Blog

In her first bout with breast cancer, Kate Benjamin got by with a lumpectomy and radiation. The second time was far more grueling: a 14-hour double mastectomy in November, followed by an eight-week course of chemotherapy that ended in May. Throughout it all, she has been surrounded by cats. Ms. Benjamin, 47, is an expert on feline-friendly interior design, and she keeps eight cats at her home in Phoenix and two in her nearby work studio. The cats are beloved pets as well as product-testers...

On a late-summer evening, a trio sets out from the Manchester police station, armed with case folders, bulletproof vests - and colorful toys. This is ACERT, the Adverse Childhood Experiences Response Team, and there's nothing quite like it in the nation. A partnership among Manchester police, YWCA New Hampshire and the Manchester Community Health Center, ACERT responds after incidents in which children have been exposed to traumatic events such as drug overdoses, domestic violence and other...

I’ve spent the last six and a half years of recovery wondering why I have been so emotionally immature when it comes to romantic relationships. Why have I sulked over communicating my needs? Why have I formed such insecure attachments that I wonder when I’ll see the person again before they have even left? Why have I felt so crazed and simultaneously flummoxed at my behavior? Reflecting on my relationships during my recovery, I can describe them in one word: disaster. But they’ve also been a...

Join us for our next free trauma webinar, The Fallout of Change: How to Prevent Relapse in Family Trauma Treatment. In addition to relapse, participants will learn about troubleshooting and dress rehearsals.

“I don’t know if I can do this anymore, Kris. I am just so discouraged.” I sit with my dear friend on a sticky summer night trying to get my gut right. “Gut wrench” is an apt description. It’s invaded my body and overwhelmed my mind. I can’t think straight, see straight, see a way out. The darkness pervading her porch has met my inner ache and it’s threatening to overwhelm my composure. I am choking back a watershed of tears as I open my mouth to speak. I am trying to conjure the words to...

There is an old political adage that you should “never let a crisis go to waste,” meaning that a crisis can awaken public interest and create an opportunity to advance policies that might otherwise be unachievable. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, for instance, was able to pass much of his New Deal – including a dramatic expansion of the country’s social safety net via the Social Security Act – in the wake of the Great Depression with the American economy in shambles and the American public...

When it comes to obesity prevention, sleep is not usually something that springs to mind, but a University of Otago research team has found we should not underestimate its importance. Professor Rachael Taylor, Director of the Edgar Diabetes and Obesity Research Centre and co-leader of the team, says one in three New Zealand children is overweight or obese by the time they start school. Treating obesity once established is challenging, however, in a study published in The American Journal of...

During the first Mass of the school year, two students at St. Bernard Elementary School in suburban Pittsburgh stand in front of the congregation and lead their classmates in prayer. They pray for the leaders of the world, for the sick and suffering, and for the victims of abuse in the Catholic Church. It is the only time clergy abuse is mentioned during the service. It might be the only time it's mentioned in the school. Principal Anthony Merante says he wants to leave that conversation up...

If you want to know why the numbers of women in policing have stagnated in the past 20 years, hovering at 12 percent of municipal police officers and 3 percent of police chiefs, a good place to start is Portland, Oregon. In 1908, Portland appointed Lola Baldwin as the superintendent of the Women's Protective Division (WPD), making her the nation’s first policewoman. In 1985, Portland again made history, when Penny Harrington was appointed as chief, making her the first woman to head a major...

On Sept. 5, at the Baylor College of Medicine Grand Rounds for OB/GYN physicians, residents and medical students, guest speaker Gregory Williams turned off all the lights in the auditorium and began a short video clip. The video showed images of children with hands over their mouths, hunched over and ashamed. A brooding cover of “The Sound of Silence” by heavy metal band Disturbed played while statistics flashed on the screen: every 98 seconds, someone is sexually abused in the U.S.; 1 in 4...

Julia Samuel is a psychotherapist who has spent more than twenty-five years helping people grieve the loss of loved ones. She is the U.K.’s leading grief expert, author of Grief Works: Stories of Life, Death, and Surviving, and godmother to Prince George. She believes that when we face our fears—the death of someone we love, our own death, or being with bereaved friends—we are better able to cope with them. We at OptionB.Org had a conversation with Samuel on why we fear grief and pain and...

In America, if you're ambitious and work hard, you can move up the socioeconomic ladder. At least, that's the truism we all grew up believing. But new research suggests such social mobility is far from the norm. It finds you are significantly more likely to hold a high-status (which usually means higher-paying) job if your parents held similarly prestigious positions. "Your circumstances at birth—specifically, what your parents do for a living—are an even bigger factor in how far you get in...