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Raising awareness about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) - often referred to as childhood trauma - and the ACEs Study in the workplace offers companies and agencies an incredible three-fold opportunity to: help employees understand the root origins of their physical and emotional health concerns (ACEs) in general and as they relate to their alcohol misuse and/or secondhand drinking-related physical and emotional health impacts (if applicable), reduce the ACEs-related impacts on worker...

As you walk through the courtyard of the Sonoma Charter School (SCS) sounds of stomping feet, clapping hands, and children’s voices singing “round and round” and “shake shake” pour from the performing arts space called the Playbox. Inside, 10 first-graders wearing silk tunics, holding brightly colored fabric pieces, wriggle on the floor like worms, jumping like kangaroos, then gently throw feathers from an imaginary bird in the air. You’ve stepped into the world of Rainbowdance, part of a...

In “Case in Point,” Andrew Cohen examines a single case or character that sheds light on the criminal justice system. An audio version of Case in Point is broadcast with The Takeaway , a public radio show from WNYC, Public Radio International, The New York Times, and WGBH-Boston Public Radio. The story of Nicholas Glisson’s premature death in an Indiana prison begins with just two pills, two Oxycodone painkillers. Glisson had the pills because he was a survivor of laryngeal cancer, which had...

As a survivor of domestic violence in my family as a youngster, I know firsthand how important it is to talk about this issue, to have a non-stop national dialogue aimed at ending this physical and psychological horror that leaves so many lives shattered. That's why I want to encourage you to get involved this week—March 5-11— NO MORE Week 2017. The purpose of this week is to raise awareness by talking about domestic violence and sexual assault. The more we talk, the more people learn; and...

Americans are hyper-sensitive right now to videos and images of the split-second police killings of African Americans in the streets. We’re less sensitive, or less aware, of the slow killings of African Americans that happen in jails, prisons, and penitentiaries every day. The story of Kalief Browder may change that. Browder was arrested on highly questionable charges of stealing a backpack when he was 16 years old, then sent to the New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail to await a...

We’ve long known that normal aging is accompanied by a decrease in brain size . This decrease in brain size is due to age-related loss of connective tissue in the brain , often referred to as brain shrinkage , and affects memory, emotional regulation, and executive function. New research from the UCLA School of Medicine’s Department of Neurology shows that long-term meditators have younger brains, with higher concentrations of tissue in the brain regions most depleted by aging. In other...

“Trash or person?” Maya DiMeo (Minnie Driver) demands in a dry British accent in the pilot episode of ABC’s sitcom Speechless. Her character’s son, a teenage boy with cerebral palsy who uses a wheelchair, has been forced to enter his school using a ramp that doubles as an egress for waste disposal. Later in the episode, DiMeo will browbeat the school’s principal into providing her son with a new aide. Later, she’ll smooth over arguments with her kids, kiss her husband, and likely balance the...

What Was Said Throughout the summer and fall, Newsweek, O, The Oprah Magazine, and other outlets reported on the remarkable progress students had made recently at the Robert W. Coleman Elementary School in Baltimore, thanks to its “Mindful Moment” program. Since implementing the program — a combination of meditation, yoga exercises, and after-school activities — the school has seen a marked drop in suspensions. Coleman isn’t alone in giving mindfulness a shot: New Age meditation practices...

Good Harbor Institute staff spent the day with Shawnee County, Kansas, Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteers training them on how to transform trauma information into skills to be used immediately with their children. The volunteers and staff learned about the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, learned how trauma brain may manifest as destructive behaviors, and then they learned what they can do to not "trigger" trauma brain reactivity. Through role play and small group...

In the solidly red state of Utah, lawmakers approved and sent to Gov. Gary Herbert a resolution ( H.C.R. 10 ) on March 7 to encourage state policy and programs to incorporate ACEs science to address “severe emotional trauma and other adverse childhood experiences” in children and adults and implement evidence-based interventions to increase resiliency. Every recorded vote cast by Democrats and Republicans favored the resolution. A detailed context for the recommendations was included in the...

When it comes to the language of brain disorders, society has come a long way from the days when "lunatics" and "imbeciles" lived in "madhouses" and "insane asylums." But in some ways, we're still stuck in the lexicon of the Dark Ages. "Battling demons," for example, remains a common catchphrase for Hollywood, the media and the public when it comes to mental health issues. As the vocabulary of the brain evolves, there's a growing effort to exorcise "demons," "inner monsters" and other...

Six years of violence and bloodshed have spawned a mental health crisis among Syria's children whose impact will be felt for decades, international charity Save the Children said on Tuesday. In a report it called the largest mental health survey inside Syria during the war, the group found children increasingly crippled by fear or anger. Most of the children - two-thirds of whom had lost a loved one, had their houses bombed, or been injured - exhibited severe emotional distress and lacked...