Blog

Our global online movie premiere of The Wisdom of Trauma, plus 7 days of conversation with Dr. Gabor Maté and leading experts in the field are coming up in just a few weeks. Five years ago, Dr. Gabor Maté was one of the keynote speakers at SAND. When we heard him speak, we felt deeply moved, not just by his powerful message and his incisive work, but also by his authenticity, piercing clarity and commitment to truth. Dr. Maté brings a very unique perspective to the epidemic of mental...

(l to r) Vincent Felitti and Brian Alman I’ve been helping people discover the root cause of their disease, physically, mentally, and emotionally—many of which are rooted in adverse childhood experiences—ACEs. Something that I’ve seen over and over again is a connection between ACEs and an unhealthy relationship with food that can lead to emotional eating and weight gain. Although people commonly get frustrated with diets and exercise programs that “don’t work,” the program’s not the actual...

By Ali Tadayon, EdSource, May 20, 2021 Giving low-income youth college savings accounts at a young age has emerged as a strategy across California to not only help families build financial assets, but also stoke tangible college aspirations. Such programs have sprung up in Oakland, Los Angeles and several other cities since San Francisco became the first in California in 2011 under then-Mayor Gavin Newsom to give every child entering kindergarten at San Francisco Unified a college savings...

By Megan Conn, The Imprint, May 11, 2021 For generations of New York parents, smoking a joint on the stoop or tucking some weed into a pocket has always come with the risk of not only a criminal charge, but the threat of being reported to child protective services. People of color and families living in poverty have long been the overwhelming majority of those tested for marijuana use, arrested and reported to child welfare agencies. But at the end of March, New York became the 16th state to...

By Samuel J. Heyman, Service to America Medals, May 2021 Each year, more than 20,000 foster children in the U.S. are sent into the world on their own when they turn 18. Within four years, nearly a quarter of them experience homelessness, often setting the stage for a lifetime of personal and financial struggle. Ryan Jones of the Department of Housing and Urban Development was struck by the urgency and depth of the problem in 2019 as he listened to former foster care youth from Ohio describe...

By Derenda Schubert, Renee Moseley, Lindsay Magnuson & Sarah Feldman, Stanford Social Innovation Review, May 3, 2021 On any given day in the United States, about 400,000 children are in foster care, living with and cared for by people who aren’t their biological parents. Many have suffered abuse, neglect, and other serious traumas, which frequent moves and separation from siblings can compound. While most of these children eventually return to their nuclear families, about 70,000 won’t.

By JS Lee, Health, May 19, 2021 A coworker once looked at me earnestly and asked, "How are you so 'together'? How do you have it all figured out already?" I was an art director with a beautiful office in my mid-20s. I smiled and sheepishly shrugged—but the truth was, my life was a mess. Learning to fake it is something I had mastered young; it's how I survived as an adopted child in an all-white family. I was the only Asian and adopted person in a family of seven kids. The New England towns...

This group has been a tremendous resource throughout the pandemic. Megan Sweet and I are the Co-Hosts of The Awakening Educator podcast. We have 40 episodes recorded, including an interview this interview with Dr. Bruce Perry, The Impact of Trauma on Learning . The thoughtful engagements and posts in this group inform our belief that you will find our podcast engaging, informative and hopefully joyful. We explore policy, practice and stories from the field. Please listen, rate and if you...

The ARTIC (Attitudes Related to Trauma-Informed Care) Scale is the most widely used and cited psychometrically validated measure of trauma-informed care. To-date, there has been an estimated 50,000 administrations of the ARTIC worldwide that include more than 90 studies launched using the Online ARTIC , the automated online platform for the ARTIC. The ARTIC scales measures staff attitudes toward trauma-informed care. Globally there are signs of COVID-19 recovery, though we have a long way to...

COVID 19 has done much more than inconvenience people, it has a much darker and dangerous side. A disturbing consequence of the isolation and loneliness sparked by stay-at-home policies, that problem is the rising current of depression. While depression is treatable, the sheer numbers of people who may be feeling its effects are staggering. This article will focus on depression during the COVID 19 pandemic and how you can avoid becoming a statistic. What is Major Depressive Disorder? Every...

Last week Governor Newsom released the May Revision of his proposed state budget which includes an investment of $20 billion to make public schools gateways of equity and opportunity , with 20% of those funds —$4 billion dollars—dedicated to transforming California’s behavioral health system into a world-class, innovative, and prevention-focused system for Californians age 0-25. For young people, their families, allies and advocates, the proposal represents an unprecedented opportunity to...

Nathanael Zurbruegg: from an incurable chronic illness and medical prognosis 'He shouldn’t be able to walk, talk, amount to anything and be dead six times by now' to an entrepreneur, award-winning global inspirational speaker and victorious mindset mentor.