Blog

Dr. Erica Holmes has over 20 years of experience in the fields of psychotherapy and counseling, training and consultation, education, and research. She holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Sociology with a minor in Behavioral Science, as well as, a Master’s degree and Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from an APA Accredited Institution.

By Dan Gorenstein and Leslie Walker, National Public Radio, January 8, 2020 Improving health and lowering costs for the sickest and most expensive patients in America is a dream harder to realize than many health care leaders had hoped, according to a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers tested whether pairing frequently hospitalized patients in Camden, N.J., with nurses and social workers could stop that costly cycle of readmissions. The study found...

By James Gallagher, British Broadcasting Corporation, January 7, 2020 An early life full of neglect, deprivation and adversity leads to people growing up with smaller brains, a study suggests. The researchers at King's College London were following adopted children who spent time in "hellhole" Romanian orphanages. They grew up with brains 8.6% smaller than other adoptees. [ Please click here to read more .]

By Diane K. Levy and Nancy Pindus, Housing Matters, January 8, 2020 American Indian households move more often than American households do overall, and an increasing share of American Indians live in metropolitan areas, including in nontribal areas. Although many people find stable housing in urban areas, not all do. With few resources and supports to help ease the transition, multiple moves can increase the likelihood of homelessness for American Indians who already are overrepresented in...

By NationSwell Team, NationSwell, January 9, 2020 Asiaha, her husband and daughter were set to leave their Chicago neighborhood, Englewood, to live in a suburb. But she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t just leave the kids playing in dirt and broken glass in empty lots. She couldn’t be one more person to give up on the neighborhood where she grew up. According to an analysis of the FBI’s 2018 uniform crime reports, Englewood’s violent crime rate is about two and a half times higher than the...

Companies grapple with what is appropriate to share and how to support co-workers By William Wan The Washington Post January 9, 2020 America’s climbing suicide rate has become a problem for businesses, too. Buried in a report last month by the Bureau of Labor of Statistics on occupational fatalities was this tragic fact: More people are killing themselves in the workplace than ever before. The number of such suicides for 2018 was 304 — an 11 percent increase from the year before and the...

L-R: Alison Cebulla , ACEs Connection Northeast Community Facilitator; Laurie Udesky , Staff Reporter; Donielle Prince, San Francisco Bay Area Community Facilitator; Rafael Maravilla , Network Manager and Central California Community Facilitator; Gail Kennedy , Operation and Strategic Partnerships Lead, California, Central Valley and Capitol Region Community Facilitator; Karen Clemmer, Northwest Community Facilitator, including Northern California. Photos courtesy of Alison Cebulla, ACEs...

You hear this a lot among people who experienced childhood trauma. They have trouble shaking the feeling that they’re somehow different , as if everyone else seems to know something — how to act, what to say, how to be connected — and that somehow we never got the memo. Do you ever feel like that? I know we’re not the only ones. But it seems to be a big part of living with the adult symptoms that follow abuse and neglect in childhood. Is this feeling of being different just in our minds? The...

Advocates, leaders, and professionals in the child health and well-being space have identified a need for concrete steps for building resilience to prevent ACEs. Current frameworks focused on ACEs fall short of including a multilevel approach, considering the role of health equity in well-being, and providing concrete, tangible steps for implementation across the life span. The empower action model addresses childhood adversity as a root cause of disease by building resilience across...

By Peter Sullivan, The Hill, January 7, 2020 A new study finds that Medicaid expansion improved people’s health in Southern states, resulting in fewer declines in people’s health. The study published in Health Affairs finds that Medicaid expansion made declines in health status 1.8 percentage points less likely in states that expanded the medical coverage. It examined 12 Southern states, including those that have accepted the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, like...

By Charity Nebbe, Katelyn Harrop, and Sthefany Nobriga, Iowa Public Radio, January 8, 2020 The impacts of trauma can be unexpected, affecting not only mental and emotional health but also physical well being. Through Trauma Sensitive Yoga, a modified yoga practice that prioritizes a healthy realtionship with one's body and similarly informed tai-chi programs, some survivors have found a new kind of relief. On this episode of Talk of Iowa, host Charity Nebbe talked with Matthew Vasquez, an...

By JJ West, P.S. I Love You, January 8, 2020 It’s 147 miles up the mountain. L lives at 7000 feet elevation and I at 1096. Every weekend for the past several months, I’ve left my busy city life behind and drove up the highway to her quaint mountain town. As I sit here now, packing my bags for another weekend with her, I’ve been reflecting on how this journey has transformed my life. I’m not usually one to venture off the beaten path, either literally or metaphorically. I like systems and...