Tagged With "young adult literature"
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Why Your Brain Needs to Dream (dailygood.org)
Research shows that dreaming is not just a byproduct of sleep, but serves its own important functions in our well-being. It’s said that time heals all wounds, but my research suggests that time spent in dream sleep is what heals. REM-sleep dreaming appears to take the painful sting out of difficult, even traumatic, emotional episodes experienced during the day, offering emotional resolution when you awake the next morning. REM sleep is the only time when our brain is completely devoid of the...
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you are one of the cool kids
We spend a great deal of our energy on fitting in. While insecurity and ego are sometimes part of this effort, it’s inappropriate to think of “fitting in” as a weakness or a crutch. The drive to connect is built into the essence of being human. Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk in his (one of the best I’ve read in the last five years) book, “The Body Keeps the Score,” says, “Our culture teaches us to focus on personal uniqueness, but at a deeper level, we barely exist as individual organisms. Our...
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Re: How a Therapy Dog Impacts a Child's Life
How fulfilling it must be to come full circle by helping children who've experienced trauma as you yourself recover from the long-term effects of childhood and adult trauma. And what a beautiful way to involve your adorable Sammie. Thanks for your work and for sharing here, Teri.
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Re: How a Therapy Dog Impacts a Child's Life
Oh, Laura, my heart fills with joy every Tuesday as I watch Sammie work her therapy dog magic. I had worked in a mental health agency in the school systems helping children with trauma, bullying, etc., but found it was taking its toll on me emotionally. I eventually left that job out of a forced situation (God's grace at work) as I had to go to work for a company I owned that was suddenly flourishing. Now I find I am back working with children, but this time Sammie is the one engaging them...
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Re: Put down the self-help books. Resilience is not a DIY endeavour (theglobeandmail.com)
Thanks, Laura, this is so true in my case. Now that my son is an adult and is supporting me, I am healing at a phenomenal rate. Love and support is the healing balm. But then if we had that in our childhoods, there wouldn't be any mental illness - at least not at the level, we have now.
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Re: Put down the self-help books. Resilience is not a DIY endeavour (theglobeandmail.com)
Cheryl, I'm so happy to hear that your son is giving you the support you've needed for so long. I also believe that childhood trauma is the cause of most if not all mental illness -- and that's ANOTHER idea that is getting a lot of press lately. It seems the tide is turning favorably. Let us brace ourselves for the inevitable backlash .
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Re: Mind Matters: Overcoming Adversity and Building Resilience Two-Day Intensive Training
Thanks for posting the information about the training here, Kay.
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Re: Trauma & Resilience in Children's Literature [1:32:19 run time]
A transcript of this video is available here .
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Re: The Importance of Connecting with Your Inner Child
Very encouraging post. I'm not sure anyone who's experienced childhood trauma can recover from its effects without connecting with their inner child, and I suspect that getting to know one's inner child is helpful even for those with no history of childhood trauma. Our childhood experiences -- good, bad, indifferent, and everything in between -- really do lay the foundation for all else to come. I think too that when we connect with our inner child, it's easier for us to cultivate...
![Trauma & Resilience in Children's Literature [1:32:19 run time]](https://www.pacesconnection.com/g/practicing-resilience/fileSendAction/fcType/5/fcOid/473628572602543305/primaryPicture/true/fodoid/473628572602543309/imageType/LARGE_SQUARE_THUMBNAIL/inlineImage/true/thumbnail.jpg "Trauma & Resilience in Children's Literature [1:32:19 run time]")
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Re: What is Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD)?
Matthew, thank you so much for this in-depth definition of C-PTSD. It's especially important to inform trauma survivors of its existence since in the DSM-5 it's lumped in with PTSD. It can be enlightening and can facilitate healing when one understands CPTSD's unique characteristics and challenges. I'm also glad you mentioned the C-PTSD Foundation and Beauty after Bruises, both of which I'm intrigued by. While understandably there's much emphasis on helping children overcome traumatic stress...
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Re: you are one of the cool kids
There is much research showing that a sense of connection to others is crucial to well-being, maybe more important than just about any other factor. @Morgan Vien has posted to this group about that topic several times. And one common effect of childhood trauma is a sense of disconnect, which can and often does lead to self-isolation in adulthood. A finding that's emerged from studies on what helps children bounce back and thrive after trauma is that in many cases, a caring adult in that...
