September 2022

By Rhitu Chatterjee, NPR, July 24, 2022 Shortly after Elizabeth George started her freshman year in high school last fall, her parents tested positive for COVID-19. And Elizabeth stepped up to take care of them. "I was running the house, sort of," says the soft-spoken 15-year-old. "I was giving them medicine, seeing if everyone is OK." Elizabeth's mother recovered, but her father was hospitalized. He died in September of last year. His death turned Elizabeth's world upside down. In the weeks...

By Nivida Chandra, Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto, The Guardian, September 20, 2022 I came to research the emotional neglect of children by accident. More than a decade ago, I wrote my master’s thesis on the relationship between the personal and professional lives of psychotherapists. How did they manage to keep the distress they heard in their clinics from affecting their own emotional balance? And how did they stop their personal challenges from affecting their clinical work? In our...

When we consider the high numbers of children that are sexually abused it is disappointing how little is out there to support parents in prevention efforts. Although Erin’s Law has brought Sexual Abuse Prevention to many children in the school setting, parents are still often at a loss as to how to talk to their children about this difficult topic. As a therapist who has specialized in treating child sexual abuse for twenty years, I have crossed paths with thousands of children and families...

By Andrew Caballero-Reynolds, Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/NPR, National Public Radio, September 18, 2022 Many low-resource areas of the world are short on medical technology, including incubators. So why not turn parents into pseudo-incubators? When a baby is born prematurely, a good way to help the baby survive and thrive is simply to hold it close to a parent's naked chest. No technology needed! That's the essence of kangaroo care. It's a method of holding the baby, clad only in a...

A difficult divorce is where marriage or the relationship ends and war begins. The child is then caught in the middle or used as a pawn or battering ram in this high stakes battle for control. Nothing is more challenging for professionals then to get the child out of the middle and the parents to work together. Family trauma is magnified under these conditions. This free webinar training by Dr. Sells is for professionals who want to understand cutting edge strategies to quickly engage...

By McKenna Saady, ParentsTogether, September 19, 2022 More than half of people experience a traumatic event at some point during their childhood — and more than a quarter of children will witness or experience trauma before the age of four. Between school shootings, COVID-19, and families being separated at the US-Mexico border, incidents of childhood trauma have pervaded the news in recent years. What is childhood trauma? Trauma is defined as the experience of an emotionally distressing...

It's not too late to lead your own book study of What Happened to You? by Bruce D. Perry, MD PhD, and Oprah Winfrey in your community! Register NOW to attend the Book Study Leader Check-In with Children’s Trust Fund Alliance on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 7-8:30 p.m. ET This is an opportunity to share your experiences as a book study leader, raise questions, make recommendations, and celebrate with us. Open to all book study leaders and those who may want to facilitate a study! This event is part of...

By Brianna Bailey, Photograph: Brianna Bailey/The Frontier, The Marshall Project, September 13, 2022 Two district attorneys have targeted mothers with child neglect felonies. NEWKIRK, OKLA. — Early in her pregnancy, Amanda Aguilar struggled with severe nausea that sometimes made it hard to eat. A doctor had previously approved a medical marijuana license for her, so she used pot to ease her morning sickness. Aguilar, 33, said she stopped using marijuana after her third month of pregnancy and...

By Samantha Chery and Anne Branigin, Photograph: Dariana Fleming/The Washington Post, The Washington Post, September 15, 2022 Viral videos of little girls reacting to the trailer of the live-action Disney film is a marketing bonanza Precious Avery remembers just how rare it was to see Black characters on television growing up, so she started recording as her 3-year-old, Emery, absorbed the trailer for the new “Little Mermaid” film. As turtles swam through coral reefs, an image of a mermaid...

This year, Mental Health America recognizes with their 2022 Back to School Toolkit that our youth are having "All the Feels" as they enter the new school year. These resources look at the issues young people face that impact their mental health and offer tips on how to deal with these issues and the resulting emotions. The MHA toolkit can also help parents and school personnel better understand the issues, such as the effects of social media on youth mental health and how to be supportive.

“Girls on the Brink: Helping Our Daughters Thrive in an Era of Increased Anxiety, Depression, and Social Media”, published today, is available at a pre-launch discount of up to $1.96 (from the $28 cover price to $26.04) via independent bookstores . The book is the seventh by Donna Jackson Nakazawa, acclaimed author, science journalist, international speaker and longtime friend of PACEs Connection. Jackson will join PACEs Connection for our second “Connecting Communities One Book at a Time”...

Grief is inevitable, essential, and universal. Like many of you, we at PACEs Connection have experienced a multitude of losses through the past several years. As a team, we have experienced financial instability, we have lost family and friends, and we have mourned our pre-Covid lives. We recognize that we are not alone. In the spirit of collective healing, PACEs Connection invites you to attend the Collective Trauma, Grief & Healing Conference. This unique and interactive conference...