Blog

Written in 2018. I’m reading one of Maria Popova’s essays on Brain Pickings and listening to When Rivers Cry by Rwanda singer, Somi. In the essay, Popova quotes Nietzsche , who claimed that heroism is the ability “to face simultaneously one’s greatest suffering and one’s highest hope.” I think about this. I think for a moment about my time in Yonago, Japan. While there two years ago, I fell several times from my bike – grief-stricken, motionless – onto the street. I moved to Japan in...

Hello, The Ethical Self-Care training has been updated, and while I don't have it set up as a webinar yet for CEUs, the video of the live training from 12.29.21 is available here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktkBwFjh5HA for learning purposes. Whether you want to be as ethical as possible in your field, or be more informed and able to hold others accountable as needed, the materials provided in this training are for you. Description for the training: To optimize ethical practice, it is...

Please register now at this link to reserve your spot. You’re invited to participate in Building the Movement with Coalitions, the first of eight remarkable workshops featured in the series, “ Building a National Movement to Prevent Trauma and Foster Resilience ”. The first half-day workshop will occur virtually on January 7th from 1-5pm ET/10am-2pm PT. It focuses on the history and future of the movement and building community-owned, trauma-informed, prevention-focused, and healing-centered...

The ACEs Victim Impact Statement exercise's purpose is for you to be able to hear and validate yourself and your genuine pain and suffering by writing out the harm done to you by dysfunctional, abusive family members.,,

By Lori Teresa Yearwood Ms. Yearwood is a reporter covering housing for the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. My descent into homelessness felt as though it happened in the blink of an eye. It was as if one moment I was standing in a meadow next to my horses, stroking their manes, and the next I was lying inside a plastic garbage bag on a park bench, wrapping clothes around my shivering body. In fact, it happened over the course of 12 devastating months from 2013 to 2014. The house I was...

Does your child refuse to leave the playground or other locations without a meltdown? Transitions between activities are tough for toddlers and preschoolers, but especially for those children who have experienced trauma and loss. Children who have experienced traumatic changes in their life like divorce or removal from parents will see ending enjoyable activities as yet another loss. At the same time, they are constantly assessing their level of security, and boundary-pushing is a quick way...

As I sat down to write my annual Happy New Year newsletter to my email list, I paused. Something didn't feel right. Every time I see an email headline with "Happy New Year!" from the newsletters I subscribe to it falls flat. Who is truly happy after what has transpired over the last year? "Happy New Year" seems like a tall order right now, and I think it's beneficial to accept and acknowledge that reality rather than live in denial. As a mom I am tired of putting on the charade that life is...

Suicide is a topic most folks would rather not speak about. It is frightening that someone they love could decide they do not wish to live any longer and leave them in a cloud of grief and guilt. However, just because we don’t talk about suicide does not mean it will go away . September 2 was complex post-traumatic stress disorder awareness day, and September 10 is suicide awareness day. In this article and those that follow in this series, we shall discover together what complex trauma is...

Brief descriptions of the events in the Creating Resilient Communities series

Hi everyone, The year 2021 has been challenging for many. In the Caribbean, while many of our territories were able to minimise deaths from COVID 19 during 2020, the infection rate and death toll rose sharply in 2021, leaving thousands of families in mourning for the Christmas season. Death is seldom welcome, especially at holiday times. However, as people have come to understand there is growth that can come from childhood trauma, we look forward to the growth that will spring forth in 2022...

December 31, 2021 – Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows , a provocative new picture book by Jamaican poet and Chevening Scholar Juleus Ghunta, has been released today by CaribbeanReads, a St. Kitts-based publishing company. The book follows the title character, Rohan Bullkin on his journey from reluctant to enthusiastic reader. Rohan’s reluctance to read is fuelled by Shadows – manifestations of his adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress. He improves his literacy with the guidance...

In August, my articles have been centered around Tension & Trauma Release Exercises (TRE) and how they can aid in self-regulation and the treatment of trauma. We discovered that TRE is life-changing if done correctly and with a tension-releasing exercise practitioner. In this article, we shall recount former posts about TRE and explore together the benefits and challenges of this unusual form of treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex post-traumatic stress...