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The Adult I Needed (Part 1 of 2) [thismustbenormal.wordpress.com]
There’s a wisdom-y nugget that gets bandied about these days that goes something like this: be the adult you needed as a kid. I don’t know who said it first. I could invoke my magical former librarian powers and confirm attribution and the exact quotation by consulting authoritative sources, but that sounds like work. Plus, I’ve a hunch it might confirm nothing more than that, just as to my knowledge no one has yet proved that Margaret Mead said that one thing about never doubting yadda...
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The Healing Effects on the Brain from Mindfulness, Prayer, and Meditation
In January, we have focused on how mindfulness, prayer, and meditation can help complex trauma survivors climb from the pit of despair into the sunshine of healing. In this last piece, we shall examine the neuroscience behind mindfulness, prayer, and meditation plus tie up any loose ends. Changes in the Brain from Complex Trauma Childhood trauma often leaves its victims with damages to the regions of the brain that control emotions, memory, and reasoning. These brain regions include the...
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Mental Health Awareness: When Suffering Is Not an Illness
When I was an adolescent and young adult, I struggled with depression. As I reflect back on that time, so much of what I was experiencing was deeply tied to coming to terms with my sexuality. Growing up in the 1980’s in a relatively conservative town, I was closeted (even to myself) until I was a young adult. The pain and fear of being different, of not belonging, of being judged or rejected for who I was more than my adolescent brain could wrap its conscious head around.
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The Adult I Needed (Part 2 of 2) [thismustbenormal.wordpress.com]
When I was ten, my mother remarried. Two weeks later, my new stepfather revealed himself to be an abusive alcoholic with a gun fetish. I’m guessing that the first time he went on a drunken rampage my mother chalked it up to a bad day. Maybe she shook her head and said to herself, “men.” Before long, though, the now well-known cycle of abuse established itself in our household and that was that. Before long, I stopped calling him “Daddy”. It would be three years before my mother could manage...
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Toxic Stress, ACEs, and Polyvagal Theory
Stress is a normal part of life that no one can fully escape. However, when stress becomes toxic, it can affect our lives in drastic fashions that may change our life’s outcome. Adverse childhood experiences tie into toxic stress and both can cause considerable harm to both children and again when these kids grow to become adults. This article will explore the connection between toxic stress, ACEs, and how understanding them through the polyvagal theory can help us to find ways to defeat...
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The association between exposure to childhood maltreatment and the subsequent development of functional somatic and visceral pain syndromes [thelancet.com]
By Joht Singh Chandan, Deepiksana Keerthy, Dawit Tefra Zemedikun, et al., EClinical Medicine, June 6, 2020 Abstract Background : Childhood maltreatment is a global public health issue linked to a vast mortality and morbidity burden. This study builds on current literature to explore the risk of developing central sensitivity syndromes (CSS) (consisting of somatic and visceral pain syndromes) subsequent to childhood maltreatment exposure. Methods : A retrospective population based open cohort...
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Column: How parents can help a child with post-traumatic stress disorder [milforddailynews.com]
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...
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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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This wasn't the first time
Going out to buy groceries, going out for a walk, driving your kid back home from school. For most people these activities are normal, everyday things with little to no excitement, as they should be. Unfortunately, getting food, exercising, and supporting my son’s education have been a little more out of the ordinary for me. You see, I am a Mexican Indigenous man, brown skin, shaved head. My ethnicity and physical appearance are by no means unusual, especially in the part of the country...
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A Better Normal- Education Upended- Creating a Culture of Wellness and Connection with Special Guests from the Meaning Makers Collective
I am SO excited for our next episode, and you should be too! Join us Thursday 8/20 as we welcome our speical guests Judee Fernandez and Michelle Kurta from the Meaning Makers Collective . We will discuss what it takes to create cultures of care and connection in our schools, how to develop a system that supports collective care for staff and prioritizes the wellbeing of adults in school settings. It is gonna be great! Weekly themes include: How do we create physical and psychological safety,...
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Resilience - overcoming our past [talkbusiness.net]
By Ray Hanley, Talk Business & Politics, August 16, 2020 All children face challenges – it’s how they learn and grow into responsible adults. But how does one child experience a terrible childhood trauma and survive, even prosper as an adult, while another child is emotionally and physically destroyed by it? The answer is closely linked to the amount of resilience in each child. Resilience – the ability to recover from or adjust to trauma or misfortune – comes in many forms – a loving,...
