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A Guatemalan mother falls to her knees as her seven-year-old daughter walks through the door. They've been separated for 55 days, and the mother is completely overcome with emotion. She embraces her child, rocking her and rubbing her back, openly weeping and speaking to her daughter in Spanish. When she pulls back, the child's face appears somewhat frozen, but she clearly has tears in her eyes; her mother wipes her face with the tissue she has been clutching. This video from CNN is just one...

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty crushed by all of the bad news these days. Frightened children separated from parents at the U.S. border; politicians involved in money laundering and sex scandals; gun violence in schools. Reading these stories makes me feel hopeless and helpless, not to mention angry and disconnected from my fellow citizens. That’s why I need some inspiration right now, to motivate me to stay true to my values of caring for others’ welfare and fighting for what’s...

When I wake at 5:00 a.m. on a summer desert morning, it’s to catch the only cool moments before the day begins. In a few hours, the temperature will rise past 100 degrees, and by mid-day, the dashboard thermometer in my car will read 117 degrees. I keep my children’s car seats covered with old towels and grocery bags to prevent the buckles from heating up like branding irons. Along the roadsides, the leaves on the orange trees droop and even the cacti look thirsty. At the Santa Rita Park,...

There's a disturbing pattern of missing and murdered indigenous women throughout North America. In 2015, a quarter of all murdered Canadian women were indigenous, and we're less than 5 percent of the population. It can be difficult to tally the number of missing or assaulted indigenous women in North America, but, in the United States, the National Institute of Justice reports that over half of Native women have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime, and 38 percent were unable to...

Attachment & Trauma Network wants YOU and your organization to exhibit at our 2nd Annual Creating Trauma Sensitive Schools Conference. Join hundreds of educators from across the country and around the world to learn more about the trauma-informed education movement and how to Create Trauma Sensitive Schools. February 17 thru 19 in Washington, D.C. at the Washington Hilton! This is a great opportunity to increase your organization's exposure and be in-front of hundreds of education...

https://medium.com/@drjimwalters/what-happened-the-day-schools-across-america-stopped-practiced-mindfulness-6c2c1f0acc3f

Many of us probably don’t associate “happiness” with “work.” But maybe we should: Studies suggest that happy people are actually more productive and successful, and less likely to leave their jobs. This quiz measures how happy you are when you’re on the clock. It’s based on research that has identified key factors to happiness at work. [For more on this story, go to https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/quizzes/take_quiz/happiness_at_work ]

Yoga, meditation and breathing exercises could help cut rates of violent crime in Scotland, says Professor Ross Deuchar. This summer there have been some worrying signs that violence is still a big issue in the west of Scotland. News of school pupils being attacked and stabbed in Clarkston came within days of the murder of Dominic Brown as a result of a knife attack in Clydebank. This came on the heels of a gangland shooting in Scotstoun in May, following on from a series of other incidents...

When a sick kid steps into the pediatrician’s office, it could be for just about anything: an ear infection, a twisted ankle or an upset stomach. And sometimes, behind all those outward symptoms, there is something deeper that needs attention. Pediatricians and family doctors have long served a crucial but largely undefined role in American mental health care, diagnosing and treating depression and anxiety in addition to everyday physical injuries and common diseases. But amid rising concern...

Editor’s Note: This is the latest in a series of articles stemming from an opioid summit held recently in Morristown to discuss solutions to the ongoing opioid epidemic. The focus on solutions at the Addiction Summit in Morristown hearkened back to keynote speaker Dr. Vanch Shaw, who initiated the word trauma in his discussion about the neurology and biology of addiction. The nearly five-hour summit began at 9 a.m. with Shaw, continued with discussions of its impact on the local community...

Poor sleep can kill your social life. UC Berkeley researchers have found that sleep-deprived people feel lonelier and less inclined to engage with others, avoiding close contact in much the same way as people with social anxiety. Worse still, that alienating vibe makes sleep-deprived individuals more socially unattractive to others. Moreover, even well-rested people feel lonely after just a brief encounter with a sleep-deprived person, triggering a viral contagion of social isolation. [For...

Abstract Marijuana is one of the most widely used substances during pregnancy in the United States. Emerging data on the ability of cannabinoids to cross the placenta and affect the development of the fetus raise concerns about both pregnancy outcomes and long-term consequences for the infant or child. Social media is used to tout the use of marijuana for severe nausea associated with pregnancy. Concerns have also been raised about marijuana use by breastfeeding mothers. With this clinical...