Tagged With "Getting Past Your Past"
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The upside of epigenetics - Change your genes, Change Your Life October 2018 release.
Hi all, Too often in our work we deal with the negative impact of epigenetics. Dr Ken Pelletier has written the book listed below, to help us address those negative impacts. (Full disclosure, I worked for Dr. Pelletier many years ago. I have the utmost respect for his work.) I am looking forward to reading it and learning new tools that can enhance resiliency and mitigate the impact of ACES. I have included the blurb about the book below, but you can check out his website and reviews for...
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The wealthy suffer from an ‘empathy gap’ with the poor that is feeding a rise in inequality
Hey everyone, I'm sharing this article here because it reminded me of some great books I read recently in my Masters of Public Health program. I'll be posting the books throughout the week, so stay tuned! Wealth and income inequality have many causes,...
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Thich Nhat Hanh answers children’s questions. "Is Nothing Something?" (lionsroar.com)
Children have a special place in the Plum Village tradition of Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. There are special practices, vows, and programs designed especially for children and teens, and Thich Nhat Hanh often fashions the first part of his dharma talks with them in mind. He regularly takes questions from children, and by and large adults can identify with what they ask. Children may be smaller and younger and they may have a funny way with words, but their questions reveal that they,...
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This Is a Poem That Heals Fish: An Almost Unbearably Wonderful Picture-Book About How Poetry Works Its Magic [BrainPickings.org]
“Poetry can break open locked chambers of possibility, restore numbed zones to feeling, recharge desire,” Adrienne Rich wrote in contemplating the cultural power of poetry . But what is a poem, really, and what exactly is its use? Every once in a while, you stumble upon something so lovely, so unpretentiously beautiful and quietly profound, that you feel like the lungs of your soul have been pumped with a mighty gasp of Alpine air. This Is a Poem That Heals Fish ( public library ) is one...
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This veteran found a creative way to talk about his PTSD with his child. (upworthy.com)
Kastle created the children's book titled, "Why Is Dad So Mad?" to help explain to his 6-year-old daughter his struggles with PTSD. And when it was published, he read it to his daughter for the first time "There’s a section in the book where I describe the anger and things associated with PTSD as a fire inside my chest," he says. "After I first read the book to my daughter, I remember her saying, 'I'm sorry you have a fire in your chest now, Dad." According to the PTSD Foundation of America...
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Tiffany Haddish: "I Know What I'm Supposed To Do Here On This Earth" [npr.org]
Laura's note: I have not read this memoir ( The Last Black Unicorn , by Tiffany Haddish), so this post is not a book review. When I heard this author interviewed on NPR, though, I immediately recognized what she was describing as the theme of her new book: growing up with ACEs--and overcoming them through positive thinking to succeed as an actress, comedian, and now, an author. In the interview with David Greene, Haddish says it best: I hope a little girl or little boy reads this and be...
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Toxic Childhood? 5 Spiritual Exercises to Heal the Soul (psychologytoday.com)
How to bolster and support recovery with simple steps Some soul work can support and aid the healing process, and the following are suggestions for exercises you may want to incorporate into your recovery. 5 spiritual exercises to smooth the way Give up your affirmations and ask questions instead Create a blessing bowl Become a gardener of spirit Take a real look at the child you were Create a letting go ritual The ideas in this post are drawn from my books, most notably Daughter Detox:...
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Trauma and Addiction: Ending the Cycle of Pain Through Emotional Literacy, by Tian Dayton, PhD
From Amazon: For the past decade, author Tian Dayton has been researching trauma and addiction, and how psychodrama (or sociometry group psychotherapy) can be used in their treatment. Since trauma responses are stored in the body, a method of therapy that engages the body through role play can be more effective in accessing the full complement of trauma-related memories. This latest book identifies the interconnection of trauma and addictive behavior, and shows why they can become an...
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Trauma and Attachment with Bessel A. van der Kolk, M.D.: Expert, International Speaker & Author (dvd video) 1 hour, 27 minutes
Join the world’s leading expert on trauma Bessel A. van der Kolk, M.D. and understand the latest on how our brains, minds and bodies respond to traumatic experiences. Dr. van der Kolk will explain how affect modulation techniques, EMDR, yoga and neurofeedback are used in overcoming the destabilization and disintegration caused by trauma. Listen to this seminar recording and take home an understanding of how these experiences are processed by unconscious interpretations (subcortical) that...
