Blog

In the summer of 2020, the Tennessee Early Childhood Training Alliance (TECTA) at Austin Peay University, reached out asking me to provide several professional development opportunities for early childhood educators statewide after being awarded grant funding. TECTA leadership requested that I deliver a training I had used in July of 2020 when training the childcare leadership of the state of Mississippi. The training entitled, Using a Trauma Informed Approach in Early Childhood Education ,...

Head Start and Early Head Start continue to lead the way in promoting school readiness and family engagement for vulnerable young children. It’s no surprise, then, that Head Start is increasingly focused on implementing trauma-informed care (TIC). A recent study adds timely relevance to the advancement of trauma-informed care in Head Start preschool settings. The study, published in School Mental Health , “examines the relationship between trauma-informed training content, trauma-informed...

Virtual work, virtual groceries; everything has turned virtual since the pandemic of 2020. People can get all their work done without having to leave the comfort of their homes. It also means that our children have to adapt to a whole new educational system; virtual learning. While virtual learning offers the feasibility of learning at home, it comes with numerous issues too. One of the commonly-experienced issues is virtual learning anxiety. Not turning off the camera, constantly staying on...

In this series, in December, we have examined together what family estrangement is, some of its causes, and how we can learn to enjoy our lives despite being separated from our family of origin. In this article, we are going to focus on some concluding thoughts on family estrangement. We are also going to focus on the resources of the CPTSD Foundation that anyone can take advantage of to help overcome the pain that comes with family estrangement. A Brief Recap of the definition of Family...

When the Association of State and Territorial Health Organizations (ASTHO) fielded the ACEs capacity assessment tool (ACECAT) in 2019, it prompted a 75% response rate, reflecting the states’ growing awareness of the impact of ACEs on health and eagerness to add to the body of knowledge about states’ activities and capacities around ACEs. After participating in the ACECAT, Nicole Daley, Director of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Division of Violence and Injury Prevention,...

By Jason W. Selby, Globe Gazette, March 17, 2021 For Jasper the therapy dog and counselor Sharon Reinardy, it is their first year of work at Osage Middle School. “We’re learning together,” Reinardy said. It is Saint Patrick’s Day. Normally Jasper would be resting at home, but now he has a job. He belongs to special education teacher Ashlyn Hubbard, and after a few years of training, they passed through the doors as fellow employees, dressed in green. [ Please click here to read more .]

By Rachel Zimlich, Contemporary Pediatrics, November 26, 2019 The lifelong negative effects that adverse childhood experiences have on adult mental health are well-established, but new research suggests that positive childhood experiences can help mitigate the damage. Researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, published a study in JAMA Pediatrics revealing that positive childhood experiences are just as important as negative ones, and can actually...

By Alex Daniels, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, March 15, 2021 Coming to the office in July 2016 was like entering a void for C’Ardiss Gardner Gleser. Over the course of three days that month, two Black men, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, had been shot dead by the police. Work at the Satterberg Foundation, where Gardner Gleser served as a program officer, hummed along as usual as she grieved in silence. “I had to leave work because I couldn’t sit there and do nothing and be in this...

By Robert C. Whitaker, Tracy Dearth-Wesley, and Allison N. Herman, Academic Pediatrics, March 10, 2021 Abstract Objectives To investigate whether higher levels of childhood family connection were associated with greater adult flourishing and if this association was present across levels of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and childhood socioeconomic disadvantage (SED). Methods We pooled cross-sectional data from telephone and mailed surveys in the Midlife in the United States study that...

By Maya Hazarika Watts, Katie Hannon Michel, Jessica Breslin, and Elizabeth Tobin-Tyler, American Journal of Public Health, February 10, 2021 As COVID-19 inflicts disproportionate harm on communities of color, inequitable enforcement of pandemic response policies further widens health disparities. (Although “pandemic response policies” include many interventions, we use the term to reference public health policies adopted to limit viral spread.) These actions are extensions of persistent...

The Adolescent Redemption Project (TARP) is a new Michigan-based nonprofit dedicated to a second chance for incarcerated individuals when they were sentenced before age 25 or experienced multiple ACEs. Thursday's event is an opportunity to hear from Breonna Taylor ’s sister Dee Dee Taylor , a member of our board, who is a passionate advocate for getting her father Everette Taylor out of prison as soon as possible. We’re a fledgling 501c4, only less than a year old. We have no staff, only a...

So many people are struggling with unhealed, hidden wounds from toxic childhood stress. For some the pain is obvious. Others might look outwardly strong, capable, and in control. However, unhealed inner wounds cause needless suffering and can lead to a dizzying array of psychological, medical, and functional problems. This three-part blog discusses the road to recovery. Part I explained “The Principles of Healing.” This part explains why traditional treatments are not usually the best...