Blog

THE EASTER BONNIE , aka Bonnie Schmidt of Port Angeles, gave her preschoolers little baskets of farewell last week. On the porch of her Little Rhythms Learning Center, she placed packages of belongings the kids had left behind, plus art supplies and fond notes to each family. No hugs allowed. School is over for the rest of the academic year, following Gov. Jay Inslee’s mandate, and parents, children and educators must cope with the loss. Now and going forward: How can we, as a community,...

Traumatized clients can get stuck in the “Now What?” They say, "It helped to talk about our trauma and wounds but NOW WHAT? What can we do in the here and now to heal our wounds?" Dr. Scott Sells uses actual case examples to show why an FST| Family Systems Trauma Playbook is needed to answer the “Now What?” question to get your most impossible trauma cases unstuck. The webinar is free, but registration is required.

When the pandemic hit, all we could focus on was the immediate threat. It’s time to ask, “How are our kids doing?” COVID-19 grabbed the headlines in the US a few months ago and because the viral pandemic first hit older adults, we focused on that population. This makes sense. We saw news images of elders in nursing homes and hospitals gasping for air. We immediately worried about everyone over 60 and rightfully so. We did this because this segment of the population was at risk for severe...

In January, we have focused on how mindfulness, prayer, and meditation can help complex trauma survivors climb from the pit of despair into the sunshine of healing. In this last piece, we shall examine the neuroscience behind mindfulness, prayer, and meditation plus tie up any loose ends. Changes in the Brain from Complex Trauma Childhood trauma often leaves its victims with damages to the regions of the brain that control emotions, memory, and reasoning. These brain regions include the...

By Matthew Futterman and Talya Minsberg, The New York Times, May 8, 2020 The killing in February of an African-American man in Georgia and the graphic video of it that emerged this week have brought to the fore a unique anxiety that has long troubled countless runners — running while black. People across the country took to the streets Friday to honor Ahmaud Arbery, the 25-year-old black man fatally shot on Feb. 23, by running or walking 2.23 miles, sharing their journeys by using the social...

By Jasmine Grace, New Hampshire Union Leader, May 18, 2020 ON MAY 7, the New Hampshire Union Leader published a Reuters article on its back page with the catchy title “ Streetwalkers to Sweet Talkers ” outlining the dilemma Chile’s prostitutes face under Covid-19 now that they cannot engage in the “intimate” aspect of their trade. As a survivor of the sexual and physical trauma of prostitution, it makes me angry to see the Union Leader share such a misleading piece of reporting with their...

By Joseph Neff, The Marshall Project, May 15, 2020 The grainy photo shows a social distancing nightmare in a California halfway house: 11 men lining up for a meal in a crowded room, serving themselves cafeteria style despite the coronavirus pandemic. Only two men appear to be wearing masks, but not the elderly man in the wheelchair at the center of the image. That photo, and others taken by residents, were filed as part of a federal lawsuit alleging that unsanitary and crowded conditions at...

By David Chiriboga, Juan Garay, Paulo Buss, et al., The Lancet, May 15, 2020 Widespread reports of disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic among already vulnerable communities worldwide, from New York City to New Orleans and Chicago, to the shocking pictures of bodies lying in the streets in Ecuador, represent a prelude of the impact in low-income and middle-income countries, home to more than 80% of the world's population. Disadvantaged people are at higher risk of infection and...

The five stages of grief, as identified by Elisabeth Kubler Ross and David Kessler, are as follows: The five stages, denial , anger , bargaining , depression and acceptance are a part of the framework that makes up our learning to live with loss. They are tools to help us frame and identify what we may be feeling. Here are my own, personal, thoughts about the end of the school year and the Corona Virus Pandemic. Denial: What?? It's bad enough that we have to close schools? Can't we just keep...

By Diana Divecha, Greater Good Magazine, May 18, 2020 Massive unemployment. Stunning loss of life. Disrupted education. An economy in freefall. These are the ingredients for tectonic social shifts that alter the arcs of human lives. Parents are always at the fulcrum of such pressures, protecting their families while trying to hold together a semblance of normalcy. For 100 years, developmental scientists have studied how families and children respond to disasters, manmade and natural. From...

[Editor's note: Dr. Harise Stein at Stanford University edits a web site -- abuseresearch.info -- that focuses on the health effects of abuse, and includes research articles on ACEs. Every month, she's posting the summaries of the abstracts and links to research articles that address only ACEs. Thank you, Harise!! -- Jane Stevens] Williams AB, Smith ER, Trujillo MA, et. al. Common health problems in safety-net primary care: Modeling the roles of trauma history and mental health. J Clin...