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Trauma and Memory: Brain and Body in a Search for the Living Past: A Practical Guide for Understanding and Working with Traumatic Memory, by Peter A. Levine, PhD
Although I haven't read this book, I took a sneak peek of the foreword, written by Bessel van der Kolk in 2015. Although I'm familiar with Levine's Somatic Experiencing approach to healing trauma, some of what I read here was new to me. Here's what van der Kolk had to say about this latest book from Peter Levine: "One of the most brilliant and original discussions in this book is Peter's explanation of how, in order to meet extreme adversity, one needs to engage both the brain's motivation...
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Trauma-informed Healthcare Approaches: A Guide for Primary Care
Our recently published book, Trauma-informed Healthcare Approaches was written to share basic principles of trauma-informed care and ACEs science with general medical practitioners and administrators. As the recent #METOO movement has demonstrated, interpersonal trauma is widespread. A growing literature has demonstrated the impact of traumatic experiences on mental, physical health and wellbeing. Trauma survivors commonly access healthcare but their histories and needs are commonly...
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TUGG closes its doors. Here's how to order Resilience, Paper Tigers, and Cracked Up
TUGG , a distribution platform for independent filmmakers, closed its doors at the end of January. This left the filmmakers who used TUGG to distribute three extremely popular documentaries with the ACEs community — Resilience : The Biology of Stress & the Science of Hope , Paper Tigers and Cracked Up — scrambling to figure out a way to meet the demand. Lynn Waymer, of KPJR Films, sent this information: TUGG is continuing to deliver Paper Tigers and Resilience to all organizations who...
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UPCOMING RELEASE!! Classroom180: A Framework for Creating, Sustaining, and Addressing the Trauma-Informed Classroom [beyondconsequences.com]
Due to be released March 27, 2020, Classroom180: A Framework for Creating, Sustaining, and Assessing the Trauma-Informed Classroom , by Heather T. Forbes, LCSW is a comprehensive roadmap of what it means to fully create, implement, and sustain a trauma-informed classroom from kindergarten through the twelfth grade. Additionally, Classroom180 includes an assessment tool, the Classroom180 Rubric, that can be used by administrators and others specialists who support teachers on the journey of...
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UPDATED Information Regarding Broken Places, Cracked Up, Paper Tigers & Resilience: Hosting a Film Screening to Start or Grow an ACEs Initiative: How-to Guide
Movie screenings of documentaries, such as Paper Tigers or Resilience are popular ways to introduce communities to ACEs science. Cissy White provides details about how to put on a screening event.
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Updating Our Resources - Will You Help?
When it comes to finding tools to help you properly address trauma within the family system, what is the single greatest challenge or frustration you’ve been struggling with?
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What Happens When Old and Young Connect (dailygood.org)
This year, for the first time ever, the U.S. has more people over 60 than under 18. That milestone has brought with it little celebration. Indeed, there are abundant concerns that America will soon be awash in a gray wave, spelling increased health care costs for an aging population, greater housing and transportation needs, and fewer young workers contributing to Social Security. Some fear a generational conflict over shrinking resources, a looming tension between kids and “canes.” As I...
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What Happens When Old and Young Connect (dailygood.org)
This year, for the first time ever, the U.S. has more people over 60 than under 18. That milestone has brought with it little celebration. Indeed, there are abundant concerns that America will soon be awash in a gray wave, spelling increased health care costs for an aging population, greater housing and transportation needs, and fewer young workers contributing to Social Security. Some fear a generational conflict over shrinking resources, a looming tension between kids and “canes.” As I...
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What Our Children Need Us to Know, Right Now
Teaching children how to better navigate crisis, right now.
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Wheeling to Healing and the guide Your Own Wheeling to Healing
Both of my books are available on Amazon and you can reach me at info@jamesencinas.com - ACE science informed and provided me with the knowledge and tools to transform my life and are featured prominently in my writing.
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Why I believe Gregory Williams, and his book, Shattered By The Darkness, will help save lives and revolutionize healthcare.
When you first hear about it, it sounds unlikely, fact that something that happened to someone in utero, at the age of two months, or four years, or any time in childhood, is what is killing them as an adult, or making them want to die, or making them want to hurt themselves or others. Yet the connection between childhood trauma and adult disease, mental illness, addiction, suicide, violence – most all of society’s ills – is as irrefutable as the myriad truths revealed about it in the...
