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Americans are hyper-sensitive right now to videos and images of the split-second police killings of African Americans in the streets. We’re less sensitive, or less aware, of the slow killings of African Americans that happen in jails, prisons, and penitentiaries every day. The story of Kalief Browder may change that. Browder was arrested on highly questionable charges of stealing a backpack when he was 16 years old, then sent to the New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail to await a...

We’ve long known that normal aging is accompanied by a decrease in brain size . This decrease in brain size is due to age-related loss of connective tissue in the brain , often referred to as brain shrinkage , and affects memory, emotional regulation, and executive function. New research from the UCLA School of Medicine’s Department of Neurology shows that long-term meditators have younger brains, with higher concentrations of tissue in the brain regions most depleted by aging. In other...

“Trash or person?” Maya DiMeo (Minnie Driver) demands in a dry British accent in the pilot episode of ABC’s sitcom Speechless. Her character’s son, a teenage boy with cerebral palsy who uses a wheelchair, has been forced to enter his school using a ramp that doubles as an egress for waste disposal. Later in the episode, DiMeo will browbeat the school’s principal into providing her son with a new aide. Later, she’ll smooth over arguments with her kids, kiss her husband, and likely balance the...

What Was Said Throughout the summer and fall, Newsweek, O, The Oprah Magazine, and other outlets reported on the remarkable progress students had made recently at the Robert W. Coleman Elementary School in Baltimore, thanks to its “Mindful Moment” program. Since implementing the program — a combination of meditation, yoga exercises, and after-school activities — the school has seen a marked drop in suspensions. Coleman isn’t alone in giving mindfulness a shot: New Age meditation practices...

Good Harbor Institute staff spent the day with Shawnee County, Kansas, Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteers training them on how to transform trauma information into skills to be used immediately with their children. The volunteers and staff learned about the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, learned how trauma brain may manifest as destructive behaviors, and then they learned what they can do to not "trigger" trauma brain reactivity. Through role play and small group...

In the solidly red state of Utah, lawmakers approved and sent to Gov. Gary Herbert a resolution ( H.C.R. 10 ) on March 7 to encourage state policy and programs to incorporate ACEs science to address “severe emotional trauma and other adverse childhood experiences” in children and adults and implement evidence-based interventions to increase resiliency. Every recorded vote cast by Democrats and Republicans favored the resolution. A detailed context for the recommendations was included in the...

When it comes to the language of brain disorders, society has come a long way from the days when "lunatics" and "imbeciles" lived in "madhouses" and "insane asylums." But in some ways, we're still stuck in the lexicon of the Dark Ages. "Battling demons," for example, remains a common catchphrase for Hollywood, the media and the public when it comes to mental health issues. As the vocabulary of the brain evolves, there's a growing effort to exorcise "demons," "inner monsters" and other...

Six years of violence and bloodshed have spawned a mental health crisis among Syria's children whose impact will be felt for decades, international charity Save the Children said on Tuesday. In a report it called the largest mental health survey inside Syria during the war, the group found children increasingly crippled by fear or anger. Most of the children - two-thirds of whom had lost a loved one, had their houses bombed, or been injured - exhibited severe emotional distress and lacked...

This white paper published in 2014 by Bridge Housing Corporation in San Francisco, and the Health Equity Institute at San Francisco State University provides valuable information on how to strengthen trauma affected neighborhoods by utilizing the Trauma Informed Community Building Model. Community members living in low-income and public housing may experience cumulative trauma, resulting from daily stressors of violence, poverty, historical racism and disenfranchisement. By addressing the...

Donna Jackson Nakazawa is a well-known writer and author. Her book, Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology is a go-to guide for lots of us and makes her a frequent guest on podcasts. Last week I heard Allison Morris interview her during her Healing Our Children World Summit . Morris, a self-described "trauma mama" and "single adoptive mother of a child with early developmental trauma, attachment issues, and some physical disabilities" who gathers information and...

When researchers at UCLA compared the brains of meditators to non-meditators they found that meditator’s brains were almost a decade younger by the time people reach their mid 50s. We’ve long known that normal aging is accompanied by a decrease in brain size . This decrease in brain size is due to age-related loss of connective tissue in the brain , often referred to as brain shrinkage , and affects memory, emotional regulation, and executive function. New research from the UCLA School of...

The Civil Discourse Society meets every Tuesday evening at 7p.m. Started last year by a few undergraduates at Central Michigan University who just wanted a place on campus for open, respectful conversations about politics, the club feels more relevant than ever. And each week, a few more students trickle through the door. “We need to make it more of a point to get people to talk,” said Jackie Smith, the organization’s president. Students at the college, which is located in the center of the...