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By A. Hosack, P. Berman, & K. Hecht My life is so much better because the Carsons took me in. What if they could get someone to take in Larry? He really needed help, his parents were even scarier than hers. Claire got so excited watching the video her mind was racing. Larry’s parents had beaten his back raw with daily beatings. He had missed a lot of school because he couldn’t put on a shirt. When he turned 14, the beatings finally stopped when he grabbed the whip from his dad and fought...

That’s how my sister remembered the stairs incident, and that’s how I would, too, from now on. Cream cheese. Because it’s no longer about the presumption of a fall, the deeds that preceded it, the intent behind it. It’s instead the certainty of brotherly love. It’s the certainty, you see, of the cream cheese.

Becoming a Pilot Site is a great way to get the support you need! Identify and implement an ACEs screening protocol that’s right for your practice and patient population Help your peers in the broader NPPC network by sharing data, best practices and insights from your pilot experience If you are ready to apply, please click the link below to access the application. NPPC Pilot Site Cohort 2 Application For more information, you can find the recording of our informational webinar and the...

Every February, to honor Black History Month, students around the country are taught about America’s glorious victory in Brown v. Board of Education, the seminal moment that undid Plessy v. Ferguson’s separate but equal racial segregation. Desegregation is touted as a gold standard of equality and progress. But ending segregation is different from creating integration, let alone justice and equity, especially considering that as of 2011, according to PBS , the percentage of black students in...

Unconscious Bias, also called Implicit Bias, as a novel concept was first introduced in a paper of 2006, as “the new science of unconscious mental processes that has a substantial bearing on discrimination law”, and refuted the longstanding belief that humans are guided solely by explicit beliefs and by their conscious intentions. We receive 11 million bits of information every second. We can only consciously process 40 bits, and so more than 99.99% information is processed at the...

There were seven incarcerated girls at Louisville Metro Youth Detention Services when R.T. wrote that poem. Most days there are only one or two. Others there are none. Twice a week Tasha Golden walks through six secure doors to the classroom where she teaches poetry to the young women as part of their school day at Louisville Metro Youth Detention Services downtown. [For more on this story by Maggie Menderski, go to...

Never before have we gathered such a range of interesting, revolutionary and effective means of healing from trauma. If you don’t come for yourself, come for those you love and/or serve.

My typically happy, well-adjusted 11-year old daughter was having a melt downs of all melt downs. She was crying hysterically. I could hear her wailing downstairs as she was upstairs. I could feel my heart rate rising as her distress increased. I called up to my husband; “What is going on with Hannah?” Granted, the night before was a late Halloween night fueled by massive amounts of sugar. That right there renders a dire state in the body – little sleep, ample sugar. My gut twisted as I...

Therapists can be challenged to know the right next step when working with families with trauma histories. Dr. Scott Sells, the author of Treating the Traumatized Child: A Step-by-Step Family Systems Approach, is offering a free webinar on using the Family Systems Trauma (FST) Seed Tree Diagram as a resource to help families identify the underlying causes of trauma.

“Our practice rather than being about killing the ego is about simply discovering our true nature.” ~Sharon Salzberg One of the symptoms of living in today’s fast-paced world is the underlying feeling of loneliness, overwhelm, and disconnection . Chronically stressed and under financial and familial pressures, we often feel alone in the world, out of touch with others, overwhelmed by our emotions, and disconnected from our own bodies and ourselves. Our world is ego-driven. We constantly...

In honor of Black History Month, we are revisiting some Brown Center Chalkboard posts that explore the challenges that many African-American students and teachers face in U.S. schools. We categorize these posts in four groups based on their focus: achievement/opportunity gaps, implicit bias, teacher diversity, and school discipline. [For more on this story by Louis Serino, go to https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2019/02/21/black-history-month-america-schools-education/ ]

Serena Williams and Beyoncé are at the top of their professions. Williams is one of the best tennis players, and arguably athletes, of all time. Beyoncé is a singer who sells out arenas within hours. But last year, they shared similar stories: Each experienced life-threatening complications in their pregnancies. In that one way, these two superstars are just like millions of other black women in the United States. [For more on this story, go to...