Tagged With "men too"
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Trauma-Informed is Messy Business…
Words like trauma-informed and resiliency get thrown around a lot these days. And for many, the visions they call up are a bit too glossy. You see resiliency and trauma-informed aren’t always pretty. Resiliency can look like closing the bathroom door and collapsing in tears… but then washing your face and going back into the world, carrying the belief that you can survive and the hope that things will get better. It looks like begrudgingly going on that walk with a friend, when the little...
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Trauma-Informed Social Justice: Q&A with Dr. Bukuloa Ogunkua
Cissy's Note: I work with people who challenge systems and policies, who reform or start non-profits, and who see hope and promise where others see despair or destruction. While some folks shake their heads or shrug indifferently in the face of injustice and suffering, others organize, mobilize, and channel their time and energy towards making a change. Maybe a physician hosts an annual conference bringing trauma-informed approaches to medical practice. Perhaps a woman shares ACEs 101...
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Two studies shed light on state legislators’ views on ACEs science and trauma policy
New and returning lawmakers take the oath of office on day one of Washington state's 2017 legislative session. — Jeanie Lindsay/Northwest News Network As advocates prepare to see how ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) science, trauma, and resilience play out in the 2020 state legislative sessions — many beginning in January — they are undoubtedly asking: “What does a legislator want?" It may be a stretch to play on Freud’s question: “What does a women want?", but the query captures how...
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Understanding This Theory is Essential to Being Trauma-Informed
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...
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We Need a Healing Movement
What if you had developed a cure for the most painful and costly public health problem in America, you had proven that it worked, and you were offering it for free, but could not reach those who need it most because no one wants to talk about the problem? Tragically, this is my reality and the truth about human nature. It is easier to suffer in silence than acknowledge the painful things that happen to us. Over 20 years ago, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Kaiser...
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Webinar Slides and Recording: Building Resilient Communities with Elaine Miller-Karas
Recorded live August 8, 2019. Find the slides attached below. The 1 hour video recording can be found on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/BUyY0FMjv8s Speaker: Elaine Miller-Karas, MSW, LCSW, Executive Director and Co-founder, Trauma Resource Institute. Host: Carey Sipp, Southeast Community Facilitator, ACEs Connection. Webinar Description: This webinar will explore integrating a biological based model to reduce the impacts of toxic stress for children and adults. It is a model both for...
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What If I Told You?
What if I told you that I was a victim of child sex abuse? As a survivor of child sexual abuse , I have a clear understanding of the importance of addressing stigma and shame as it pertains to sexual abuse, sexual assault and rape. Victims, especially young children, often do not disclose sexual abuse. Those who are witnesses of child sexual abuse, or who are trusted by survivors enough that they confide in them, are often ill-equipped to handle the responsibility. And, many times, parents...
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Why Coronavirus Is a Food Security Crisis, Too [citylab.com]
By Kriston Capps and Laura Bliss, CityLab, March 17, 2020 Back in October 2009, when fears about the H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic were at a crisis point in the U.S., Congress passed emergency legislation to boost the reach of the safety net. The law authorized federal food aid benefits to replace free or reduced-price school lunches for eligible children whose schools were closed for more than five consecutive days. More than 700 schools closed across the U.S. during the course of that crisis,...
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Why Mandating Mental Health Education in Schools is a Band-Aid on a Gaping Wound
Don’t get me wrong: of course I care deeply about the mental and physical health of children, including my own son’s. I don’t want students to suffer in silence and shame. But I am very concerned about just how this topic will be taught in schools.
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Why Resilience is Harmful and How to Improve it
Resilience is awesome, but also poses some risks and challenges. In 2012 a special edition of the Social Justice Studies academic research journal explored some of the risks. An intro and 5 academic research articles go very deeply into the topic of the "Dangers of Resilience Promotion." All the articles can be downloaded free at this link. https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/SSJ/issue/view/70 I will attempt to summarize those 6 articles here in common language, cuz the articles are...
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Re: To Zoe’s Mom: I See You
Wow, Rebecca. Incredibly moving piece. I think I understand you when you say you "lost it" after viewing the ReMoved doc. I did too...in a room full of my co-workers. I felt so ashamed that now everyone knew I was Zoe. Of course there was no shame thrown at me, only comfort, but it still stung to be so vulnerable. As a mom now, my kids have definitely been caught up in my "fecal hurricane" (love that!) that is recovering from trauma. Parenting has triggered me more than anything I've ever...
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Re: How I Became a Champion for Trauma-Informed Change
Cis, you always have powerful words of support to offer. I love you for that. And I had to laugh when you called me out for using the word "client." lol I was at a training recently and the presenter used the term "participants." I have mixed feelings about that one too. The language needs to change in a big way. We have a long way to go but progress is starting to pop up all over. And how amazing is that?!
