Tagged With "mental health"
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Mistreated: Why we think we're getting good health care and why we usually are wrong. The connection to Adverse Childhood Events
Mistreated: Why we think we are getting good health care and why we usually are wrong and the connection to Adverse Childhood Events Over the past two years, I have written a column for Forbes. On several occasions, I have highlighted the medical consequences of Adverse Childhood Events (ACE's) and Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). The data is clear. Both if not recognized and treated produce negative health care outcomes. Both are very prevalent and asking about each should be standard for...
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My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgaard
I’ve just finished reading the third volume of My Struggle, by Karl Ove Knausgaard, a Norwegian whose six-volume memoir recounts in minute detail his traumatic experiences as a child and later as a husband and father of four. The fourth volume...
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Nadine Burke Harris debuts "The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity" in Philadelphia
Dr. Nadine Burke Harris debuted her book, The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity , at the Philadelphia Free Library this evening in a talk and book signing. This first stop in an ambitious book tour that crisscrosses the country reflects a mission that Burke Harris has pursued for nearly a decade: to spread the knowledge about the science of adverse childhood experiences, and about how people can use this knowledge to help solve our most intractable problems.
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New book release “The Trauma Banquet”: The truth about how to overcome adversity
I am a Professor of Clinical Psychology at The University of Queensland, Australia. I recently released my memoir “The Trauma Banquet”. In this book I share about my ACEs and how I learnt to be resilient in the context of their enduring pervasive echoes. I have been practicing psychology for almost 40 years and I have engaged thousands of clients in psychotherapy. As a full professor I have also been teaching psychology and conducting research, which has focused on building resilience in the...
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New documentary focuses on trauma faced by first-responders (sandiegouniontribune.com)
“Keeping the Peace,” a new documentary that recently premiered at the University of San Diego, brings to light the trauma often faced by first responders and encourages police officers, firefighters and others in the field to seek counseling when dealing with emotional issues. They’ve lost colleagues to suicide, had people die in their arms, seen horrifying injuries and had to tell family members about a loved one’s death. It takes a toll on law enforcement officers, firefighters and other...
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New Intervention Fact Sheet: Parent-Child Care [nctsn.org]
A 7-page fact sheet describing Parent-Child Care (PC-CARE) is now available. A dyadic psychotherapeutic intervention for enhancing the caregiver-child relationship and making behavior management more effective, PC-CARE combines teaching and coaching on how trauma exposure affects children’s mental health. Caregivers can be biological parents, relative caregivers, resource parents, grandparents, nannies, or anyone caring for a child. While caregivers play with the child, therapists coach...
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Nurturing Resilience: Helping Clients Move Forward from Developmental Trauma--An Integrative Somatic Approach
From Amazon: A practical, integrated approach for therapists working with people (both adults and children) who have been impacted by developmental trauma and attachment difficulties Kathy L. Kain and Stephen J. Terrell draw on fifty years of their combined clinical and teaching experience to provide this clear road map for understanding the complexities of early trauma and its related symptoms. Experts in the physiology of trauma, the authors present an introduction to their innovative...
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Opening Up by Writing It Down: How Expressive Writing Improves Health and Eases Emotional Pain, by James W. Pennebaker, PhD and Joshua M. Smyth, PhD
In my last post, I highlighted a book Vincent Felitti mentioned at the CAMFT conference in Orange County. In the same talk, Dr. Felitti also recommended a form of therapeutic writing developed by James Pennebaker to help individuals uncover painful emotions and heal trauma. Pennebaker's book Opening Up by Writing It Down: How Expressive Writing Improves Health and Eases Emotional Pain details the why and how. The Pennebaker method has been referenced elsewhere on ACEs Connection; I thought...
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Overcoming Educational Racism in Community Colleges (indiancountrymedianetwork.com)
Dr. Cynthia Lindquist, Ta'Sunka Wicahipi Win (Star Horse Woman), president of Cankdeska Cikana Community College on the Spirit Lake Reservation in North Dakota, is a contributing author to Overcoming Educational Racism in the Community College: Creating Pathways to Success for Minority and Impoverished Student Populations , edited by Angela Long. Written by several contributing educators, the book answers why students of color end their time at community colleges twice as often as middle to...
