Blog

Native American women and girls are two and a half times more likely to experience sexual violence compared to other races. The truth is, however, that it’s been open season on Native women and girls’ sexuality for the last 500 years. For me, this is personal. My mother, and women of her generation, survived poverty, brutal men, sexual violence, and Indian boarding schools. While many of the Ojibwe women of my youth were bitter, quick-tempered creatures, their prickly exteriors camouflaged a...

A major meta-analysis published earlier this year that questioned the empirical evidence for supervised drug consumption sites has been retracted by the International Journal of Drug Policy. Supervised consumption sites (also known as safe injection sites) have gained traction across several US cities, including New York City, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, in response to the opioid epidemic . These sites, which already exist in Canada, Europe, and Australia, create a space where people...

On a Tuesday morning in early May, students from Juanita Douglas’s African-American-history course sat in the library at Lincoln Park High School, on the North Side of Chicago , waiting noiselessly for Ronald Kitchen to compose himself. “Sometimes I be at a loss for words when I see a lot of young people actually taking heed to the things that’s happening in our neighborhoods,” he told the class. “I am a survivor of police torture from Jon Burge.” Kitchen was twenty-two years old in August,...

“Like so many rape survivors in this country living through this particular moment in history,” Deborah Copaken wrote last week, “I have been so brought to my knees by this latest allegation that I, too, was inspired to speak out.” After Copaken described her experience, her former pediatrician got in touch with her, and shared his letter with The Atlantic. [For more on this story, go to https://www.theatlantic.com/letters/archive/2018/09/pediatrician-i-didnt-discuss-sexuality-patients/571516/ ]

It was by pure fluke 20 years ago that Rob Anda created the world’s most widely used index of trauma exposure, which in turn laid bare both its widespread prevalence and its toxic aftereffects. Anda has seen his findings go from “junk science” in the first 10 years — when scientific journals refused to publish his work — to validation in studies in 72 nations in the last 10 years. His trauma index has spawned new schools of social work known as trauma-informed healing as well as new research...

Happy Independence Day Nigeria Together, let us continue to build the Nigeria of our dreams where every child is afforded a safe place to grow in an environment free of toxic stress from abuse, neglect, family dysfunction, community violence and fear of being trafficked.

Adults can accurately recall traumatic events from childhood, including instances of sexual abuse, a new article shows. This has prompted the researchers to advocate for investigation of childhood abuse claims made by people who come forward as adults. “Time alone should not be a bar to hearing evidence about prior sexual assault,” said FIU legal psychologist Deborah Goldfarb, who is a co-author on the paper. “The evidence should be heard on its merits and arbiters of fact can then make an...

The Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health is pioneering a model of care that includes the baby starting at conception. Our model also includes transgenerational and intergenerational trauma, prenatal experiences, birth and attachment and bonding. We have a conference on this topic October 5-7, 2018, in Denver, CO. See: https://birthpsychology.com/2018-conference/welcome I will be a the Zero to Three conference representing our programs for a poster session. If you are...

Trauma: a story of hope Any story about healing trauma is a story of hope, and a story for all of us. Because we all carry trauma. Whether we think of ourselves this way or not. We know now that we all carry trauma because we know that trauma is transmitted intergenerationally . And we know that in the U.S., our country was built on--and continues to be sustained by--legacies of trauma : violence against Native Africans, violence against African Americans, violence against Latinos, violence...

As teachers we must understand that our students are a product of all of their experiences, good and bad. We must not let their ACEs define them. It's our responsibility to help them find their own strength, meaning, and purpose despite these obstacles so they can grow up to be happy, healthy, and productive adults. This is how the cycle gets broken and we are an important part of this process. They're all great kids; some just don't know it yet. - Jim Parry, REACH Stewartville...

(Image: Kim & Matt Montleon-The main characters, Mary Giuliani-ACEsConnection.com Orange County Community Manager, Linda Yunker-ACEsconnection.com Ventura Community Manager) Wrestling Ghosts is a new documentary that follows the epic inner journey of a young mother who battles the traumas from her past in order to create a new present and future for her and her family. It is one thing to learn about ACEs (adverse childhood experiences), yet it is a completely different thing to watch Kim...

Registration is now open for the Family Trauma Institute's October webinar. Our monthly webinars are designed to provide strategies and techniques that support mental health professionals in becoming family trauma experts. When Oct. 30, 2018 at 1:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Topic Failure to Launch: The Safety Planning Technique What You Will Learn Why young adults are failing to launch How failure to launch connects to family trauma and a lack of safety planning How to use the FST...