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Re: How I Became a Champion for Trauma-Informed Change
Dawn, than you for sharing. I too had a similar experience to you. I had been working in international HIV work through a university for almost 20 years and was searching for the next chapter in my professional life. I enjoyed my work and felt like it was important but something was missing. THen I learned about the ACE study, met Jane Stevens and my world got rocked... ACEs were underlying the folks i worked within the PH work i did and were underlying my history (i determined i had an ACE...
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Re: Introducing NEW Becoming Trauma-Informed & Beyond Community
Me too!! Dawn, Melissa and Lisa will be sharing more about themselves and why they are here in the next week. I can't wait for those posts! This is going to be such a great community. Thanks for supporting it from the start, Gail! Cissy
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Re: This Survivor is Helping Doctor's Patients Not Die 20 Years Too Young
@Dawn Daum Thank you for posting this here and sharing with the wider community. I do let mental health practitioners know my ACE score though I don't share the particular answers. And I've sat around while they go on the CDC site to learn about ACEs but this is more direct and time-saving. Also, I love the title. I have my own personal "Don't die early" plan and find it's VERY motivating. The fact is survivors do lose years of life far too often and quality of life as well. It doesn't have...
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Workplace Changes We’re Hoping to See in Our Next Normal (thriveglobal.com)
From a greater emphasis on mental health to a shift toward more compassion and empathy, here's what we're predicting will change about culture once we return to work. As we start to think about what our offices and businesses will look like once we begin the re-entry to work (our “next normal”), it’s becoming clear that we won’t return to business as usual, not after what we’ve been through and learned as a result of COVID-19. “The pandemic has made it all too clear that we cannot continue...
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Confronting Racism at Work: A Reading List [hbr.org]
June 15, 2020 Companies must confront racism at a systemic level — addressing everything from the structural and social mechanics of their own organizations to the role they play in the economy at large. We know that diversity programs have historically failed , but there are proven ways to improve hiring programs, interrupt bias at the team level, interrogate supposedly “color-blind” analytics, and support employees of color — especially Black employees. There’s much work to do on a...
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Building Workforce Resilience (A Better Normal Series)
As the summer ticks on, the confounding questions around meeting the needs of our workforce in these challenging times remain unresolved for many organizations. In conversations this week I heard the angst: “It’s time to get back to the office. We are following all the guidelines. We have worked to support staff and don’t know what else to do. How can we help staff come along?” As organizations adapt to their new normal, the challenge of choosing from a vast array of resources and...
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Rebecca Lewis Pankratz: Breaking Generational Poverty, Poverty Circles, & Poverty Programs
"A CEs Connection is the curator of incredible hope, healing and possibility. Parents are not the bad guys. Most of us are just kids with ACEs who grew up..." Rebecca Lewis-Pankratz Last Friday, @Rebecca Lewis-Pankratz joined our A Better Normal series to discuss poverty circles and programs. Rebecca is the Director of Learning Centers as Essdack, as well as a poverty consultant, and we met online, via Twitter (her handle is @pOVERty’s Edge. Rebecca is a brilliant speaker, gifted writer, and...
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Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic: One-Pager
Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic: One-Pager
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Back-to-School in a Pandemic? Questions, Concerns, and Discussion with School Nurse, Robin Cogan
Robin is a brilliant, passionate, and vocal school nurse with almost two decades of experience as a New Jersey school nurse in the Camden City School District. She is the Legislative Co-Chair for the New Jersey State School Nurses Association and she joined us last week for A Better Normal community discussion about back-to-school (or not) plans families are facing this school year. Robin serves as faculty in the School Nurse Certificate Program at Rutgers University-Camden School of Nursing...
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7 New Communities Join ACEs Connection / August 2020
7 number of new communities have joined the ACEs Connection. Details about each of them are below as is information about starting and growing your community initiatives and joining the Cooperative of Communities . ACEs in Nursing Science Join us as we explore the intersection of ACEs Science and Nursing Science, with a lens on the unique needs of nurses as they integrate ACEs Science into their nursing practices and reflect on their own lived experiences as related to childhood trauma:...
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When Bad Things Happen to Good People
Bad things happen to good people. I know. My six-year-old son was murdered by a former student in his first grade classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary School alongside 19 of his classmates and six educators. We read about those who die in countless natural disasters all over the world. Thousands of good people perished in the 9/11 attacks. The media shares headlines of brutality and destruction on a daily basis. The labeling of good versus evil has helped us to categorize unspeakable horror in...
