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Melaragno: In the chapter “Healing from Trauma, Owning Yourself,” you cover six important ways to connect with what is going on inside oneself: managing hyper-arousal, mindfulness, relationships, communal rhythms and synchrony, touch, and taking action. van der Kolk: Well, let’s start with the fact that we are collective creatures. We don’t exist as individuals. Our brain is meant to be in synchrony with other brains. Interaction with other brains fundamentally shapes who we are. When we...

Thought I'd let folk in the southern part of the world know about this up and coming conference, in case you haven't come across it. I went to the 2016 conference and it was amazing. A blend of trauma informed practice, neuroscience and indigenous wisdom. "The theme of the 2018 International Childhood Conference , Trust, Love and Betrayal is at the core of the experience of childhood trauma and ultimately the relationships which can offer safety, hope and resolution. 18 internationally...

The one place I hate going most is where the sexual abuse I experienced continues to be played out time and time again; a doctor's exam table. There isn't a memory I have where the appointment wasn't invasive or traumatizing. I think the first being from around the age of three. I was completely naked with my legs spread-eagle on a gurney as a nurse inserted her gloved finger into me. A few years later my already prevalent freeze response left me defenseless from a male doctor who lifted the...

[Editor's note: This message is from Jenny Nulf, educational and marketing outreach coordinator with TUGG, which distributes Resilience and Paper Tigers.] We are so humbled that Oprah recently spoke on 60 Minutes about ACEs and trauma informed care, divulging how vital it is to understand and treat children with it. Speaking with Tim Grove and Dr. Bruce Perry, as well as victims of ACEs, Oprah succinctly informed about one of the most important and personal topics she's ever covered, calling...

What can organizations do to be successful in growing their ACEs initiatives and trauma-informed communities? This is the question that Jane Stevens, founder of the social network ACEsConnection.com and news site ACEsTooHigh.com , helps to answer. For the last several years, Jane and her team at ACEs Connection have been collecting information from communities as they start and grow their ACEs initiatives. ACEs Connection staff watched and reported on communities like Walla Walla as they lay...

Teachers have staged protests in recent weeks in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Colorado and Arizona. Some are fighting lawmakers who want to scale back their pensions . It's no secret that many states have badly underfunded their teacher pension plans for decades and now find themselves drowning in debt. But this pensions fight is also complicated by one little-known fact: More than a million teachers don't have Social Security to fall back on. [For more on this story by CORY TURNER, go...

During the stressful teen years, most adolescents experience emotional highs and lows, but for more than 20 percent of teenagers, their worries and sad feelings turn into something more serious, like anxiety or depression. Studies show that 13 percent to 18 percent of distressed teens physically injure themselves via cutting, burning or other forms of self-harm as a way to cope with their pain. Recent research and clinical psychologists now suggest that some adolescents are engaging in a...

It sounds like a late-night commercial: In just one hour you can reduce your anxiety levels and some heart health risk factors. But a recent study with 14 participants shows preliminary data that even a single session of meditation can have cardiovascular and psychological benefits for adults with mild to moderate anxiety. John Durocher, assistant professor of biological sciences, is presenting the work of a team of Michigan Technological University researchers about mindfulness meditation...

The World Happiness Report has been published every year since 2012, giving countries important data about the well-being of their people and how it compares to other nations’. One of the primary proponents and editors of the report is renowned economist Baron Richard Layard of the London School of Economics. As a researcher, Layard has been at the forefront of encouraging nations to prioritize people’s well-being, not just economic prosperity—and to use data-driven methods for figuring out...

Thank you to ACEs Connection member @Emily Read Daniels for sharing this essay written by Chris Prange-Morgan . It's a great read even if you are not a parent, have never adopted, or worked with families formed through adoption who deal with the complications of trauma and loss. I love this piece for so many reasons. I t's beautiful and heart-opening personal memoir. It's honest about parenting, still a rare thing. It speaks about the difference between studying trauma and living...

A week after two black men were arrested at a Starbucks store in Philadelphia, the company announced plans to close 8,000 stores across the country on May 29 for an afternoon of racial bias education. Many people remain skeptical if such training will actually work and prevent further incidents like this, and it's not entirely known what the afternoon of training will include. In an interview with Morning Edition host Noel King, Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and...

On Feb. 20, a young woman named Mirian arrived at the Texas border carrying her 18-month-old son. They had fled their home in Honduras through a cloud of tear gas, she told border agents, and needed protection from the political violence there. She had hoped she and her son would find refuge together. Instead, the agents ordered her to place her son in the back seat of a government vehicle, she said later in a sworn declaration to a federal court. They both cried as the boy was driven away.