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Do you work with young people who carry into your school toxic levels of stress and trauma?

Having been an educator much of my life and attended a lot of school, there is something powerful in my somatic memory about this time of year. It’s a swirling dervish of anticipation, hope... fear, trepidation. It all collides tightly in my belly. I recall the many years of being up early on the first day of school, staring at my toast and jam as nausea rolled through me like short waves - cresting and breaking. I remember standing at the bus stop with my hair parted strictly down the...

The Networks of Opportunity for Child Wellbeing (NOW) at Vital Village Network is excited to share the fourth episode of In the Arena with NOW , a podcast series that lifts up the voices of community leaders who are “in the arena” -- in classrooms, playgrounds, Congressional halls, hospitals, and neighborhood streets -- working to make sure that all children and families can live healthy, thriving lives. In our fourth episode, The Power of Peer Learning and Capacity Building , we speak with...

To parent is always about history and healing and love. It is natural to want to protect our children, and ourselves, but our fear does not serve us...Our children need us to be grounded and present and non-judgmental. When they feel safety and strength in us, they will come to know it in themselves. When they feel trust from us, they will be able to trust the

By Derry Journal, September 8, 2019 Oakgrove Integrated College last week became the first school in Northern Ireland to take part in the innovative ‘Trauma Informed Compassionate Schools Initiative’ – a programme designed to help educators better understand how and why Adverse Childhood Experiences can impact a child’s development. Held in the school’s assembly hall on Wednesday last, the event saw over 100 members of staff take part in the programme delivered by a team from Ulster...

By Center for Media & Social Impact, September 9, 2019 Issues of housing security and homelessness in the United States are being grossly under covered, oversimplified and misrepresented by the country’s “most-watched” television programming and “most read” newspaper coverage, according to our new CMSI study, part of our ongoing examinations about portrayals of pressing social issues in news and entertainment. The report, Homelessness & Housing Security in U.S. Culture: How Popular...

By Rowan Walrath, Mother Jones, February 18, 2019 Over the last year, Rebecca, a 35-year-old woman living in Washington, DC, had been losing sleep over the seemingly endless flow of apocalyptic environmental news. She fretted about the Trump administration’s loosening of emissions regulations and the United Nations’ dire predictions about climate change. In October, she sought help from a psychiatrist who put her on an antidepressant. “It sort of saps your emotional reserves,” she says,...

By Lulu Garcia-Navarro, National Public Radio, September 8, 2019 LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST: We interview a lot of journalists on our program. Here's one that's attempting to reach a coveted audience - teens. Olivia Seltzer is 15, and she's created a daily newsletter that covers the day's top headlines for her peers. It's called The Cramm. Olivia joins us now from Santa Barbara. She's founder and editor-in-chief. Olivia, it's great to speak with you. OLIVIA SELTZER: It's so great to speak...

Feeling confident and attractive in today’s world is a huge challenge for all of us. Images, voices and messages from mainstream media can get in our heads, holding us up to impossible standards. Self-acceptance and healthy sex after trauma can be even more challenging for those with a history of sexual abuse. Add those unrealistic ideals to past abuse or trauma, which lends itself to a negative self-concept, and a person can be left struggling with a very painful self-image. So much of what...

We're proud to announce major research that suggests that positive childhood experiences — such as supportive family interactions, caring relationships with friends, and connections in the community — are associated with reductions in chances of adult depression and poor mental health, and increases in the chances of having healthy relationships in adulthood. This association was true even among those with a history of adverse childhood experiences.

The traumatized child will present extreme problem symptoms (i.e., self-harm, depression, aggression, suicidal thoughts, etc.) when they first enter treatment. Without specialized tools, the therapist will often only treat the child’s symptoms (the weeds) and not impact the underlying causes or undercurrents (the roots) of the trauma. When this happens, relapse in trauma treatment is high. In response, the FST| Family Systems Trauma Model uses the techniques of feedback loops to help your...

Witness the impact that childhood trauma can have over a lifetime through the incredible story of award-winning actor, comedian, master impressionist and Saturday Night Live star, Darrell Hammond . Theatrical release dates begin September 13th & 14th at IFC Center in NY and September 20th & 21st in LA at Laemmle Monica Film Center . Tickets and additional events can be found on the Cracked Up website at crackedupmovie.com. # CrackedUpMovie Watch the trailer here .