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Parent Handouts updated and available In Dari, English & Spanish
The updated parent handouts are now available in Spanish as well as English and Dari. Here's the blog post with links to all three versions of each flyer. All versions of the Understanding ACEs and Parenting to Prevent & Heal ACEs parent handouts can be downloaded, distributed, and used freely. Both flyers were made with generous support from Family Hui, a Program of Lead for Tomorrow, who is responsible for making the Spanish and Dari translations available. These are updates of the...
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Parenting through the Storm Book Review
Parenting Through the Storm: Find Help, Hope, and Strength When Your Child Has Psychological Problems , is written by Ann Douglas. The author, a member of this group and network , has a warm, open and honest tone. She's a parent and gets that parents and kids are sometimes or even often scared, struggling and in crisis. She knows. She writes about the time she almost lost her daughter, thirteen at the time, to death by suicide. Her daughter was vomiting and sleeping, restlessly, all night...
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Playing for Their Lives: The Global El Sistema Movement for Social Change Through Music (ssir.org)
In the world’s happiest country, we encountered one of the world’s most challenging Sistema environments. The United Nations World Happiness Report has ranked Denmark the happiest nation on earth, using internationally agreed-upon measures—of wealth, health, social welfare, generosity, and freedom—to rate happiness in 150 countries . Just outside of Aarhus, the Gellerup district is the largest housing project and the poorest neighborhood in Denmark. Fully 88 percent of its population is...
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Prevention Diaries by Larry Cohen [PreventionDiaries.org]
Prevention Diaries reveals the unexpected (yet foreseeable) parts of daily life that shape our health. Health happens in our communities and homes, not just at a doctor’s office, and many illnesses and injuries are preventable through commonsense solutions – saving lives and reducing burden on families, communities, and taxpayers. Prevention Diaries outlines why prevention is the solution to many social challenges, and what we can do to advance prevention. Topics include violence, the food...
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Prince Harry and Oprah’s New TV Series Could Change the Way We View Mental Health at Work (thriveglobal.com)
A couple of years ago, Prince Harry joined the ever-growing list of high-profile public figures who are opening up about their mental health struggles. “I can safely say that losing my mum at the age of 12, and therefore shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years, has had a quite serious effect on not only my personal life, but my work as well,” Harry said on a podcast for The Daily Telegraph . Now Harry and Oprah Winfrey are teaming up on a series for Apple TV+ that will debut...
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QUEST Movie: A Benefit for the Coalition on Homelessness
Quest-The Truth Always Rises" is an important film about trauma, love, and resilience. I know the film maker of Quest, and I know how passionate he is to help people understand about Adverse Childhood Experiences and what can happen when one person believes in you. Santiago Rizzo tells a compelling story of his childhood that all should see. His passion is contagious, and his willingness to speak about trauma, the power of love, and the need for honesty is powerful. I suggest folks go and...
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Review of Carol Craig's book on ACEs in Scottish culture - Hiding in Plain Sight
An interesting article in Scottish Review by Andrew Hook who clearly had no prior knowledge of ACEs or the extent of Scotland's ill health. http://www.scottishreview.net/AndrewHook410a.html More information on the book can be found at http://www.postcardsfromscotland.co.uk/book13.html
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Season's Greetings!
Hello everyone! My name is Jesus and I am a new Community Manager here ACEs Connection. It just so happens that this is one of the groups that I get to work closest with and I wanted to say HAPPY HOLIDAYS before I go on winter break until early...
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Self Care Via Nutrition - An Anti-Antidepressant Approach
Whilst I'm not promoting this book, I am trusting Chris Kresser, a 'functional nutritionist', in his 'endorsement' of Dr Kelly Brogan, to a degree at least. It was Chris Kresser who really started a conversation years ago about gut health, way before the mainstream medical cohort were embracing it. As to a Paleo diet, it's fraught with contentious toing and froing of its benefits, or lack thereof. Depends who you listen to! Chris Kresser seems to have a more nuanced approach to Paleo...
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Struggling With Chronic Illness? HEAL is the One Documentary to Watch (wakeup-world.com)
The innate wisdom of the body can heal any disease, any disorder — if we would only get out of the way. This is the premise behind the documentary HEAL, which takes the mind-body connection to a whole new level with interviews from leading scientists, holistic practitioners, energy workers and medical doctors — including Kelly Brogan, M.D., Bruce Lipton, Ph.D., Dr. Deepak Chopra, Anthony Williams, among many others. While extremely valuable for situations of trauma and acute crisis like...
