Blog

By Audrey Smolkin, 3/17/22, https://positiveexperience.org/category/blog/ Below is an interview with Audrey Smolkin, the Executive Director of the new Center on Child Wellbeing and Trauma. The HOPE Team worked with Audrey and her team to incorporate the HOPE framework into their new website. Learn more about this new center and how HOPE contributes to their amazing work in the Massachusetts community! Please introduce yourself and your work to our readers. I am the Executive Director of the...

In this series of articles, we have examined codependency and various types of trauma. We’ve learned that living in a home where there is familial violence and neglect can spark in a child the need to be needed and thus set them up for becoming codependent in later life. This article will focus on how to overcome codependency to live a healthier, happier life. A Reminder of What Codependency Is To talk about the cure for codependence, we must first remind ourselves of what comprises...

By John MacPhee, Photo: Getty Images, The 74 Million, March 14, 2022 P resident Joe Biden recently gave his first State of the Union address , highlighting the urgent need to address the youth mental health crisis exacerbated by the pandemic and providing recommendations for how the various institutions that serve and surround young people can do so. Perhaps the most important of these institutions is the one where teens and young adults spend most of their time: their schools. Although...

By Christian Allaire, Photo: Ash Adams, Vogue, March 8, 2022 When she was 14 years old, Quannah Chasinghorse decided she wanted a traditional Indigenous face tattoo. The Hän Gwich’in and Oglala Lakota model—who has since, at age 19, made an impression on the fashion world after starring in Gucci campaigns and landing a Vogue Mexico cover —had grown up in Fairbanks, Alaska, seeing images of her ancestors wearing the three distinct chin lines called Yidįįłtoo. She asked her mother, Jody...

By Lenny Bernstein, Photo: Allison Zaucha/The Washington Post, The Washington Post, March 6, 2022 Angelle Haney Gullett lost her father in September and knew she would need grief counseling. She contacted 25 therapists in the Los Angeles area, where she lives, between early October and Christmas, neatly tracking her efforts on a spreadsheet. None would accept a new client. In most cases, their waiting lists were closed as well, even though Gullett was willing to pay hundreds of dollars in...

Welcome to Virtual Healing Circles! This session serves as an opportunity for people to connect and offer supportive group spaces in processing the ongoing violence across our globe. We invite you to join us in sharing a space for people to offer compassion and experience unity. Join us Wednesday, March 30, 2022 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Please register here: bit.ly/healingcircle3-30

By Grace Galletti, Photo: Hung Chung Chih/iStock, California Health Report, February 2, 2022 Growing up, Tony remembers feeling like an orphan, even though he had two parents. Wherever he went, even with his own family, he felt like he didn’t fit in. Tony, who did not want his last name included because of stigma around mental illness, immigrated from China to the Bay Area 40 years ago. At age 12, he began to struggle with depression and anxiety. He had a hard time talking to his family...

By Charlotte West, Photo: Alexandra Fields, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, March 8, 2022 Four years ago, a social worker from the Middlesex County Juvenile Detention Center asked English professor Alexandra Fields, of nearby Middlesex College, if she would be able to provide college programming for youth incarcerated at that New Jersey facility. Beyond helping them earn their high school diplomas, it offered nothing more educationally to those graduates. Because of what had been a...

Webinar Opportunity Lessons Learned About Survivor-Centered Support During the COVID-19 Pandemic A webinar series for IPV advocates, healthcare providers, and child welfare advocates Register today! Description: We are excited to announce a webinar series highlighting best practices and innovative strategies that IPV advocates, healthcare providers, and child welfare advocates can implement to form stronger support networks for survivors of violence and abuse in emergency conditions, such as...

By David Montgomery, Photo: Ralph Barrera/Austin-American Statesman/Associated Press, PEW, March 14, 2022 When he blew the whistle on a university dean suspected of financial malfeasance, college professor Jeff Blodgett had to weather a fierce attack from the dean’s allies. “If I didn't have tenure,” he recalled, “they would have done their best to get rid of me.” Blodgett, who has taught at four universities and is now a marketing professor at the University of Houston-Victoria, survived...

By Shenelle Wilson, Photo: Adobe, STAT, March 10, 2022 S ome say the lack of Black physicians is a pipeline problem, with too few Black people going to medical school. I say it’s a gaslighting problem. The health of Black Americans lags behind that of white Americans, driven in part by the underrepresentation of Black physicians in the medical field. Numerous studies have found that patients of color experience better health care outcomes and higher satisfaction when cared for by racially...

By Judith Graham, Photo: Digitalvision/Getty Images, Kaiser Health News, March 14, 2022 Twenty years ago, a group of pioneering older adults in Boston created an innovative organization for people committed to aging in place: Beacon Hill Village , an all-in-one social club, volunteer collective, activity center, peer-to-peer support group, and network for various services. Its message of “we want to age our way in our homes and our community” was groundbreaking at the time and commanded...