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Cissy's note: I will always think of my father on Veteran's Day. My feelings and thoughts will probably always be complex and that's just how life after ACEs can be. I've made peace with that. It's not only grief either, it's just the reality of being human and the texture and details that going along with that which are both unique and universal at the same time. I wrote this piece two years ago and before I found out that he died. The photo of my actual father is not from the article. It's...

Addressing the long term affects of trauma has staggering implications. An emerging body of approaches showing success for working with the long term psychological and physical effects of adverse events continue to offer hope. One of those therapeutic interventions that is showing great promise and has been growing in use for the past decade is something called Matrix Reimprinting (MR).

After successfully reducing expulsions in its K-12 schools , California is now moving to restrict the practice with even younger children — at the preschool level. To that end, Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation last month that bars state-subsidized preschool programs from expelling kids unless an exhaustive process aimed at supporting the child and family is followed first. Children can be expelled from preschool as a result of any number of aggressive behaviors that could jeopardize the...

The sexual harassment began in 1994, Paula Purdy says, shortly after she started work as a corrections officer at the Denver County Jail. Colleagues made demeaning comments about her body. One male captain made her so uncomfortable she avoided him. But the worst abuse came from inmates, who would make sexual remarks and masturbate at her as she did rounds in their housing areas. Purdy says she reported the behavior to her bosses, but there were few consequences. “I would get emotional at...

It’s been a terrible week. You barely checked off any tasks on your to-do list, and nothing went the way you wanted it to. You’re finally able to sit on the couch and savor a tall glass of wine—or three. Your toddler finally fell asleep after yelling nonstop for 30 minutes about…you can’t recall. You have some peace and quiet—and can drink your wine. After all, you deserve it after the day you’ve had. You’ve been worrying about so many things lately, so you jump at the chance to meet your...

“Things get broken, and sometimes they get repaired, and in most cases, you realize no matter what gets damaged, life rearranges itself to compensate for your loss, sometimes wonderfully.” – Hanya Yanagihar Post-traumatic growth is the recognition that however horrific our experiences, we as human beings have incredible ability to adapt, survive and integrate, to grow stronger… and then turn around and use that experience to help others. This has caused Echo to change the way we teach about...

It’s not just the economic gap between the rich and poor that has grown wider: America has seen an overlapping, and even more troubling, gap in desperation across class as well as racial and ethnic lines. Much has been made of America’s deepening opioid crisis, especially among rural and working-class whites. A recent Brookings Institution study pinpoints where poor Americans are feeling desperation the most across the country as a whole. The study—developed by leading happiness researcher...

The prospect of a dangerously warming planet inspires us to cling more tightly to our tribe. That is the discouraging finding of two newly published studies. One reports that confronting people with climate-change warnings provoked higher levels of ethnocentrism among residents of a central European nation—and decreased their intentions of acting in Earth-friendly ways. The other finds the threat of global warming increases group conformity , leading people to more tightly endorse the...

As a teenager, Michael McLaughlin wanted to go to college. He had several disabilities, including dyslexia and bipolar disorder, which threatened to make the road ahead more difficult. He sometimes had trouble paying attention in class and understanding directions. He also had an IQ of 115 — on the upper ranges of what is considered average. With help, he should have been able to graduate alongside his classmates, ready to pursue higher education. But instead of graduating from Bartlett High...

The urge to self-harm isn't uncommon , but, because people often keep their habit a secret, a lot of people have misconceptions about who does it, why they do it, or what it means. To help others better understand self-harm, we asked the BuzzFeed Community what they wished they could tell people and what misconceptions they wanted to clear up. By the way : Just because self-harm isn't uncommon doesn't mean it's a healthy coping mechanism or that recovery isn't possible. If you are dealing...

As a single mother living off disability payments and trying to raise two kids over age 5, Saudia LaMont is in crisis. “I’m fighting like a cat in a wet paper bag to protect my children and find services for my family,” LaMont said. LaMont is a recovery coach, a community advocate, and a group facilitator living in Morrisville, and she says that child services from agencies such as Capstone Community Action are great for kids up to age 5, but after that, they leave people in a limbo. [For...

We seem to really get a kick out of complaining about work. We hover around the water cooler, confide in our friends, and even share our workplace horror stories with our spouses. But recounting all the things that made us miserable one day doesn’t help us enjoy our workday more tomorrow. A better strategy is to actually address the negative feelings we have. When annoyance, self-doubt, or the blues surface at work, we can learn to work through these feelings. Here are three emotion...