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Healing Trauma Through Inner Child Work
So far, in this series on the inner child, we have discussed inner children, and how, when they are wounded, they can affect adult life. We learned that every person has an inner child that is part of our psyche, that is a childish self, inside all of us. There is a model of healing known as doing inner child work. In this article, we shall tackle this subject to understand how we can begin the healing process from having a wounded inner child. What is Inner Child Work? Inner child work is...
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Re: Resilience - overcoming our past [talkbusiness.net]
As this article points, positive adult influences and support in the life of a child make all the difference in how that child's life unfolds in the decades to come. As an educator at the high school level myself and as the mother of an elementary school teacher, what troubles me most about the over-the-top emphasis on standardized testing is that it takes away the time teachers can devote to what will matter the most in the long haul - building relationships and caring for their students as...
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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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Resilience in the Time of COVID -19 [publichealthpost.org]
By Hyeouk Chris Hahm, Kirsten Fleming, and Cindy H. Liu on November 2, 2020 for the Public Health Post Millennials and Generation Z will comprise larger and larger percentages of the workforce in the coming years. Thus, societal functioning will depend on how they emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic. As the world continues to struggle with Covid-19, the mental health of young adults has been extremely important. With the early months of the pandemic leading to the rapid closure of schools and...
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If you want to heal childhood trauma, you have to heal your body.
356 pounds?! Are you kidding me, Michael? What the fuck are you doing to yourself? Every morning I would wake up and watch the number on the scale tick up as I slowly allowed obesity to run wild and consume my body. Fat . I was always the chubby kid. I shopped in the boy's husky section at Walmart as a preteen. Husky for the unware is the polite nomenclature for fat kids. I spent summers running around with my shirt on. I ate entire boxes of gummy bears for dinner. I never ordered just one...
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A Safe Place For Men
Each day from Thanksgiving until Christmas, hear the voices of male survivors of childhood, adolescent or adult sexual abuse share their stories of hurt, pain, joy and triumph as they heal from the aftermath of betrayal and trauma. You are not alone https://www.safeplaceformen.com/30days Thank you Thomas! Honored to help kick this series off – gifts of healing. Take care, Michael Skinner https://safeplaceformen.podbean.com/ www.safeplaceformen.com #safeplaceformen #malesexualabuserecovery
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Self-care is not participating when you don’t want to.
There is power in standing up for yourself and sticking to your personal boundaries regarding how you participate in life as a trauma survivor. I hate the constant barrage of showing up because of obligation. Fuck that. I mean, when I think about the fact that people will shame you over not doing something that you don’t want to do, I get irate. I think about how many times in our lives that we are put in the position of showing up due to social constructs, and I want to smash my face into...
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Coping With Trauma: Workaholism
What is the difference between working hard and being a workaholic? Workaholism is glorified in our society and the term is often misused, making it difficult for people suffering from it to know they have a problem. Before childhood trauma research gained momentum in the 1980s and 1990s, there was no understanding of trauma and its consequences on a person’s life as adult, the link was not made between beating or neglecting a child and how it impacted the adult child’s mental health...
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The Surviving Spirit Newsletter December 2020
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 December 2020 Hi Folks, Hoping this finds you well and safe. Wow, coming to the end of a very challenging year...I do hope that 2021 brings forth healing and hope for all of us. Life can be hard, a pandemic...
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Re: Why It's So Hard to Talk About Abusive Mothers [themighty.com]
This is a great article. Thank you, Laura. I completely agree with this. Early in my career as a psychotherapist, I worked with abused children, adult survivors and male and female perpetrators. Some of these children and adults had mothers who did unspeakable things to them. There is a double standard. From my experience, it seemed easier for authorities to believe children who disclosed abuse by men then to believe children who alleged abuse by women. But I heard the stories. Contrary to...
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Re: Why It's So Hard to Talk About Abusive Mothers [themighty.com]
As a survivor, for most of my life that double standard held me back from acknowledging my mother's role in my traumatization. And, yes, I suspect her behavior was/is a result of being traumatized herself. But denying that she's capable of exactly what she did only delayed my own healing. It was when I was able to finally break through that barrier (and that breaking through is a process that I still struggle with, because pointing the finger at one's mother is TABOO) that I was able to make...
