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Have you ever thought of the ties that bind you to your family? As children, we receive love, attention and protection from our parents and caregivers and in return we offer them our loyalty for taken care of us. As small children, there is not much else we can offer in the asymmetrical parent-child relationship. We mimic our parents, “obey” them and follow what they want for us. https://medium.com/@MiriamNjoku/invisible-ties-that-bind-us-f04f1cb1de83

In the first part of this series on treatment planning, we focused on what constitutes a treatment plan. If you remember, “ A treatment plan is a document outlining the proposed goals, plan, and therapy method to be used by you and your professional. This plan directs the steps the mental health professional and you must take to help you heal.” This article will focus on what encompasses a treatment team and how having one can help you heal safely and productively. What is a Treatment Team?

By Oliver Balch, Photo: Christian Barnett, Positive.News, November 29, 2021 Tom Kerridge was a hungry teenager long before he was a top chef. After he’d played back-to-back rugby games at the weekend, his mum, who held down two jobs to keep the family afloat, always had a Sunday roast ready for him and his brother. “My brother is 6ft 5in. So, yeah, we were two big Gloucester lumps, [but] she was always there for us, always trying to make sure we had what we needed,” Kerridge recalls. From...

By Galit Atlas, Photo: Jim Cooke/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images, Los Angeles Times, November 28, 2021 Search “toxic parents” on Instagram, and you’ll find more than 38,000 posts, largely urging young adults to cut ties with their families. The idea is to protect one’s mental health from abusive parents. However, as a psychoanalyst, I’ve seen that trend in recent years become a way to manage conflicts in the family, and I have seen the steep toll estrangement takes on both sides of the...

By Sarah Schwartz, Photo: iStock/Getty Images, EducationWeek, December 1, 2021 Educational materials don’t reflect the diversity of the nation’s schoolchildren, a new report finds—and many works that do feature characters of color reinforce stereotypes. The research review , published by New America, a left-of-center think tank, analyzed more than 160 studies and published works on representation in children’s books, textbooks, and other media dating from the mid-20th century through the...

By Drew Lindsay, Photo: Courtney Perry/The Chronicle of Philanthropy, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, November 30, 2021 I n the Fairhill-Hartranft neighborhood of north Philadelphia, angels line the exterior of adjoining rowhouses, part of the nonprofit Village of Arts and Humanities. Created in the early 1990s by the Village’s founders, the angels — painted mosaics with mirror-glass eyes and shimmering tiles — watch over what was once a dark and unsafe alley. This fall, the Village opened...

By Terry Green Sterling, Photo: Adriana Zehbrauskas/The Guardian, The Guardian, November 30, 2021 Germán Cadenas was 15 when he packed up a few clothes, his beloved magic trick cards, a treasured coin box and a portfolio of his drawings. It was 2002. Cadenas, his mother and younger brother were flying from their native Venezuela for a Christmas visit with Cadenas’s dad – who had migrated to Maricopa county, Arizona, two years before – hoping to send money to his family as Venezuela descended...

We’ve become familiar with the term super spreader . An event can be a COVID-19 super spreader. People can be COVID-19 super spreaders. I think certain people can create trauma super spreaders. Especially, people who don’t engage in parenting behaviors and practices generally recognized as supporting the healthy development of children. For example... if parents excuse or make excuses for their child’s poor behavior. Or if they don’t allow their children to experience the logical...

Welcome to Virtual Healing Circles! Join us as we come together to build community and create a space rooted in our shared humanity. This is an opportunity to compassionately listen and intentionally share our hearts and minds as we close 2021. Come and engage in an evening of self-reflection, healing, and connection. Join us Wednesday, December 08, 2021 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Please register here: bit.ly/healingcircle12-8

Comfort Positioning During Painful Procedures A trip to the doctor’s office can be scary for children, especially when there are possibilities of vaccines and bloodwork. Comfort positions are ways that caregivers can hold their children to provide comfort, while also helping keep them still. You can try suggesting that caregivers hold children chest to chest, back to chest, or sitting side by side and remind caregivers that their touch, their voice, and their love is so valuable to help...

The right mix of nutrients revitalizes the brain that's been wounded by ACEs. Good nutrition can quickly improve mood and functioning in the present, while improving the potential to rewire disturbing memories imprinted in childhood.

By Ruth Fowler, Photo: Ringo Chiu/Shutterstock, The Guardian, November 29, 2021 S itting in a Ralphs parking lot overlooking the Pacific Coast Highway at 8am on a Friday, hot and sticky in an ageing wetsuit, I clicked on the link for Big:Leap , Los Angeles’ guaranteed income pilot and the largest program of its kind in the US. Applications for the program had opened that morning. Participants would be chosen by lottery and the criteria for eligibility were simple: applicants had to be over...