Blog

Skills and wisdom for creating the best possible experience of life. This program is designed to give you skills and understanding that you can use now AND that will continue to deepen and unfold over time. The curriculum is resilience-focused. What that means in a practical sense is that the starting place is of acknowledgment of the traumas potentially being held by yourself and your students. This allows for these amazing practices to be applied in a way that is most supportive of the...

"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...

Because I work in the field of child trauma and ACEs science education and prevention here at ACEs Connection, I end up talking about the subject nonstop. I am passionate about this field and making change so I enthusiastically share what I'm reading and learning with everyone who will listen. Those who will listen are often my parents. (This blog, by the way, is a personal piece of writing and does not necessarily reflect the views nor represent ACEs Connection.) I know not everyone's...

Guy McPherson, the host of the Trauma Therapist podcast shared his interview with Tian Dayton, PhD earlier today . He wrote: To listen to the podcast or watch the video of this interview, go here. In addition, Dayton, who is a member of ACEs Connection and the author of over a dozen books, spoke last week during A Better Normal conversation with @Carey S. Sipp (ACEs Connection Staff) about Grief and Family Trauma in the Time of COVID-19 .

John F. Kennedy once told an Indiana audience that “when written in Chinese,” the word “crisis” contains the characters for “emergency” and “opportunity.” It doesn’t . But ever since that 1959 speech, politicians and motivational speakers have invoked Kennedy’s mistaken language tutorial to talk about the importance of persistence, creativity, and, these days, that favorite buzzword, resilience. Resilience is everywhere, its popularity cresting with the setbacks that afflict us: climate...

In a recent episode of the podcast Unlocking Us, Brené Brown discusses the power of shame and how it is not an effective tool for social justice. She goes on to explain that shame is in fact real pain that is defined as the “intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love, belonging, and connection.” It is in fact so powerful that when we experience shame, it triggers a fight, flight or freeze response. She identifies shame as a tool of...

I listened to this great conversation between Dan Harris and Resmaa Menakem last night. Here's more information about this conversation from the 10% Happier podcast notes:

By Ken Blackman, June 1, 2020, Good Men Project. As I gained confidence as a man, I was able to skillfully take the lead in my relationship, in a way that felt good to my partner. I became attractively assertive. But I’ll tell you something. Do you know what else takes confidence? Apologizing cleanly. With no defensiveness. And not to placate or manage her feelings. Just a clear, honest expression of regret. I didn’t get good at apologizing — or rather, I didn’t really understand what an...

Click here for Evite info for The Shape of Stories, Tuesdays in July These programs are part of a series of Coping Cafe, which provides artistic tools to help people manage life changes and sparks meaningful dialogue about truth, fiction, and transformation. It is "essential" that we consume uplifting content now. Behind the racism and trauma are inadequate stories. Time to take a look... On July 7th at 4:00pm EDT - We will explore narratives, their impact, and how stories influence societal...

@Gail Kennedy (ACEs Connection Staff) let me know about these weekly meditations because she knows I'm a fan of Rick Hanson. If you'd like to try some free meditations followed by Q&A discussion you can find out more below (or here). The copy is from the Rick Hanson e-newsletter.

Unbecoming an Armadillo By: Victoria F. Burns, PhD, LSW Victoriafrances49@gmail.com Instagram: @betesandbites “When you are traumatized, you are basically in a permanent defensive mode” — Gabor Mate I’m sitting across from Meg on her charcoal grey love seat. My forearms are resting on a velvety mustard-yellow throw cushion and I’m holding crescent shaped pulsers in each hand. Meg’s my psychologist; a rare gem who specializes in chronic illness and trauma. Every two weeks, we spend an hour...

By Lauren Barry, The Milford Daily News, June 27, 2020 When most people think of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) they likely picture an adult who has been in combat, a serious accident or experienced violence. Children can also have PTSD either from experiencing trauma directly or witnessing it. Childhood trauma can be from a specific event like a car accident or dog bite, but it can also include witnessing domestic violence or enduring neglect or abuse. Children diagnosed with PTSD...