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Preventing Burnout Is About Empathetic Leadership [hbr.org]
By Jennifer Moss, Harvard Business Review, September 28, 2020 How many of us are currently living without margins — the space to handle life’s simplest stresses. I know I’ve fallen into this trap myself. It can happen after being mentally stretched and dealing with chronic stress for too long. Basically, we are left with zero margin for error. It also means that we don’t realize we’re at our max until it’s too late. Before we know it, we’ve hit the wall. As part of the research that I’m...
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Sarah Peyton discusses her book & leads a guided meditation / Tuesday, Nov. 10th, 2020
I am thrilled to announce that we have a special A Better Normal session which will be part conversation and part meditation practice for those who wish to participate. Our special guest is Sarah Peyton who is the author of Your Resonant Self: Guided Meditations and Exercise to Engage Your Brain’s Capacity for Healing. This event will be held on Tuesday, November 10th, at 12p.m. PST and 3p.m. EST. Registration link:...
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New Resource: Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic One-Pager (English & Spanish!)
English: The California Department of Public Health, Injury and Prevention Branch (CDPH/IVPB) and the California Department of Social Service, Office of Child Abuse Prevention’s (CDSS/OCAP) , Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative , ACEs Connection , and the Yolo County Children’s Alliance have co-created a newly developed resource, “Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic” in both English and Spanish. This material is intended for Californian families experiencing the severe...
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Trauma-responsive school thinks outside-the-box to engage students during pandemic
Before the pandemic, Sara Buckley, an 8 th grade science teacher at Park Middle School in Antioch, California, could handle students who were acting out during class. Understanding that trauma lies beneath disruptive behavior, she didn’t send kids to the principal for punishment. Instead, she’d talk with them to find out what was going on at home or outside of school—and then work out a plan for how to respond differently the next time they were triggered. They could visit the school’s...
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Maternal Mental Health
Like many of you, I’m a bit out of sorts and somewhat disoriented right now. Our collective mental health is deteriorating during Covid-19. Recent stats report an increase from 20-40% of adults struggling with mental illness since the advent of the pandemic. Maternal mental health is particularly at risk. Helping children with distance learning, navigating exposure to the news, trying to keep life a bit “normal”, keeping family members fed and supplied, juggling career and income loss, all...
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New Resource: Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic One-Pager (English & Spanish!)
English: The California Department of Public Health, Injury and Prevention Branch (CDPH/IVPB) and the California Department of Social Service, Office of Child Abuse Prevention’s (CDSS/OCAP) , Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative , ACEs Connection , and the Yolo County Children’s Alliance have co-created a newly developed resource, “Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic” in both English and Spanish. This material is intended for Californian families experiencing the severe...
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Resilient Georgia Brief: The Case for ACEs Prevention
In their latest brief, Resilient Georgia makes a compelling evidence-based 'Case for ACEs Prevention' and an urgent call to action to invest in building resilience now – early intervention is more effective, less expensive, and imperative to averting the next pandemic: mental and behavioral health.
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Most Teaching On Leadership Misses This Important Point
When reading an article on LinkedIn about leadership, I realized that Simon Sinek was right...but not for the reasons leaders assume. For a few years now, I've been trying to harmonize the various writings by authors whom I like. For example, how do Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People , Susan Cain's Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking , and Simon Sinek's Start With Why compliment each other? In addition, how does Bruce Perry's The Boy Who Was...
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What if the Earth was Really Flat?
Do you know anyone who thinks the Earth is actually flat? I'm not sure why that question occurred to me. Perhaps, I was looking for a unique or different way to talk about trauma-informed leadership. Don't laugh too hard! Stay with me for a minute, please. If you asked a random person if they had ever heard that centuries ago people thought the Earth was flat, I'm going to guess they will say, "Yes." In fact, some people still do! Not sure about that? Ever heard that people thought...
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Healthcare providers learn skills to prevent burnout, build resilience
It’s an enormous understatement to say that healthcare workers today are suffering. Every day, you hear interviews with nurses, physicians, social workers, and others in healthcare saying they’re pushed to the breaking point and beyond. But, by using skills taught in the Community Resiliency Mode l (CRM), even people under severe stress can weather the onslaught, do their work, and get along with colleagues. CRM is an evidence-based training program that’s being used by millions of people in...
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Cultivating the Growth of Resilience
Trauma impacts lives on the individual, familial, community and societal level. Historically, we have addressed the resulting symptoms of trauma with treatments of therapy, education, and all too often imprisonment. However, putting preventative factors in place can avert the symptoms, outcome and resulting negative impacts. Prevention begins with understanding how trauma impacts lives and why it impacts our brains and bodies before we can fully understand what we can do to mitigate its...
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Pamela Burrus
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Pride Belongs in (Pre)School
Originally published on Rise to Resilience on June 6th. Last week in one of the preschool-related Facebook groups I was in (and subsequently was kicked out of for challenging homophobia and transphobia), there was a post asking if people celebrate Pride Month in their classrooms, and if so, what they do. Cue a flood of teachers expressing their significant opposition for such inclusion, including ones who claimed to be allies. Motivated by this, I decided I would start...
