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Almost from day one, boys born into modern society are bombarded with the idea that they are different from females. Not that females are not made to feel odd about themselves, but boys have it much harder in many ways. We give boys guns, cars, fire engines, and other “manly” conventions and expect them to live up to what the symbolism these things infer. When something horrible, such as sexual abuse occurs, boys receive two messages, each destructive in their own way.

We all know that addiction is an incredibly complex disease, however, some people still wonder what causes this problem. This is a valid question but it is also one with a complex answer. There are a number of different factors that can cause and trigger someone’s addiction, everything from biological changes, family history, environmental factors, and more can all contribute to this problem. As we know from ACEs, or Adverse Childhood Experiences, there are many environmental factors that...

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/2019-11-The_Surviving_Spirit_Newsletter_November_2019.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. Healing the Heart Through the Creative Arts, Education & Advocacy Hope, Healing & Help for Trauma, Abuse &...

As the brain science on adverse childhood experiences evolves, teaching must, too By Jim Hickman & Kathy Higgins We all know that when children aren’t well, they’re less likely to learn. More and more teachers recognize that children who can’t sit still in class, act out, or have asthma may be showing warning signs of a toxic exposure to childhood trauma. More than two decades ago, landmark research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente found that...

Good morning everyone. I have not posted for a long time. I wanted to share some tools because the holidays tend to be stressful for many people especially for trauma survivors. I'd like to share some ideas from my still looking for a publisher book Unlocking The Puzzle of PTSD, A Holistic Guide to Restoring Inner Peace . I hope these ideas are helpful. I am a retired therapist, Trauma Specialist with 25 years in the field. I also have 22 years of post Masters training. Wishing everyone...

December 14th marks the seventh anniversary of Sandy Hook. These anniversaries come fast and furious. Name the event and the date comes to mind. Sandy Hook – 12/14, Parkland – 2/14, Columbine 4/20 are just a few of the hundreds, yes, hundreds of mass school shootings that have happened in our country. To be specific, there have been more than 230 school shootings since Columbine. I connected with Nelba Marquez-Greene on Twitter. She is the mother of Ana Grace, who died at Sandy Hook...

When it comes to addiction recovery, there are no silver bullets. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to help people with substance abuse. It is important to understand that every patient should get their own individualized treatment plan to help them achieve long-term sobriety. These treatment programs should be based on multiple aspects of the patient's life including substances being used, medical history, and more. With that said, there are still a few consistent portions of the...

When ACEs collide with additional social adversity outside the home, our children and youth can face daunting challenges. Social adversity in the form of community violence or growing up in areas where isolation and poverty are the norm, rather than robust services and opportunities, can also diminish every family member. Far from the public eye, academics and health researchers use terms to describe various forms of social adversity. There’s an entire field of study focused on the social...

TraumaInformedMD.com is a new website, launched in March of 2019, with the aim of consolidating and curating resources for physicians, parents, and professionals working with children in a way that is easy to search when seeing a patient. It is also an easy way to learn the basics of ACEs and trauma informed care, evidence-based treatments, and ways of bolstering resilience at your own convenience. I have been a pediatrician in the Oklahoma City area for 11 years. After having three...

By Shaylah Brown, NorthJersey.com, November 22, 2019 When the hard floor of Newark Penn Station served as her bed, sleep was fitful for Queen — often interrupted by the cold winds whipped up by passing trains and their loud-sounding horns. “Some days the rain was so bad, I was freezing," said Queen who now lives at Covenant House in Newark. "Whenever I go back to Newark Penn Station now, it’s hard because I see people who still haven’t made it out.” On Thursday night into Friday morning,...

By Iridian Casarez, North Coast Journal, November 22, 2019 The Sequoia Conference Center on Humboldt County Office of Education’s campus was at capacity, 448 people had landed a seat — while at least another 100 watched from a live stream in a separate room. The draw was a conversation among California’s first Surgeon General Nadine Burke Harris and a panel of locals spearheading Humboldt County’s efforts to alleviate the impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences, also known as ACEs. “Thank...

The idea for "Not Going Back" came to me as I was driving through the desert after a visit to my hometown of Yuma, Arizona, which borders both Mexico and California. I heard yet another story on the radio about people at a rally saying we should return to the ‘good old days’ and began thinking about what that really meant.