Blog

UPON THEIR RELEASE , formerly incarcerated men and women don’t just need jobs — they need to believe that they have something to offer employers. I know this firsthand as someone who taught career development in prison, and who spent a decade behind bars. I served 10 years, two months and seven days in the New York corrections system for my role in a violent robbery attempt. Arrested just two days before my 20th birthday, I came of age in prison. Ironically, it’s also where I began my career...

Scharlette Holdman, whose pioneering work with defense lawyers contributed to the decline of the death penalty nationwide, and whose clients included Ted Kaczynski, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, died Wednesday. She was 70. In the tight-knit world of defense lawyers who focus on the death penalty, Holdman was a revered figure, a non-lawyer responsible for the development of mitigating evidence, aimed at convincing jurors to spare the lives of men and women whose crimes, at...

A new study suggests that although we are inherently drawn to familiar groups of people, having dislike for unfamiliar groups appears to be a learned behavior. [For more of this story, written by Traci Pedersen, go to https://psychcentral.com/news/2017/07/16/dislike-for-unfamiliar-groups-of-people-may-be-learned/123273.html]

Decision-makingdoesn’t always come easy. For me, it took many years and a great deal of practice to feel comfortable and confident of the choices I’ve made and acted upon. In that time, through trial and error, some suggestions from productive friends, reading a lot and effective therapy to combat anxiety and depression , I’ve come up with the following list of 15 tips that work well for me. Maybe they’ll help you as well. [For more of this story, written by Suzanne Kane, go to ...

This is a question I asked myself for a long time. So many people could diagnose me. So many people could tell me what was wrong with me. But few could actually help me heal. Why? Because my healing wasn’t the task of these other people. It was my job. I had to take all the information I had gathered about recovering from child abuse and trauma and move that knowledge from my head to my heart. In other words, I had to do the tough, messy work of applying it to my own life. Today, I’m going...

It's time again for the Benchmarks Partnering for Excellence (PFE) Conference, and ACEs are on the agenda! The conference will be on August 17th & 18th in Statesville, North Carolina. There will be keynote speakers, two breakout sessions, and a screening of the film, Resilience . Two of the keynote speakers are Tonier Cain and Dawn O'Malley! I'll be speaking as well about how ACEs science fuels personal and social change. Topics to be covered in the break-out sessions are as follows:...

People who live in Oildale, Kern River Valley and Taft — three impoverished, majority-white communities — have the highest premature death rates across Kern County, dying four to 17 years sooner than those in other parts of Bakersfield. Residents in those three communities have an average life expectancy of between 68 and 72 years old — roughly eight to 10 years less than the national average, according to data analyzed by the Virginia Commonwealth University’s Center for Human Needs. It’s...

One expert calls negative early childhood experiences the most important public health issue of our time. Amanda Sheffield Morris, speaking last week in Oklahoma City, said bad experiences set the stage for academic struggles in school and possible substance abuse during the adolescent years. [For more of this story, written by Steve Gust, go to http://newsok.com/article/5556348]

Esteem. Eagerness. Engagement. Elation. Kids in custody become kids for a day. “Cat in the Hat” hats, beloved Dr. Seuss stories, pride to contribute, laughter, fun and the promise of a giant cupcake to celebrate the life of Dr. Seuss transform a jail into a celebration of literacy. Spirits are high, peer cooperation is contagious and childlike delight spreads across a facility often darkened by despair and disrespect. Some kids read their first book in juvenile hall. No books at home for...

To date, over 80 copies of the curriculum Bruised Reeds and Smoldering Wicks: a six week study of trauma-informed ministry and compassionate care for children from hard places and situations have gone out around the country. Released this past spring, most have ordered it to preview the materials prior to utilization this coming fall. So, while feedback has been positive, there have been few users with specific comments related to how their teaching experience has gone (because, well... they...

Here is a piece I just wrote on an incident described by Marcus Johnson, the famous jazz musician in DC. I am still haunted; worse yet, I do not have an answer. Do you? Here is a link to the piece. Thoughts welcomed and needed: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/marcus-johnson-blues-alley-education-karen-gross?published=t

When seeking therapy or counseling , you're likely to envision laying on a couch or sitting in a chair, face to face with one trained professional who will listen, ask questions and offer feedback. Indeed, this is a common and often effective way to address problems in living. Less often considered, though, is group psychotherapy . Group therapy typically involves one or two trained therapists and several people working through similar problems. People go to group therapy for help with a...