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When neuroscientist Ben Barres delivered his first seminar, an audience member praised him, commenting that Ben’s work was much better than that of his sister, Barbara Barres. The irony? Ben Barres (now deceased), a transgender scientist was Barbara Barres before he transitioned to male. When New York Times columnist Brent Staples was a graduate student in Chicago’s Hyde Park, he found that white people on the street perceived him, an African American, as a threat to their safety. They were...

Beyond the usual confusions and questions of freshmen year, low-income students who are the first in their families to attend college may arrive on campus with personal fears that they just don’t belong and will never fit in. However, slightly older students from the same background can ease that uncertainty with advice and friendship, helping those freshmen stay on track in school and eventually graduate, experts say. That is the philosophy of an unusual and growing mentorship program...

Today I saw two posts on Facebook by Special Education Teachers complaining about being "beaten up" by students. I automatically applied my Trauma Informed Lens and shared with them that "Hurt Students Hurt Others" . Especially students who have been diagnosed with "disabilities". Everyone wants to belong. Often the most disabled children have experienced the most trauma. Teachers who are in the mode of being "abused by students" may have also experienced Trauma and may benefit from taking...

Playing the mirror neurons like a harp . . .

What if I told you that I was a victim of child sex abuse? As a survivor of child sexual abuse , I have a clear understanding of the importance of addressing stigma and shame as it pertains to sexual abuse, sexual assault and rape. Victims, especially young children, often do not disclose sexual abuse. Those who are witnesses of child sexual abuse, or who are trusted by survivors enough that they confide in them, are often ill-equipped to handle the responsibility. And, many times, parents...

Originally posted on the Psychology@Pepperdine blog . Does your child get distracted easily and need to be repeatedly reminded to complete a simple task? Does their room look like it’s been hit by a tornado and they are constantly misplacing personal items? Do they have emotional outbursts when plans suddenly change? For parents, many of these behaviors may seem familiar. But many typically developing children are able to improve their self-management skills, or executive functions, as they...

As a psychiatrist, I’ve long wondered why some people get ill in the face of stress and adversity — either mentally or physically — while others rarely succumb. We know, for example, that not everyone gets PTSD after exposure to extreme trauma, while some people get disabling depression with minimal or no stress. Likewise, we know that chronic stress can contribute to physical conditions like heart disease and stroke in some people, while others emerge unscathed. What makes people resilient,...

The idea of diversity in wellness is a topic that is near and dear to me, and in my view, does not garner nearly as much attention as it should. Although there have been some studies , it is difficult to have an objective discussion because of sparse data. The anecdotal accounts , however, are abundant. Wellness, as we understand it today, was introduced in 1959 by Halbert Dunn’s article “ High-Level Wellness for Man & Society .” Dunn’s writing, from over fifty years ago, began to...

On a recent afternoon, a half dozen kids — from age two to 16 — were bustling around the Cheshire, Massachusetts, home of Missy and Dave Tarjick, their adoptive parents. The younger ones were outside on a swingset, in view of the Berkshire mountains. “I want to go high, Daddy!” the three-year-old girl called out to Dave. “Push me with my feet!” [For more on this story by KAREN BROWN, go to https://www.nepr.net/post/what-happened-you-western-massachusetts-county-takes-trauma#stream/0 ]

Highland councillors yesterday committed to following the principles laid out in a new report on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) by NHS Highland. The council is the first local authority in the UK to commit to becoming ‘ACE Aware’, and working with NHS and third sector to embed the principles into frontline children’s services. The report sets out to change traditional ways of thinking about children and adults who have had a poor start in life due to ‘toxic stress’ in their surroundings...

To call Williamson, West Virginia, a town is to exaggerate. It is a pinprick settlement of 2,800 people in Mingo County—yet over a decade two pharmacies there pumped out 21m pills of addictive opioids. Unscrupulous clinics staffed by negligent doctors issued prescriptions to throngs of patients attracted by the lax procedures. These “pill mills” were an open secret, so much so that the town acquired the nickname “Pilliamson”. In “American Overdose” Chris McGreal of the Guardian looks...