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The Beautiful Darkness: A Handbook for Orphans
I became a professional reader long before I was a writer when I was living in homeless shelters, subsidized housing, and welfare hotels with my mother in New York City. Most of the middle class and affluent black folks I would come to know in the future would wince and give me a look I couldn’t read when I would tell the story that I outline in my new memoir, The Beautiful Darkness: A Handbook for Orphans . All some intolerant, ignorant bigots need is to continue to hear about the...
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The Body Keeps The Score (Bessel van der Kolk, MD)
FINALLY IT IS HERE!!!!!! Got mine by Amazon yesterday and on my Nook after midnight on the 25th. Been reading it straight through!!! This is an awesome book to cut through all the stuff that will likely not work and it tells...
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The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity (Dr. Nadine Burke Harris)
Dr. Nadine Burke Harris was already known as a crusading physician delivering targeted care to vulnerable children. But it was Diego - a boy who had stopped growing after a sexual trauma - who galvanized her to dig deeper into the connections between toxic stress and the lifelong illnesses she was tracking among so many of her patients and their families. A survey of more than 17,000 adult patients' "adverse childhood experiences", or ACEs, like divorce, substance abuse, or neglect, had...
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The Healing Place Podcast - Lorna Minewiser, PhD: Transformational Coaching
Lorna Minewiser has taught high school, college, and teacher continuing education classes. Her PhD dissertation “Eliciting Mental Models: Images of teaching and learning” has been published and she has had several articles published as well. In the spring of 2008 she conducted a research project on using EFT to reduce Test Anxiety. She was chair of the ACEP research subcommittee on EFT for Research. Recently she participated in the Veteran Stress Research Project.
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The Impact of Early Life Trauma with Bessel A. van der Kolk, M.D., and Judith Herman, M.D. (dvd video) 1 hour, 10 minutes
Judith Herman helps to identify shame in all of its forms and how it affects the one afflicted with it. With this complete picture of shame, mental health professionals can provide direction for their clients and show a positive life outlook. Bessel van der Kolk gets to the heart of what clients suffering from trauma experience: a loss of joy in the here and now due to being unable to focus on it and instead continue to focus on the past trauma. He then goes on to show how you can help them...
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Re: It's Not Always Depression was the Winner of the 2018 Best Book Award in the Mental Health/Psychology Category
Congrats!!! What a wonderful accomplishment. To not only write your book, but to have it honored. So inspiring!
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Re: It's Not Always Depression was the Winner of the 2018 Best Book Award in the Mental Health/Psychology Category
Thank you for the congratulations!! I’m just delighted if it will bring more attention to the book and emotion education. And I must say the validation feels pretty sweet. Thank you again.
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Re: Mad Matters: A Critical Reader in Canadian Mad Studies by LeFrançois, et al. (2013)
Thank you, Chris for initiating a discussion about this very important topic. I have pre-ordered the book from Amazon and it should be released soon. The very system that was established to help people heal from trauma often times re-traumatizes consumers and becomes part of the problem rather than a solution. We have much to talk about here! Another book that we may want to add to our discussion group is Saving Normal by Allen Frances. Many important conversations about the nature of mental...
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Re: Mad Matters: A Critical Reader in Canadian Mad Studies by LeFrançois, et al. (2013)
Hi Steve, Totally agree with everything you said. If psychiatrists were to make the real changes necessary in the DSM it would have major ramifications on other sectors of society like the legal system and the military; it would ignite lawsuits and force the VA to give out benefits, money it doesn't want to spend. That's why the military gave Martin Seligman a $34 million dollar no-bid contract to implement his pathetic "positive thinking" model. A soldier sees his buddy blown up and he's...
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Re: Mad Matters: A Critical Reader in Canadian Mad Studies by LeFrançois, et al. (2013)
OK I see all the books now. Thanks for the information and link about war trauma. I appreciate this discussion about mental health care and look forward to getting into the book. The very system that has been established to foster healing and recovery often becomes a source of re-traumatization and we must continue to work towards a trauma-informed mental health system. Ohio, like many other states, claims to be a trauma-informed system, yet practices are tolerated and promoted that are...
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Re: Mad Matters: A Critical Reader in Canadian Mad Studies by LeFrançois, et al. (2013)
Yes, there are states/communities that claim to be trauma-informed but are not practicing it. They have documents up on their websites touting how trauma-informed they are and then when it comes down to a consumer’s experience they just retraumatize sufferers over and over again. There are no words for this great disappointment. And then people wonder why people with mental health challenges don’t seek treatment. The challenge with the trauma-informed movement is to change people’s hearts, a...