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Why Intentionally Building Empathy Is More Important Now Than Ever (kqed.org)
Those in helping professions like teaching, social work, or medicine can buffer themselves from burnout and “compassion fatigue” with self-care strategies, including meditation and social support . A study of nurses in acute mental health settings found staff support groups helped buffer the nurses, but only if they were structured to minimize negative communication and focused on talking about challenges in constructive ways. English Professor Cris Beam also studies empathy and wrote a book...
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Young Adult Novels That Teach a Growth Mindset [edutopia.org]
Use these novesl to teach learning from loss and overcoming adversity to your middle schoolers and high school freshmen. [For more of this story by Robert Ward, go to https://www.edutopia.org/article/young-adult-novels-teach-growth-mindset-robert-ward?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow]
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Your Survival Instinct Is Killing You: Retrain Your Brain to Conquer Fear and Build Resilience
Jane Stevens posted a descriptive blurb about this title, How Your Survival Instinct Is Killing You , back in January, and I thought, “Why the heck not?” After all, I read everything I can get my hands on, searching for that magic elixir that will fix the feeling that I’ve called by many names over the years: Despair. Fear. Hole in the soul. Nameless dread. Whatever you want to call it, some of you with a high ACE score might know what I’m talking about. (I also experienced a very traumatic...
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Your Survival Instinct Is Killing You: Retrain Your Brain to Conquer Fear and Build Resilience by Mark Schoen
[Editor's note: This book was published in 2013, but I just heard about it. I've only scanned it, but it looks pretty interesting.] This is the review on Amazon.com: Thanks to technology, we live in a world that’s much more comfortable than ever before. But here’s the paradox: our tolerance for discomfort is at an all-time low. And as we wrestle with a sinking “discomfort threshold,” we increasingly find ourselves at the mercy of our primitive instincts and reactions that can perpetuate...
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A Life Course Approach to Mental Disorders by Koenen, et al. (2013)
Available as e-book. A Life Course Approach to Mental Disorders examines the interplay of social and biological factors in the production of a wide range of mental disorders throughout life, from the peri-natal period through to old age. The aging...
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After the conference...
After hearing from so many brilliant minds at the ACEs conference this week, I ordered several more books to add to my already expansive library of Trauma Informed resources (I shop for books the way others shop for shoes). I'm very interested to hear from you, my colleagues, what you think are essential resources and how they have helped you, your clients, or your practice. Thank you!!!
Ask the Community
Be The Change: How to Get What You Want in Your Community by Linzey & Campbell (2009)
Kudos to authors Anneke Campbell and Thomas Linzey for their uplifting book, which examines how local communities can take back their power. The key, according to the authors, is bold self-governance, whereby citizens openly challenge corporate...
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Can Trauma-Informed Mermaids Help Children & Families? (New Kids Book Series)
Dear ACEs Books Community, We just launched a new trauma-informed children's book series called Venus and Her Fly Trip . The series has been developed in collaboration with therapists, educators, parents and healers and is designed to promote mental/social/emotional health, body positivity and imaginative play in kids 4-10 , with the ultimate goal of preventing self-hatred. I would greatly value hearing the feedback of the ACEs community on this endeavor, and welcome your ideas for how to...
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Collaborating with Kinship Caregivers
CWLA is delighted to announce the publication of its most recent kinship care resource, Collaborating with Kinship Caregivers: A Research-to-Practice, Competency-Based Training Program for Child Welfare Workers and Their Supervisors. More than 20...
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Destroying sanctuary : the crisis in human service delivery systems by SL Bloom, BJ Farragher (2011)
"For the last thirty years, the nation's mental health and social service systems have been under relentless assault, with dramatically rising costs and the fragmentation of service delivery rendering them incapable of ensuring the safety, security,...
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Father Daughter Incest (Judith Herman)
Great book about this topic by Judith Herman.... You can check it out on amazon. Then come to your own conclusion.
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Figuring Out Fibromyalgia: Current science and the most effective treatments by Ginevra Liptan, MD (2011)
Fibromyalgia is a medical condition characterized by widespread muscle pain and fatigue that affects 6-10 million people in the United States. Huge progress in research over the past decade has established dysfunction in sleep, pain, and the stress...
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Happy New Year!!
