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As therapists, we too often fail to recognize that significant changes in a person’s inner state don’t always lead to desired changes in performance. Early on in my work with performance blocks, I was struck by how often the root of the problem could be traced to traumatic experiences, especially with athletes. One of the most common athletic performance blocks I treat is something called the yips, the loss by an accomplished athlete of an ability to perform a seemingly simple...

The extent to which trauma in childhood – from a parent’s divorce to a relative’s mental illness or abuse – affects a child’s development and causes problems deep into adult life has been revealed in a landmark study. Being exposed to difficult experiences as a young person alters how children’s brains grow and how their immune and hormone systems develop, the authors found. Cancer , heart disease, mental illness, drug use, smoking, binge drinking and...

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: To examine associations between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in early childhood and teacher-reported academic and behavioral problems in kindergarten. METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a national urban birth cohort. Subjects with primary caregiver-reported information on ACE exposures ascertained at 5 years and teacher-reported outcomes at the end of the child’s kindergarten year were...

Childhood traumas of various sorts can cause kindergartners to struggle in class as well as life, new research contends. A study of more than 1,000 urban children showed those with difficult experiences up until age 5 had math and reading difficulties and difficulty focusing in kindergarten, and were also more likely to have social problems and to be aggressive toward others. The experiences included neglect or physical, sexual or psychological abuse. They also included living in a household...

On March 16 & 17 in Los Angeles, Echo Parenting & Education is convening the Great and the Good of trauma-informed schools for a national forum (international, actually, thanks to our Canadians registrants). This forum is a chance to deepen your knowledge about childhood trauma, participate in resiliency-building somatic (sensory) activities, and to learn about best and promising practices from pioneers around the nation who are working to create trauma-informed schools. And...

The Sunday, Jan. 17 Providence Journal carried this outstanding front page story (plus a second feature on the ACE study). Not mentioned in this story but reported elsewhere, a few leaders from Warwick, RI visited the founders of the Peace4 Tarpon Springs for ideas and inspiration and another effort is underway in West Warwick and Woonsocket with funding from Rhode Island Health Department’s and CDC's Health Equity Zones program  to support the reduction in health disparities.

Catherine Woodiwiss , Associate Web Editor at Sojourners writes this powerful article about how her traumatic experiences changed her.   I knew that pain was a part of life, but — thanks in part to a peculiar blend of “God-has-a-plan” Southern roots, a suburban “Midwestern nice” upbringing, and a higher education in New England stoicism — I managed to skate by for quite some time without having to acknowledge it. After a handful of traumas in the...

Here is a story I came across from a woman who wrote about her reaction to sexual trauma -- Sex After Trauma (Pt. II): The Psychology Behind My Promiscuity  that was written by Katherine Ripley and published on the Huffington Post. The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study linked childhood trauma to later behaviors, and one such behavior was increased promiscuity. Three separate measures for sexuality were queried with “The risk of early intercourse, promiscuity, and sexual...

There's been a lot of conversation lately about people of color dealing with " only one in the room " syndrome in the workplace. But in 2016, it's still remarkably easy to be the only person of color in any given social situation. My Code Switch teammate Gene Demby and I were talking about this yesterday. We've both been to parties in D.C., Philadelphia, LA — all majority nonwhite cities — where we at some point looked up and realized we were "the only one in the room." We live...

Addicted to prescription painkillers after a high-school sports injury, Cameron Burke moved on to heroin, which was cheaper and more easily accessible. His parents tried everything, more than once sending him out of state for treatment. "It was never enough," Jennifer Weiss-Burke of Albuquerque, N.M., told a local TV reporter last year. "Thirty days here, 30 days there, maybe detox for five days. It was never long-term, and that's what he needed. Recovery from heroin addiction requires...

On any given episode of East Los High, the highly addictive teen soap on Hulu that just got a fourth season, you'll see love triangles and heartbreak, mean girls and bad boys, and some seriously skillful dancing. Think a Latino Degrassi meets Gossip Girl meets Glee. Clocking in at 20 minutes an episode with lots of online extras, the show is calibrated to get fans in their tweens, teens and 20s to inhale and then tweet things like "Finished all 3 seasons of #EastLosHigh in a week and now I...

Many people having surgery for severe obesity also have mental health conditions, particularly depression and binge-eating disorder, a new review finds. The analysis of 68 studies found that almost one-quarter of obesity surgery candidates had a mood-related disorder, usually depression . Another 17 percent had binge-eating disorder, researchers report Jan. 12 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Obesity surgery, known medically as bariatric surgery , can be an option for...