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Re: Resilience and Mental Health: Challenges Across the Lifespan by Southwick, et al. (2011)
Book review: The concept of resilience emerged about 40 years ago when psychologists considered the differing life trajectories of children exposed to similar traumatic life events and asked why some developed psychosocial pathology and some did not. It has since expanded to describe the adaptive responses to trauma across the human life span that usually maintain function but that can fail and result in conditions such as post–traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). [ source ] Brown, LM. (2013).
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Re: Rethinking Resilience: A Review of Change your World
Thanks Elizabeth I find your review with critique and reservations spot on. Lately I've been thinking of the ACEs phenomenon as a special case of a broader phenomenon that has come to be known as structural violence. There are various definitions of this term but I find the version offered by Bandi X Lee ( Violence: an interdisciplinary approach to causes, consequences and cures ) illuminating and useful in terms of formulating remedies. Structural violence: "It refers to the avoidable...
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Re: Building Resilience to Trauma: The Trauma and Community Resiliency Models by Elaine Miller-Karas
In Building Resilience to Trauma , the author, Elaine Miller-Karas, does an excellent job of explaining NEAR science (neurobiology, epigenetics, ACEs and resilience) in a simple, direct way. She presents complex neurobiology using accessible language and appealing metaphors. Best of all, she answers the question, "What's next?" Miller-Karas has developed a simple, powerful body-centered method to help individuals (TRM) and groups (CRM) recognize the effects of trauma in the body, learn to...
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The Relentless School Nurse: "We're Going to be O.K."
'We're Going to Be O.K.' is a children's book written by Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton and Dr. Leigh-Ann Webb to encourage children and families to stay "safe, healthy, and optimistic during the COVID19 pandemic." The book is beautifully illustrated by Ashleigh Corrin Webb. I found this special book through an article celebrating Drs. Hilton and Webb's recognition for “We’re Going to Be O.K,” as one of the top five entries in Emory Global Health Institute’s COVID-19 Children’s eBook Competition .
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In 'Together,' Former Surgeon General Writes About Importance Of Human Connection (dailygood.org)
When Dr. Vivek Murthy was surgeon general of the United States during the Obama administration, he went on a listening tour of America: He wanted to hear firsthand about people's health concerns. That meant addressing opioid addiction, diabetes and heart disease. And one more thing — something he wasn't really prepared for — the number of Americans suffering from a lack of human connection. Loneliness, he learned, was impacting them not only mentally but also physically. It's a subject he...
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Free Book for ACEs Connection Members
I’m excited to announce the publication of my 4 th book Healing with Heart Rate Variability: Using Biometrics to Improve OUtcomes in Trauma-Informed Organizations ! In this time of stress, trauma, and burnout, HRV provides a critical tool to help clients, patients, students, and our workers regain and maintain their health. To assist in the fight, I am giving away free digital copies at optimalhrv.com !
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Free Book for ACEs Connection Members
I’m excited to announce the publication of my 4 th book Healing with Heart Rate Variability: Using Biometrics to Improve Outcomes in Trauma-Informed Organizations ! In this time of stress, trauma, and burnout, HRV provides a critical tool to help clients, patients, students, and our workers regain and maintain their health. To assist in the fight, I am giving away free digital copies at optimalhrv.com !
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The Surviving Spirit Newsletter July 2020
Hi Folks, The latest edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter is posted at the website - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/index.php To sign up for an e-mail copy, please write to me @ mikeskinner@comcast.net or sign up @ Website via Contact Us. FYI - The Surviving Spirit newsletter has been going out for many years. The idea behind the newsletter is to share news, resources and helpful information that could help any and all who have been impacted by the concerns of trauma, abuse or...
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Special Guests Graham Bodie & Erahm Christopher 8/27/20 12 p.m. PST for A Better Normal/Education Upended
"I have toured the country for the past 10 years to talk to our young people. I’ve learned that the biggest threat to our humanity is not guns, mental illness or our government. It is that everyone is talking and no one is listening. ” Erahm Christopher, The Washington Post Please join us on Thursday, August 27th as we host special guests Erahm Christopher and Graham Bodie to discuss the power of listening as part of our A Better Normal / Education Upended community conversation series.
