Blog

By Joe Gramigna, Healio News, February 19, 2021 Prevalence rates of clinically relevant depression and anxiety have been “extremely high” among postnatal women during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to study results published in Journal of Psychiatric Research. “There had been no data published examining mental health in new mothers during COVID-19 at the time of study,” Victoria Fallon, FHEA, CPsychol , of the department of psychology at the University of Liverpool in the UK, told Healio...

Dr. Claudia Gold is an ACEs Champion who has as much medical expertise as she does empathy for parents, including and maybe especially for parents who are struggling. She recognizes the challenges and difficulties many parents experience but instead of shaming or punishing parents, she starts by listening to and learning from us. While this seems like the most practical, effective, and common-sense approach, to me, it is something many providers don't have the time, skill, inclination, or...

“ Our fingerprints don't fade from the lives we touch.” - Judy Blume Hope, healing & help for trauma, abuse & mental health. The latest edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter is posted at the website - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/index.php & here's the PDF - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/pdfs/2021-02-The_Surviving_Spirit_Newsletter_February_2021.pdf “ Our brains developed along with music and singing as a survival mechanism.” - Tania De Jong To sign up for...

Peer-to-Peer - Resilient Parenting: Tools and Strategies that Work. A two-hour discussion of tools and strategies that providers can use with parents to buffer toxic stress and build resiliency in their children. Learn how to talk to parents about ACEs, support the process of parental coregulation, and promote buffering through healthy coping. Join us on Wednesday 3.03.21. ⁠

The annual Creating Trauma Sensitive Schools Conference put on by the Attachment and Trauma Network was held online last week. This year there was a parent track for participants as well as a 90-minute parent panel hosted by Ginger Healey. While you can still access the workshops online, for those who want a few of the highlights from the parent panel, please see the quotes below. There are quotes from Healey as well as the four panelists. Anna Paravano (Panelist) Parent Empowering Other...

High blood pressure. In your third trimester of pregnancy, you do not want to hear these three words, especially if you are planning to have a home birth. My blood pressure nearly caused me to have an induction for my first birth and transfer to a hospital birth for my second birth. I wish I had known of the ACEs test so I wouldn't have felt so lost and guilty. For my first birth I was clueless. I did not understand why this was happening to me because I ate a healthy diet, went to boxing...

On behalf of ACEs Connection , the CTIPP (The Campaign for Trauma -Informed Policy & Practice), and the Relentless School Nurse , we want to invite you to the streaming of parts 4 and 5 of the Whole People documentary series on the weekend o f M arch 12th through March 14th, 2021. We will stream both parts on ACEs Connection in the Transforming Trauma with ACEs Sciences Film Festival community. The documentary viewing will be followed by a discussion with special guest, Father Paul...

If we think of drawing another person as a metaphor for truly seeing and honoring them, what does it mean that the children in our lives, White children and children of color alike, often exclusively draw White characters? As parents of multiracial Black girls we asked this question ourselves when we noticed that the racial diversity in their lives - friends, dolls, books, other children's media - wasn't reflected in the people they drew, who were largely White. It made us think about how we...

By Sharon Holbrook, The New York Times, February 11, 2021 I begged my 12-year-old to help me with the pandemic task of learning to dye my hair at home. I could have done it myself, but I’ve learned that small opportunities to feel useful and successful are good for kids’ mental health, which I’m especially attuned to in our current circumstances. Among the other ideas I’ve tried during these long months: Letting my kids practice phone skills by having them call to order takeout and asking...

From PBS Kids, Public Broadcasting Service, February 2021 Children are never too young to learn about diversity. As young as 3 months old, they may look differently at people who look like or don’t look like their primary caregivers. As parents and caregivers, we must have confidence in ourselves and in our children — that we, and they, can handle tough topics and tough situations. We must understand that our role is to be honest, specific, and trustworthy as we raise the next generation to...

By Tanya Mendis, WCNC, February 8, 2021 Congresswoman Alma Adams remembered vividly the day her daughter nearly lost her life. It happened when her daughter was trying to bring life into this world. “A physician overlooking my daughter’s complaints of pain in her abdomen, not listening to her needs as a Black woman,” Adams said. “Their dismissal of her pain almost cost my daughter her life.” Adams’ daughter’s experience is one that echoes through the Black community. Maternal mortality rates...

Often, people who have a history of trauma in childhood find themselves struggling to flourish in adulthood. Trauma affects the brain in ways that can make you more likely to experience difficulty when faced with emotionally stressful and demanding situations in your relationships, at work, and as a parent. Throughout my life, both growing up and as an adult, I’ve faced a number of challenging life experiences, stressors, and traumas, and I understand this struggle on a deep, intrinsic...