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Your Healing Narrative: Write-to-Heal With Neural Re-Narrating
Happy 2021! 2020 was a year unlike any other. But it also brought home for many of us what matters most, including the importance of nurturing and harnessing the power of our nervous system and brain toward equanimity so that we can flourish even in the face of adversity. Your Healing Narrative: Write-to-Heal With Neural Re-Narrating i s my 2021 offering for individuals, parents, teachers, social workers, therapists, and health care professionals, to help ease a little bit of the anxiety,...
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A Recipe for Raising Resilient Children - Skills and Factors that Contribute to Resiliency
Suffering is an expected part of this journey because resilience is a muscle that we strengthen over time and experiences. However, developing this muscle is most effective when encouraged by warm, loving, and responsive caregiving.
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The Adverse Childhood Experiences Recovery Workbook (Dr. Glenn Schiraldi)
A new guide for healing the hidden wounds from ACEs The Adverse Childhood Experiences Recovery Workbook Glenn R. Schiraldi, Ph.D. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc., 2021, 232 pages Practical, powerful skills for healing the hidden wounds of childhood trauma “ Dr. Glenn Schiraldi is one of the world’s most trusted experts on stress and resilience. His Adverse Childhood Experiences Recovery Wor kbook is the most complete, accessible, and evidence-based healing resource available.
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Neuroplasticity and Mindfulness
Every time we experience something new, a new neural pathway forms, and if repeated, reinforces and strengthens the connections between brain cells.
So, neuroplasticity happens throughout our lives based on our experiences which either strengthen or weaken our neural connections. What we don’t use will be pruned away. However, there is a way neuroplasticity can be harnessed to successfully mitigate the effects of adverse childhood experiences on our adult lives.
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How adverse childhood experiences or ACEs impact your current wellbeing
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...
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'A Better Normal' Conversation with the Authors of 'We've Been Too Patient' - Friday, February 26th
Please join us for our next episode of our ‘A Better Normal’ Community Discussion where we envision the future as trauma-informed! We are honored to be joined by the authors and editors of ‘We've Been Too Patient: Voices from Radical Mental Health--Stories and Research Challenging the Biomedical Model’ , Kelechi Ubozoh and L.D. Green. Hosted by @Jenna Quinn (ACEs Connection Staff) and facilitated by @Alison Cebulla (ACEs Connection Staff) of ACEs Connection. Friday, February 26th, 2021 12pm...
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Practicing resilience during social distancing
Welcome to the COVID-19 and PACEs Science Collection for Self-Care Practices! We have four topic-specific resource lists related to COVID-19 and PACEs Science. All four will be updated for as long as this pandemic lasts. They are as follows: ACEs in Education & COVID-19 COVID-19 Resources for Healthcare Providers Parenting with ACEs in a Pandemic Practicing Resilience During Social Distancing We hope these lists, and the resources, practices, and information in them, are helpful and easy...
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Re: Over 3 Million People Took This Course on Happiness. Here's What Some Learned [nytimes.com]
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) estimates that 16.2 million U.S. adults had at least one major depressive episode in 2016. This represents 6.7 percent of the U.S. adult population. The percentage of adults who experienced any symptoms of depression was highest among those aged 18–29 (21.0%). Our numbers have only risen since the Covid Pandemic started in 2020. Any course or info on Depression and learning how to live with it, would be a wonderful course to attend. The truth is...
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Healing the Hidden Wounds from Childhood: The Promise of Healing, Part II (Glenn R. Schiraldi, Ph.D., Lt. Col., USAR, Ret.)
So many people are struggling with unhealed, hidden wounds from toxic childhood stress. For some the pain is obvious. Others might look outwardly strong, capable, and in control. However, unhealed inner wounds cause needless suffering and can lead to a dizzying array of psychological, medical, and functional problems. This three-part blog discusses the road to recovery. Part I explained “The Principles of Healing.” This part explains why traditional treatments are not usually the best...
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The Surviving Spirit Newsletter March 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 latest edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter is posted at the website - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/index.php or here's the PDF -...
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The Surviving Spirit Newsletter April 2021
Hi Folks, The latest edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter is posted at the website - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/index.php Once again I've tried to create a mix of articles, videos, music, books, podcasts, resources, etc, that offer Hope, Healing & Help. As the saying goes, “ Take what you like and leave the rest. ” or here's the PDF - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/pdfs/2021-04-The_Surviving_Spirit_Newsletter_April_2021.pdf To sign up for an e-mail copy, please...
