Blog

"We're committed to lifting up the work around healing, belonging and inclusion," said Joey Bravo, program associate at The California Endowment (TCE).  Joey and his colleagues with TCE's Center for Healthy Communities supported the creation of a series of videos that capture the groundbreaking efforts of the San Diego Unified School District's campaign to create trauma-informed schools. In this series of videos, SDUSD's transformation of their discipline policies by...

We are seeking a nationally recognized speaker for an introduction to ACE Trauma.  Does anyone have contact information to share please?

As the calendar turns to February, over one third of people   will have given up on their New Year’s resolution. In fact, the official “Ditch Your New Year's Resolutions Day” was over two weeks ago, a sign that abandoning resolutions has become every bit as culturally embedded as making them. There is no shortage of reasons why people do not carry out their resolutions—not making time in their schedules, being unsure of where to start, inertia. One reason I...

There isn’t such a thing as perfect parenting. We all learn with our experiences. As a parent, disciplining your child is one of the biggest challenges you will ever face. When you discipline children, you help them learn how to and how not to behave. But it’s easier said than done. Many things that kids do can get on your nerves -misbehaving, disobedience, spilling milk on the carpet, whining about buying a toy at the store, not doing their homework, etc. So, what do you resort...

Has this ever happened to you….you find yourself in a downcast mood or funk? You can’t quite figure out the issue so you push ahead only to then realize the date. This week is six years since I discovered her affair…it’s exactly eight years since he walked out the door…at this time last year everything changed. You may not consciously remember or track the date of negative events like you would for a birthday or anniversary, but still it finds you. All...

You create a presentation that does not go well. You launch a product that only 10 people buy. Your relationship is over. You don’t get the promotion or new job you really wanted. You get fired. You do something else, and feel like you’ve fallen flat on your face. Understandably, you’re devastated. After all, you failed. [For more of this story, written by Margarita Tartakovsky, go to http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2016/02/03/how-to-recover-from-failure/]

Walking to class one day, one of us (Laura) saw a young student crying and waiting for his mother to arrive—he had split his chin while playing. When Laura got to class, the other students were very upset and afraid for their friend, full of questions about what would happen to him. Laura decided to ask the class how they could help him. “Caring practice!” exclaimed one of the children—and they all sat in a circle offering support and well wishes. The children...

Men and women are subject to different vulnerabilities when it comes to health and disease. More men than women are diagnosed with autism, for example, while women tend to experience different heart attack symptoms from men. With support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), through a new program at Penn called Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH), two junior faculty members are venturing into unexplored scientific territory to elucidate some...

A month after tornadoes ravaged North Texas, mental health experts are warning survivors to be on the alert for another problem: post-traumatic stress disorder. Though many people associate that syndrome with soldiers who have been through combat, PTSD can affect about one-fifth of people who were directly affected by a natural disaster, medical studies show. After an ordeal like a tornado or hurricane, people often have trouble sleeping and concentrating, feel jumpy and may be easily...

Whether poverty is caused by behaviour or economic factors is an ongoing debate, with the Right usually supporting the former, and the Left the latter. Drawing on a recent study ,  Glen Bramley  explains why structure, rather than behaviour, is the major factor behind disadvantaged individuals in England. Yet he also writes that many of those included in the research had adverse childhood experiences, and so the Left is also wrong to completely dismiss any suggestions of...

A hidden gem is quietly at work in Burlington’s Old North End, helping heal and promote healthy young families. The Janet Munt VNA Family Room has been working its magic over the past 27 years, playing a vital role in the lives of thousands of families and children, fostering strong parenting, caring families, and a supportive community. I have had the good fortune to be a volunteer at the Family Room, and witness firsthand the healing and connections made by the many families that...

Leaders from across the political spectrum are taking the state’s drug epidemic more seriously than ever before, and rightfully so. According to Maine Attorney General Janet Mills, more than five deaths per week in our state are attributable to heroin and other opioids. Counties and municipalities are stretched beyond their breaking points. Consider this: According to Penobscot County Sheriff Troy Morton, the Penobscot County jail is built to hold 157 inmates but as recently as...