. That’s because we all have inner thoughts and feelings that either are not worth sharing with others or would hurt us or another person if they were revealed. But does keeping secrets come at a cost to our well-being? Researcher Michael Slepian, author of the new book The Secret Life of Secrets , explores this question in depth and comes up with some provocative answers. He uses an...

[ 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 Moreno-Manso JM, García-Baamonde ME, et. al. Differences in Executive Functions in Minors Suffering Physical Abuse and Neglect. J Interpers...

“If you don't understand history, you're never going to understand trauma. And if you don’t understand trauma, you're never going to understand history. And this is part of our problem as a field,” said Dr. Bruce Perry in a webinar interview last month, highlights of which will be shared in our "History. Culture.Trauma." podcast this Thursday at 1 p.m. PT; 4 p.m. ET. In the webinar, attended by more than 1200 registrants, Perry and hosts Ingrid Cockhren, CEO of PACEs Connection, and Mathew...

Image: © Provided by NBC San Diego Examples of Narcan vending machines that will be placed around San Diego County to help fight the opioid epidemic. County officials are getting ready to install Narcan vending machines across the county. Narcan is a drug used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. The first of about a dozen vending machines is scheduled to be installed at McAlister Institute - South Bay Regional Recovery Center in Chula Vista by December. The plan is to allow...