Blog

Together with Central Jersey Family Health Consortium, Prevent Child Abuse-NJ will be hosting a mini conference on March 6th, 9am to 1pm at the Middlesex County Fire Academy in Sayreville. Our conference is titled “It Takes a Village: Supporting Early Parenting.” We will have some great speakers including our keynote speaker, Hilary Waller, who is the Director of Education and Programming and a psychotherapist at The Postpartum Stress Center. There is a $20 registration fee but scholarships...

In 2016, on the "old" ACEsConnection site, I posed the question: Was Jesus' ministry trauma-Informed? What resulted was a definition for a trauma-informed ministry that has been used and cited by others (based on the SAMHSA guidelines for a trauma-informed organization), a post that has been viewed over 4,000 times ( LINK ) and a curriculum that I wrote as part of my doctoral program at Multnomah Biblical Seminary in Portland, Oregon: Bruised Reeds and Smoldering Wicks . It is an eight-week...

Hello My Beloved PACEsconnection Community! Your Invited! I wanted to personally invite you to join me and my special trauma warrior guests, Carey Sipp, Andi Fetzner, and Teri Wellbrock for my Zoom Book Launch Party for my new book: "It's Not About Food, Drugs, or Alcohol: It's About Healing Complex PTSD"! There will be FREE giveaways, Q&A, special guests, and tons of FUN! To join the party you must register via the below Zoom link:...

IMAGE Source: John Thomson, 1869 / Welcome Collection When my youngest son was about seven, we lived in China for about two and a half years while he trained in Shaolin Kung Fu. We lived in rural mountainous regions and my son's life was consumed with training and competing. Our American passports, his fluent Mandarin and Kung Fu prowess paved the way for a good life in China. However, I was horrified by the pain I saw in other African people living in the region. I still remember the day...

By Sareen Habeshian, Axios.com, February 17, 2023 - One of the nation's largest food sanitation companies was fined $1.5 million for illegally employing more than 100 minors to carry out hazardous jobs, the Department of Labor announced Friday. Driving the news: Children as young as 13 were working with hazardous chemicals and cleaning meat processing equipment at 13 Packers Sanitation Services Inc. facilities in eight states, the department said its Wage and Hour Division investigation...

By Weill Institute for Neurosciences, Photo: From article, University of California, San Francisco, February 2023 These are unprecedented times. We need to work extra hard to manage our emotions well. Expect to have a lot of mixed feelings. Naturally we feel anxiety, and maybe waves of panic, particularly when seeing new headlines. An article by stress scientist and Vice Chair of Adult Psychology Elissa Epel, PhD, outlines the psychology behind the COVID-19 panic response and how we can try...

By Jill Suttie, Photo: From article, Greater Good Magazine, February 15, 2023 Are you suffering from chronic stress? Many of us are—whether we’re stressed out by our jobs, complicated relationships, caregiving responsibilities, or the general state of the world. That’s where Elissa Epel’s new book, The Stress Prescription , comes in. A health psychologist and director of the Aging, Metabolism, and Emotions Center at the University of California, San Francisco, Epel explains how stress...

By Annie Tanasugarn, Photo: from article, PsychCentral, February 2023 Our past shapes our present and helps us identify who we are and where we are headed. So, it’s natural to use our past experiences as a point of reference for our current situation. The choices we make for ourselves today are often influenced by our past. If we are using healthy judgment to guide our choices, then past regrets, mistakes, and pain are used as markers for what we do not want in our lives. However for some,...

By Cat Sandoval, Image: Screenshot from article, Scripps News, February 15, 2023 Some people shake when doing a difficult type of exercise , but at one studio in Madison Wisconsin, they're doing it intentionally. It's called TRE , which means tension and trauma releasing exercises, and looks like shaking yoga. Aubree Saia , a yoga instructor in Madison with over 20 years of experience, has been practicing TRE for three years. She's seen a difference in her life, particularly with her back...

In 2018, I was invited by Native American elders to travel to Canada to facilitate the first Canadian/American collaboration to heal historical trauma. As my friend Dr. Anthony Pico of the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians says, "Historical Trauma is the father of ACEs and the twin to addiction." It was a mission to understand and facilitate a new perspective in working with ACEs. Upon our arrival at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, we were greeted by Dr. Renee...

By Laura Gallant, 2/16/2023, https://positiveexperience.org The 3 rd Annual HOPE Summit – Practicing HOPE will take place online, March 29-30, register now ! During the Summit, we will have opportunities to network with the other attendees and presenters, and participate in interactive workshops choosing from the over 15 different workshops. You will walk away with tangible ideas, methods, and tools to implement the HOPE framework in your work. If you are not familiar with the HOPE...

By Sandro Galea, Photo: Hussein Malla/AP Photo, February 10, 2023 It has been hard to look away from the stories and images coming out of Turkey and Syria in the wake of the two recent earthquakes there that have left more than 33,000 people dead, a number which will undoubtedly rise. Each day brings a new haunting image, a new story of how the disaster has affected individuals and families, a new reminder of the devastating effect of mass traumatic events. The process of recovery will be...