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Saturday Night Live veteran Darrell Hammond will be joining the live Twitter Town Hall i mmediately following the virtual screening of Cracked Up! T he documentary film details the long term effects of childhood trauma, told through Darrell’s personal journey in discovering adverse childhood experiences at the root of his lifelong battle with self-harm, addiction, and misdiagnosis. Please join us for this unique chance to hear directly from Darrell Hammond, joined by the film’s director,...

"For many Asian Americans, talking about mental health issues, especially to their parents, is like pulling teeth. Asian Americans are actually three times less likely to seek mental health services than other Americans, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America . Anxiety, depression, and mental health issues aren’t really topics discussed in Asian households and are considered taboo. Often times, we are told to “ get over it” and “we had it so much worse than you, you...

Personal transformation is usually an experience we actively seek out - not one that hunts us down. But in the twenty-first century, becoming a caregiver is a transformation that comes at us because today the ‘call to care’ is at odds with the imperative of work and the call to individual achievement. Being a caregiver is not something most people think or dream about, let alone prepare for, even though it’s a role many of us will inhabit, since there are approximately 43 million informal...

It was a pleasure to be a guest on the Conversations with a Wounded Healer Podcast with Sarah Buino . We are both therapists focused on addressing Complex Trauma. And, we have both experienced our own attachment, relational and transgenerational trauma. On this podcast we discuss the importance of body-mind modalities that go beneath people’s symptoms in order to address the disrupted psychobiological patterns impacted by unresolved trauma. We share our own experiences as therapists,...

Excerpts from article by Sarah Harris from Rise Magazine . Q: What led you to work in the foster care system? A: I am a former foster youth and I’ve been a social worker at the L.A. Department of Child and Family Services for 5 years. I entered foster care through probation, and I got into probation through survival. I was breaking the law for clothes and food. In foster care, I bounced around a lot. For the most part I was AWOL. I was in group homes but I stayed with family or friends.

By Nessia Berner Wong, ChangeLab Solutions. Jaidyn Probst is a high school senior living in Redwood Falls, Minnesota. Redwood Falls is a small, rural town of about 5,000 people — small enough that, according to Jaidyn, everyone knows everyone, which is probably her favorite part. She enjoys creating art, reading, listening to music, and spending time with friends and family. Also, she really doesn’t like doing the dishes. Jaidyn is Bdewakantunwan (Spirit Lake Dwellers) Dakota and comes from...

By Jenny Abamu and Rob Manning, NPR, June 5, 2019. Every time Jennifer Tidd's son was secluded or restrained at school, she received a letter from his teachers. Her son has autism and behavioral issues, and over three years — from 2013 to 2016 — Tidd got 437 of those letters. "I see this pile of documents that's 5 inches tall that represents hundreds of hours of being locked into a room, and I feel, you know, horrible," Tidd says. She's sitting in her living room in Northern Virginia, her...

By Carolee Belkin Walker, Washington Post, May 29, 2019. Therapist Jennifer Udler was in the middle of a 50-minute session with a patient when it started to rain. Instead of being in her office, however, she and her teenage patient were outside, walking and talking about anxiety and stress — so they got soaked. But the torrent had an upside. When they made it back indoors, Udler said, “Hey, look at us! We’re fine! We’re a little wet, but, oh well! We got through it! Now you can use that next...

We are born to connect. As human beings we are relational and we need biological, emotional and psychological connection with others . Attachment is the relational dance that parents and babies share together. You can think of this when you see a baby look at their parent and they catch each other’s eyes in a wonderful gaze: the parent smiles and the baby smiles and then the parent kisses and the baby coos. Or, when an infant cries to tell their parent they are hungry, and the parent picks...

Workplace impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) is an important concept for businesses to understand. Why? Experiencing ACEs impairs worker performance according to findings reported in “ Childhood Abuse, Household Dysfunction, and Indicators of Impaired Adult Worker Performance ,” Anda, R.F., et al., The Permanent Journal, 8(1), 30-38, showed: To be clear – the above is not a direct connection to ACEs-related toxic stress, however many of the above are manifestations of...

By A. Hosack, P. Berman & K. Hecht What is this? It has a prison return address . It must be from Larry. Should I let Claire see it? Mrs. Carson was always the first person to see that the mail had been delivered. She was shocked to see the letter from Larry; her last memory was of the vicious glare he had thrown Claire as he exited the court room. Claire had been crying into her lap, but Mrs. Carson had seen it. The garbage can was so close. She could hide it under some garbage. Things...

Mental health issues, trauma, abuse and neglect are all commonly linked to substance misuse disorder. Drugs and alcohol are used to self-medicate for a variety of reasons. They are used to cope with guilt and shame. They are also used as a means to mask hidden pain, fears and insecurities as a result of trauma. So how does one move forward with their life after suffering any form of traumatic event? More importantly, how does one move forward without relying on substances? The simple answer...