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Abuse and neglect in childhood can leave a lifelong residue of guilt for things that were never our fault. This same fuzzy thinking can ALSO make us numb to the awareness that we HAVE actually hurt someone. This can make it painful to decide whether to stay connected -- or cut off contact -- with those who abused us in the past. In this video I talk about ways to free yourself from unnecessary guilt, while listening to the voice inside that tells you when you've made a mistake. If you'd like...

At the urging of a colleague, I have created an infographic that describes the expansion/contraction process that occurs as part of healing from ACEs.

The purpose of this full-day program is to provide an educational forum for practicing nurses, school nurses, nursing students and other health professionals to discuss Adverse Childhood Experiences and the potential effects they can contribute to long-term, adverse health-related issues. This program is presented by the Catskill Hudson Area Health Education Center's Nursing Workforce Development Workgroup in coordination with the SUNY Delhi School of Nursing. The NYU Rory Meyers College of...

A longstanding principle of Anglo-American law is that a defendant shouldn’t be held criminally responsible for his behavior if mental illness made it impossible for him to tell right from wrong. Yet the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hold that the Constitution requires that defendants be able to assert an insanity defense. That may be about to change. On Monday, the justices agreed to hear the appeal of James Kahler, who was convicted and sentenced to death after killing four members of...

David Monroe pulled a gun from his pocket, said “f— it,” and fired five shots at a boy he had never seen before. At age 15, he became a killer. The midday shooting on a Stockton street in 1997, while heinous, was hardly uncommon when it happened. In the mid-1990s, a juvenile was slain, on average, almost every day in California. Arrests of youths for violent felonies averaged about 60 a day statewide. Juvenile halls became so overcrowded, authorities were forced to release hundreds of young...

This past weekend, my preschooler’s neighborhood buddies didn’t want to play frisbee with him. Despite his insistence, they left him to go play with his soccer ball—and, unsurprisingly, he was fuming. Although my son didn’t stay mad for long, kids, like adults, can hold on to intense anger when they feel wronged. At its most extreme, this anger can lead young people to ruminate about betrayal and seek revenge through acts like physical aggression that can devastate families and communities.

The HEARTS team met folks from Californians for Safety and Justice (CSJ) in April last year when they contacted us about AB2701 , a bill that sought to create a state-wide grant program for providers of school-based trauma services using the HEARTS program approach as a model. Dr. Joyce Dorado and I worked with the team just before it was presented and I was excited to testify at a hearing about the bill. I went to Sacramento the day before to see another hearing taking place, and spent...

Free grief resources created with grief community experts and artists.

By K. Hecht, P. Berman, and A. Ho sa ck The trial had started. Larry had been so fretful the night before that he almost fell asleep at the beginning when the attorneys were whispering something stupid to the judge. Is Branister still on my side or is he making some deal for his own benefit? Larry couldn’t imagine Branister could ever really care about what happened to him. His parents had beaten him to a pulp. His teachers had ignored his bruises and his lack of a lunch and just yelled at...

Since last week, two Parkland students who survived the mass shooting just over one year ago died of apparent suicide. And this week, the father of one of the young victims of the Sandy Hook attack also died by suicide. Many factors are at play in any suicide, and it can be hard to draw direct lines between something like the Parkland attacks and the suicides of survivors. But one thing is certain: witnessing gun violence — either once on a mass scale or through continued exposure — has an...

By ranking the health of nearly every county in the nation, County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (CHR&R) illustrates how where we live affects how well and how long we live. CHR&R also shows what each of us can do to create healthier places to live, learn, work, and play – for everyone. This year highlights an important element that shapes how well and how long we live: secure, affordable housing. Summary of Key Findings Across the U.S., more than 1 in 10 households (11%) spend more...

When Ashley Franks got pregnant with her son, her grandfather kicked her out of the house. She didn’t know where to go. So she lived out of her car throughout the pregnancy. “Daily life [when living in the car] is trying to find a place to take a shower, make sure that your hygiene is kept up, make sure that your vehicle is running properly, because that’s all you have,” Franks says. Years before, Franks experienced the kind of loss every parent dreads, twice: A daughter drowned, and then...