As the 60th anniversary of Medgar Evers' assassination approaches, his widow reflects on the nation's unfinished business. (NOTE: Wednesday night I was at Pomona College in Claremont, California, for the 90th birthday celebration for Mrs. Myrlie Evers Williams, the iconic Civil Rights Leader. She is a powerhouse and I and everyone there was mesmerized by her, her elegance, her passion and her dedication. The evening was full of accolades for her. She has met many of the Presidents: Kennedy,...

Join us next Monday 1-2 p.m. PT; 4-5 p.m. ET, to learn about the latest efforts in Illinois.

Elpis was the spirit of hope. Along with the other spirits, she was trapped in a jar by Zeus and entrusted with the care of the first woman—Pandora. When Pandora opened the vessel, all of the spirits escaped except for Elpis (Hope), who alone remained to comfort humankind." 1 As Pandora's story reminds us, even when faced with the most challenging life experiences, hope can be found and fundamentally transform our life's journey. The "elegant design" of the nervous system offers hope. Humans...

J’vanete Skiba shares her perspectives from her role as the assistant director for equity, education, and engagement for the New Hanover County Resiliency Task Force in Wilmington, North Carolina, on the most recent Resiliency Within podcast with Elaine Miller-Karas, show host, and the co-founder and director of innovation of the Trauma Resource Institute and adjunct professor at Loma Linda University. The vision of the task force is a more resilient and compassionate New Hanover County.

We have witnessed courage, optimism, hope and our common humanity during war. Elaine Miller-Karas MSW, LCSW Building Resiliency to Trauma - Psychology Today, December 1, 2022 KEY POINTS Our common humanity inspires us to continue to support our Ukrainian colleagues. The human toll of the Ukrainian war challenges civilians with the loss of electricity, water, and heat. The stresses and tensions of the holiday season can be eased by strategies to boost well-being. It has been nine months since...

Bob Doppelt, the coordinator of the International Transformational Resilience Coalition (ITRC) will discuss why community-based initiatives that use a public health approach to build population-level mental wellness and transformational resilience are important approaches to combat widespread harmful mental health and psychosocial problems generated by the climate emergency when he appears on the Resiliency Within podcast at 1 p.m. PT; 4 p.m. ET on Monday, Oct. 24. In September 2023 alone,...

Focused on personal empowerment and promoting strategies to enhance resiliency, this year's Resiliency Forum brings together inspirational speakers, empowering clinicians, talented artists, life-changing authors, and noted professionals, all dedicated to enhancing our ability to bounce-back and thrive. In 2021, 7000+ participants from 111 countries around the world joined together to focus on strategies to enhance their resiliency in an ever-changing world. 37 celebrities shared their voice...

The world is heartbroken. When the news about Uvalde broke, my daughter called me in tears, grieving for the children and families and worried for her five-year-old daughter still at school. She talked with my granddaughter about ways to keep her safer from “mean people” if they came to her school. As a grandmother, it is heart-wrenching to even think of the need to have such a conversation with my innocent granddaughter. In the United States, the 19 children murdered in Uvalde now are...

KEY POINTS By using telemental health, psychotherapists do not have to wait until after the war or displacement to provide mental health support. Psychotherapists can field difficult questions from individuals stemming from living in a war zone to reduce the effects of toxic stress. Amid war, stress reduction methods can be taught using telemental health to increase the well-being of children and adults. I waited in a bread line and, suddenly, there was shelling. Tragically, half of the...

On March 1, 2022, an anguished voice begins, “My name is Marianna. My house is destroyed. My office is being shelled. I have barely escaped with my life.” She’s shakily accessing a video call from her location in Ukraine, but her image doesn’t appear on the screen, only her voice can be heard. “I will never be the same again,” she says to the Ukranian and international teachers, parents, grandparents, community members, and trauma specialists on the screen. “I will never experience happiness...

By Linda Grabbe, Melinda K. Higgins, Marianne Baird, and Katherine M. Pfeiffer, Trauma Resource Institute, July 2021 Background: Front-line workers (FLW) are at risk for secondary traumatic stress, burnout, and related psychiatric sequelae: depression, anxiety, suicidality, posttraumatic stress disorder, and sleep and substance use disorders. FLW are in need of self-care programs to support their mental health. Methods: Quasi-experimental study to assess the impact of a simple mental...

The Trauma Resources Institute (TRI), a nonprofit organization devoted to cultivating trauma-informed and resiliency-focused individuals and communities throughout the world, is offering parents and other caregivers a series of Community Resiliency Model-based parenting webinars to help enhance resiliency during these challenging times. This webinar series is a four-module online parenting program which will help you learn the skills of the Community Resiliency Model®. Each module will be...

How to use the skills of the Community Resiliency Model (CRM) for self and others to be the calm in the storm as we face the unknown. Free Webinar Tuesday, March 17 at Noon PDT Speakers: Elaine Miller-Karas, LCSW Linda Grabbe, PhD, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC Zoom Webinar Registration Link: https://zoom.us/j/715837300 Additional ways to join are listed at the bottom of this post. About the webinar leaders: Elaine Miller-Karas is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Trauma Resource Institute and...

During the last three weeks, I have had discussions with Jennifer Travieso of Peace4the Big Bend and Florida ACEs Connection, and Carey Sipp, ACEs Connection community facilitator for the Southeast U.S., about the situation in Florida post-hurricane. I feel drawn into further action as I have not heard about the degree of suffering on our news channels. It was shared with me there were 100,000 people homeless.