Happy New Year, group! I have finally come back online after a few weeks off for break. I hope everyone here had a fantastic and rejuvenating holiday, free from trauma and drama! If not, let me know how I can help you and/or your clients deal with...
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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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Native children will be seen in ‘Fry Bread’ (Indian Country Today)
‘Fry Bread’ is the top-seller on Amazon’s children's Native American Books list When Kevin Maillard, Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, became a parent, he looked around the children’s book landscape and noticed there were very few written about Native people today. In fact, he said when he first started thinking about writing a children’s book in 2012, only six out of 3,600 were by or written about Native people. So he decided to write a children’s book of his own and “Fry Bread: A Native...
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New Book: Crazy Was All I Ever Knew By Alice M. Kenny (pseudonym)
To this day, I still think of my childhood home as "the crazy house." Like me, millions of adult Americans are living with the effects of the precarious childhoods they experienced as offspring of mentally ill parents. If you are one of them, you can no doubt relate to my book. As a child, you most likely lived in a crazy house of your own. As an adult, you’ve probably retained and may even relive memories of your tumultuous upbringing. Crazy Was All I Ever Knew combines memoir with...
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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 MEMOIR BY A PSYCHOLOGIST WHO IS A SEXUAL ABUSE SURVIVOR
Hello Friends, My name is Carolee Tran and I'm a psychologist who is a survivor of sexual abuse. I teach at UC Davis and also have a private practice in mid-town Sacramento. I specialize in the treatment of trauma. I am writing to announce the publication of my book “The Gifts of Adversity: Reflections of a Psychologist, Refugee, and Survivor of Sexual Abuse. ” I felt compelled to write this book to help others- refugees, sexual abuse, and trauma survivors. I also felt a deep sense of...
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Nothing Matters More Than Hope -- Including Resiliency
“In every published study of hope, every single one, hope is the single best predictor of well-being compared to any other measures of trauma recovery. This finding is consistently corroborated with other published studies from top universities showing that hope is the best predictor for a life well-lived."
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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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Our Community Page Is Expanding!
As Oliver Wendell Homes once said, “The mind, once expanded to the dimensions of bigger ideas, never returns to its original size.” I am so grateful to all of YOU for making ACEs Connection such a forward-thinking and vibrant site, and for the many ways it’s expanded my own mind to the “dimensions of bigger ideas.” That said, I’m so excited to introduce myself as the new community manager of “Books! Educational DVDs! Documentaries!” A little about myself: I’m a freelance writer and have...
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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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Pause, Breathe, Smile (by Author Gary Gach)
Pause . . . breathe . . . smile. Three small words, yet each contains a universe of wisdom. With Pause, Breathe, Smile , Gary Gach invites us to bring the practice of mindfulness into every moment of our lives. Writing for students of all levels, Gach draws on 50-plus years of study and practice in this elegant and accessible presentation of three central aspects of mindful living. The pause is about setting our intention before we think, speak, or act — the ethical dimension of mindfulness.
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Peer Program Uses Writing as a Tool for Trauma Recovery
For the past several years, a small yet dedicated group of writers has gathered at Pathway’s Peer Support Program in Ashland, Ohio to explore ways to use writing for overcoming life’s challenges, healing from trauma and adversity and building social connections with others. Tapestry of Our Lives is the result of their hard work. The writings in this anthology are rooted in adverse life experiences and childhood trauma, such as physical, sexual or psychological abuse or severe neglect.
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Profound Cascading Effects: Treating trauma in adolescents author is in Putney Sunday [
Trauma isn't always the result of one big bad terrible thing happening to a child that changes that child. In fact most trauma, is a day to day trickle. An accumulation of days bearing witness to domestic violence, of a steady cascade of insults, of the endless moments of neglect. "And this ends up being severe (trauma)," said, Martha "Marti" Strauss, of Brattleboro, a professor in the department of Clinical Psychology at Antioch University New England. "One event can lead to another. So you...
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Proof That Our Thoughts Create Reality (wakeup-world.com)
Water is the most common and arguably most mysterious substance on planet Earth. This substance is so incredible that we as humans through directed thoughts, can literally change the composition of water molecules themselves. You experience and project positive emotions such as love, happiness , and joy and water will literally change in its crystalline structure and become a much more healing and beneficial substance for your being and for the environment in general. This fascinating...
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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...