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There are thousands of therapists in the United States and, unless you live in a rural area, many for you to choose from. Yet, finding a therapist that is a good fit, especially one who treats complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD), can be a daunting task. Asking questions and vetting a therapist for your healing journey requires you to ask many questions. Knowing what qualities to search for in a therapist is also vital. This article will seek to answer some of the questions on how...

By Rikha Sharma Rani, Los Angeles Times, August 22, 2020 Kirsten Hove and her mom have been taking care of kids in San Francisco for decades. Hove’s mother opened a day-care program in her home in the city’s Marina neighborhood more than 30 years ago. In 2006, Hove and a family friend expanded the business by opening sites in their apartments nearby. The days were long, but the women loved the work. What took years to build, however, was dismantled by the coronavirus in just a few months. [...

By April Fulton, National Public Radio, August 18, 2020 It can be tempting, as the pandemic wears on, to shut down — to escape into TV binging, social media and other inadequate ways of blocking out the stress and fears of illness or economic disaster . Dr. Maryland Pao, the clinical director of the National Institutes of Mental Health Intramural Research Program and a psychiatrist who regularly sees children with life-threatening illnesses, says she's seen striking similarities between the...

By Emma Powys Maurice, Pink News, August 22, 2020 A growing number of conversion therapy survivors are sharing their trauma on TikTok amid growing efforts to outlaw the discredited practice. Nearly 700,000 Americans have undergone conversion therapy, half when under 18, according to the UCLA’s Williams Institute. The so-called therapy can range from counselling or “praying away the gay” to torturous electric shocks , but all forms have been rejected by every mainstream health organisation...

By Megan R. Mahoney, STAT, August 19, 2020 My parents fell in love at a time when their union was illegal in 16 states . My father, who is white and who was a priest at the time, married my mother, who later became one of the first black women college presidents. As a mixed-race kid growing up in Ohio, I often felt like a chameleon who could move in and out of different cultural worlds. Understanding various perspectives is a multiracial kid’s superpower, and I felt that I could almost fit...

By JoAnn Stevelos, Psychology Today, August 21, 2020 As a child, I was an orchid but lived like a dandelion. I have always prided myself on my resiliency, for surviving a long and painful childhood filled with abandonment, psychological, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse . Child abuse can do that to you—give you a false sense of self and what resiliency really looks like. Resiliency is not just surviving. This false narrative of resiliency can take years to undo. One approach is to try...

Chronic stress increases a blood-based hormone called acyl-ghrelin for years after the initial traumatic stressor exposure in some adolescents, and those with elevated levels of the hormone are more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and to experience more severe cases of the condition, according to a study conducted by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published August 20 in JAMA Network Open . ...

The coronavirus pandemic has taken a serious toll on the mental health struggles of Americans, particularly young adults. According to a recent survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, out of more than 5,000 respondents who were contacted in late June, 25.5 percent of adults between the ages of 18-24 reported having “seriously considered suicide” due to the pandemic. By comparison, 10.7 percent of all respondents reported having suicidal ideations. “Mental health...

Hi Folks, The latest edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter is posted at the website - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/index.php http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/pdfs/2020-08-The_Surviving_Spirit_Newsletter_August_2020.pdf To sign up for an e-mail copy, please write to me @ mikeskinner@comcast.net or sign up @ Website via Contact Us, Thanks! Michael.

The Trauma Resource Institute invites you to a virtual screening August 22, 2020 | With panel discussion to follow. About the Film From Mr. Allen's website, "In 1953, my grandfather, Nathaniel Allen, was murdered on the Sampit River in the historic Lowcountry town Georgetown, SC...This documentary short film exposes the truth about his death and delves into the reality of intergenerational trauma due to racial injustices/tragedies. Open Wounds continues the conversation of...

I strive to make sure when I talk about resilience, I don't just focus on the personal but the societal responsibility. During this time, I have even more deeply recognized that my personal skills and resilience can be overwhelmed by "surge capacity" [a term from a recently shared article "Your ‘Surge Capacity’ Is Depleted — It’s Why You Feel Awful"]. As this article states: "I want people to be proud of themselves for being resilient. I just don’t want it to be the only option." Its...

Now we were in a pandemic, and I’m a science journalist who has written about infectious disease and medical research for nearly a decade. I was on fire, cranking out stories , explaining epidemiological concepts in my social networks, trying to help everyone around me make sense of the frightening circumstances of a pandemic and the anxiety surrounding the virus . I knew it wouldn’t last. It never does. But even knowing I would eventually crash, I didn’t appreciate how hard the crash would...