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6 Things we can all do today to create a trauma-informed society
You don't have to be a therapist to help survivors heal from trauma. Here are 6 key behaviors that embody what it means to be "trauma-informed" that we can all start doing right now.
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5 actionable ways to support employee mental well-being as they return to work
“It’s so important that we all speak up on mental health.”- Anne-Marie Mental health still remains a taboo in most parts of the world. People are afraid to talk about their struggles because they fear that they won’t be understood and will be ridiculed. As a result, they don’t speak about their struggles and suffer silently. But, now with the prevalence of the pandemic, the world has also witnessed a mental health crisis. People are speaking about the anxiety and depressive episodes...
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A Gathering of the Tribes, 9/11 & The Surviving Spirit Newsletter September 2021
The Surviving Spirit Newsletter September 2021 Healing the Mind, Body & Spirit Through the Creative Arts, Education & Advocacy Hope, Healing & Help for Trauma, Abuse & Mental Health “ Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars”. Kahlil Gibran Hi Folks, Twenty years ago today at this time of the morning I was getting ready to leave for Ellenville, New York to perform and speak at the Annual New York Association of...
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The Surviving Spirit Newsletter October 2021
Healing the Heart Through the Creative Arts, Education & Advocacy Hope, Healing & Help for Trauma, Abuse & Mental Health “ Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars”. Kahlil Gibran The Surviving Spirit Newsletter October 2021 “Don't Quit” by John Whittier When things go wrong as they sometimes will, When the road you're trudging seems all uphill, When the funds are low and the debts are high And you want to smile, but you...
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Need to heal from burnout? Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's tips are surprisingly useful, according to a burnout coach (cnbc.com)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has seemingly boundless energy, and a demanding workload as a member of Congress — and even she deals with burnout. Earlier this month, the the 32-year-old congresswoman took to Instagram to describe her experiences with burnout "in really big episodes and smaller episodes too." Out of necessity, Ocasio-Cortez wrote in an Oct. 16 Instagram story, she developed personal strategies to help herself cope. Burnout results from chronic workplace stress that's not...
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Workforce Trauma, Shortages, and Retention Remain Interprofessional Challenges
Global data emphasizes the impact of chronic and recurrent COVID-waves for front-line physicians and nurses; no doubt these disciplines have endured, and continue to take a powerful hit; >80% ready to leave the industry. Concern exists whether there will be enough practitioners to render care. However, what of other disciplines? Disregard for the health, mental health, and well-being of all members of the workforce is a grave concern.
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Workforce Trauma, Shortages, and Retention Are Interprofessional Challenges: Resolution Tactics
Global data emphasizes the impact of chronic and recurrent COVID-waves for front-line physicians and nurses; no doubt these disciplines have endured, and continue to take a powerful hit; >80% ready to leave the industry. Concern exists whether there will be enough practitioners to render care. However, what of other disciplines? Disregard for the health, mental health, and well-being of all members of the workforce is a grave concern.
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The Surviving Spirit Newsletter January 2022
Healing the Mind, Body & Spirit Through the Creative Arts, Education & Advocacy Hope, Healing & Help for Trauma, Abuse & Mental Health “ Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars”. Kahlil Gibran The Surviving Spirit Newsletter Hi Folks, The latest edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter - sharing Hope and Healing Resources for Trauma, Abuse & Mental Health is posted at the website -...
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The Surviving Spirit Newsletter February 2022
Healing the Mind, Body & Spirit Through the Creative Arts, Education & Advocacy Hope, Healing & Help for Trauma, Abuse & Mental Health “ Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars”. Kahlil Gibran Hi Folks, The latest edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter - sharing Hope and Healing Resources for Trauma, Abuse & Mental Health is posted at the website - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/index.php or here's...
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Decolonize Data (ssir.org)
The social sector aims to empower communities with tools and knowledge to effect change for themselves, because community-driven change is more likely to drive sustained impact than attempts to force change from the outside. This commitment should include data, which is increasingly essential for generating social impact. Today the effective implementation and continuous improvement of social programs all but requires the collection and analysis of data. But all too often, social sector...
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In Times of Crisis, Draw Upon the Strength of Peace (lionsroar.com)
At many temples in Asia, one encounters statues and paintings of Avalokitesvara , the bodhisattva of compassion. Avalokitesvara is sometimes portrayed as female, sometimes male, so we could say they are transgender—and also transcending gender. In some depictions, Avalokitesvara has a thousand arms, symbolizing all the skillful means they have of responding to suffering, and on each of these arms is an eye in the palm of the hand, the eye of wisdom. We need the eye of wisdom in our palms. If...