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To Heal Trauma, Free Your Most Compassionate Self

The experience of trauma makes a profound mark on a person. It doesn’t matter whether the injury is grave and evident, like the bruising of a battered person, or hard to see, like the emotional neglect of someone detached and withdrawn. Whatever the cause, when a person feels threatened, helpless, and unable to escape, that person knows trauma. The overwhelm of trauma often leaves survivors feeling out of synch with the rest of the world. Unresolved anxiety, turmoil, and emotional pain...

Each Piece of the Puzzle Matters: Meet Leslie Sweetwood

All 350 puzzles had been packaged, labeled, and were ready to be given away as gifts and an activity for conference goers. Teri Barila of CRI and her daughter Whitney had spent hours putting everything together when they noticed- the dog. And a puzzle piece in his mouth. Half-chewed. Discouraged, they looked over at the pile of boxes as Whitney muttered, “are we going to have to open every one of those?” Without knowing which puzzle was missing a piece, Teri had to get creative. Another...

The Underrated Healing Power of a Healthy Relationship [washingtonmonthly.com]

F or centuries, religion and science have regularly found themselves at odds in defining the essential truths of our world—a debate that, of course, continues today. So, we should take note when distinguished leaders in those two, often-conflicting domains find themselves arriving at the same conclusion about a fundamental question: how do we out more struggling young people on a path toward success? This alliance is on full display in two recent books that explore the epidemic of childhood...

Cities, States Resist — and Assist — Immigration Crackdown in New Ways [pewtrusts.org]

This is Part Five of Stateline's 2018 Legislative Review. Austin recently took a new tack in the ongoing war between “sanctuary cities" and federal immigration authorities. Declaring itself a “freedom city,” the Texas capital instructed its police officers to arrest fewer people for minor crimes — to prevent their fingerprints from going to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — and to inform people that they may refuse a request to present their immigration papers. Though novel,...

California Wildfires Reignite Old Trauma For Survivors Of Last Year's Blazes [npr.org]

There are 18 wildfires now blazing across California, which means many of the state's residents are waking up to the smell of smoke and hazy skies. The Carr fire near Redding has scorched at least 145,015 acres and killed seven people, and three fires in Mendocino County are all less than an hour away from Santa Rosa — where some neighborhoods burned to the ground last year. Confronting constant reminders of what fire can do has become a terrifying reality for people who survived last year's...

A Public School That Not Only Keeps Children Safe, But Heals [nonprofitquarterly.org]

After the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida earlier this year, schools are at the epicenter of national debates on gun violence and mental health. How can teachers and administrators deal with troubled students? And how can they make schools safer for all? It’s not the first time that schools have been asked to address social problems that originate far outside their hallways. In a nation where more than 40 percent of kids are from low-income families, school teachers and...

Paid Leave From Work Can Help Domestic-Violence Victims Leave Abusers [theatlantic.com]

“Just leave.” It’s the advice many domestic-violence victims hear most. But leaving—the meetings with lawyers, the court appearances, the apartment hunting, the counseling sessions, the all-consuming physical and emotional path to recovery—requires time and flexibility. Dawn Dalton, the policy director at the Washington, D.C., Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said scheduling demands are consistently the largest obstacle standing between the victim and a different life: “I hear, again and...

Systems for Action: Systems and Services Research for a Culture of Health 2018 Call for Proposals [rwjf.org]

For more information, click here . Purpose Systems for Action (S4A) is a signature research program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) that builds a Culture of Health by rigorously testing new ways of connecting the nation’s fragmented medical, social, and public health systems. Studies conducted through the S4A program test innovative mechanisms for aligning the delivery and financing systems for medical, social, and public health services, with a focus on estimating their impact...

Starting the School Year Optimally

So, the start of the school year is not easy for many students, especially those who have experienced or are experiencing trauma and stress and abuse. And, for those who have experience Big T trauma (immigration issues; fires; floods), the beginning of the academic year may not be easy. I think we have, unfortunately, not recognized the many aspects that need to be considered on the first few days of school. Transitions are not easy and we tend to think that one day orientations, filling out...

The Relentless School Nurse: Bridging the Gap Between Nursing and Activism

When an email invitation came to attend a Nursing Activism Think Tank, I immediately agreed to go, even without knowing a single soul. The information grabbed me by the throat and the heart. The throat, because I have been working to use my voice in previously unknown spaces and my heart because I care about the safety of children. The event also tested my courage in many ways. My courage to sign up, show up and participate in ways that I would not have imagined. The Nursing Activism Think...

Some 350 Florida Leaders Expected to Attend Think Tank with Dr. Vincent Felitti, Co-Principal Investigator of the ACE Study

Leaders from across the Sunshine State will take part in a “Think Tank” in Naples, FL, on Monday, August 6, to help create a more trauma-informed Florida. The estimated 350 attendees will include policy makers and community teams made up of school superintendents, law enforcement officers, judges, hospital administrators, mayors, PTA presidents, child welfare experts, mental health and substance abuse treatment providers, philanthropists, university researchers, state agency heads, and...

The tender, terrifying truth about what happened inside the Trader Joe's hostage siege [latimes.com]

About halfway through the three-hour siege at Trader Joe’s in Silver Lake, the wounded gunman, Gene Atkins, looked at one of his hostages, MaryLinda Moss, and told her it was all over for him. “I just shot at a cop,” he said. Moss, a 55-year-old artist who exudes calm, feared a suicidal gunman could spark a bloodbath. Through a series of disastrous decisions by Atkins, dozens of strangers had ended up at the grocery store on a hot Saturday afternoon, drenched in fear and surrounded by SWAT...

Free Trauma Playbook: Strongholds of Shame

" Kill the spider" describes what can happen when our client’s minds believe the lies perpetuated by a traumatic event. The result can be the stronghold of shame and require shame therapy . Cobwebs are the metaphor for the child’s trauma symptoms (i.e., depression, aggression, addiction, anger, self-harm) that medicate the stronghold of shame – the spider. Trauma therapists who attend my workshops tell me it is easy to overlook the spider. They recommend therapeutic interventions that help...

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