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Introducing the Transform Trauma with ACEs Science Film Festival & Follow-Up Discussions
Transform Trauma with ACEs Sciences Film Festival & Follow-Up Discussions The following weekend watch parties and follow-up discussions are co-hosted by ACEs Connection, The Relentless School Nurse , and The Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy & Practice (CTIPP) . We appreciated the filmmakers for making these films free to watch for our members and for the public programming of PBS. The films we’ll feature are as follows: Portraits of Professional Caregivers Whole People Part 1...
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Redefining Trauma: Understanding and Coping with a Cortisoaked Brain
I am honored to introduce my newly published book, which aims to help people understand the normal impacts of intense or ongoing stress. The book uses metaphor to help understand our complex brains, and to have some distance while considering some potentially emotional and challenging topics. The word "trauma" has become so widely used, that some may not understand all that it implies. By focusing more on what's happening in the brain, hopefully we will pass less judgment on others and...
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Re: Redefining Trauma: Understanding and Coping with a Cortisoaked Brain
You've touched on a very important topic - sexuality and sexual health - when it comes to various traumas including developmental and sexual traumas.
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Re: Redefining Trauma: Understanding and Coping with a Cortisoaked Brain
Thank you. I find that sexuality is largely ignored in many clinical settings. Highlighting the importance of this was one of my main priorities in writing the book.
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Join the Community Conversation of the CAREgivers documentary on September 16th at 5p.m. PST
Please join our community conversation about Portraits of Professional Caregivers on Wednesday, December 16th at 5 p.m. PST (8 p.m. EST). Here is the pre-registration link to sign up. Special guests will be the co-producers of the Portraits of Professional Caregivers documentary, Vic Compher & Rodney Whittenberg. This conversation, held on Zoom, will be hosted by @Erin Connolly and @Whitney Marris of The Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy & Practice (CTIPP) with support from @Cissy...
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New book I just published
I wanted to update everyone that I have now published my new book. It is called Unlocking the Puzzle of PTSD. A Holistic Guide to Restoring Inner Peace. Unlocking the Puzzle of PTSD is a unique and comprehensive Holistic manual and workbook to understand and treat PTSD. The book is for health professionals as well as for lay people interested in the subject. It includes information about PTSD, Complex PTSD and trauma from a Holistic (mind, body, spirit) perspective. It presents easy to use...
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Surviving Spirit Newsletter October 2020
Hi Folks, The October edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter is posted at the website - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/index.php http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/pdfs/2020-10-The_Surviving_Spirit_Newsletter_October_2020.pdf To sign up for an e-mail copy, please write to me @ mikeskinner@comcast.net or sign up @ Website via Contact Us, Thanks! Michael. Newsletter Contents : 1] Beauty 2 The Streetz: This woman is beautifying Skid Row one makeover at a time by Alicia Lee 2]...
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"How to talk policy and influence people": a special series of Law and Justice with Cissy White
In this extended "How to talk policy and influence people" interview with Christine "Cissy" White, a writer (see healwritenow.com), mom, trauma survivor (including child sexual abuse) and staff member of Aces Connection, we discuss the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) science and the importance of attachment and a felt sense of safety for health and human flourishing. We explore some criticisms of the ACEs framework, the benefits and risks of ACEs screening and problems with the concept...
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Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) Pod cast 10-22-20
Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) Pod cast https://www.blogtalkradio.com/naasca/2020/10/22/stop-child-abuse-now-scan--2513 "Tonight's special guest is Michael Skinner , a returning NAASCA family member from New Hampshire. Michael is an award-winning advocate survivor. Michael's non-profit, ' The Surviving Spirit ', offers a monthly newsletter addressing the issues of trauma, abuse and mental health concerns, public speaking and his music. He notes that these cover a wide variety of issues."We want...
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Virtual Viewing of Whole People from Dec. 11th-13th with Follow-Up Discussion on Dec. 15th at 7p.m. EST
As part of the Transform Trauma with ACEs Sciences FREE Film Festival & Follow-Up Discussion Series we bring you Whole People (parts 1 & 2 & 3). The documentary viewing will take place in the Transform Trauma with ACEs Science Film Festival Community on ACEs Connection . Each of our first three sections is just under twenty-seven minutes long and the topics are as follows: Preview: Whole People | 101 | Childhood Trauma | Episode 1 | PBS Preview: Whole People | 102 | Healing...