Rene Howitt, founder of Cope24, offers professional development workshops to school districts across the nation. She also provides presentations and key note speaking at universities, teacher conferences, advocacy events and churches.
March 5 is DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) Awareness Day. Given the correlation between ACEs and Dissociative Disorders, I want to bring this day and some resources to your attention. Even the most trauma-informed and competent practitioners often have difficulty diagnosing and treating the spectrum of dissociative disorders (DDs), especially DID. But we are learning that this elegant way of coping with chronic, severe childhood trauma is more prevalent than previously thought. Current...
Fritzi Horstman sits down with Rick Raemisch, former Executive Director of Colorado Department of Corrections, who, during his term, ended long-term solitary confinement in Colorado.
Fritzi Horstman sits down with Thomas Hübl, author of "Healing Collective Trauma" for a discussion about how, as a society, we are experiencing and dealing with the traumas of our collective past.
This article was originally posted on the Forward-Facing Institute Blog March 4, 2021 Fight or flight: the instinctive physiological response to a threatening situation, which readies one either to resist forcibly or to run away. I thought I was safe. At four years old, I believed if I couldn’t see you, you couldn’t see me. I had secreted myself away in a nice little spot between the couch and the wall and eagerly stuck my thumb in my mouth. As I closed my eyes, the delicious feeling of numb...
Interview with Dr. John Kelly from the Prevention Technology Transfer Center Network (March 5, 2021) In the following email interview, Dr. Kelly responded to questions posed by Chuck Klevgaard, Prevention Manager for the Great Lakes PTTC. Meet the Researcher: Dr. John Kelly, Harvard Medical School Expert on stigma in addiction treatment and recovery Interview with Great Lakes PTTC Photo credit: Recovery Answers Dr. John F. Kelly is the Elizabeth R. Spallin Professor of Psychiatry in the...
By N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA Today, March 2, 2021 On Wednesday, an official at a Mississippi middle school apologized after eighth graders were asked to pretend they were enslaved people, including writing letters discussing their "journey to America" and the family they "live with/work for." During Black History Month, a Florida high school teacher was suspended with pay after allegedly telling students slaves were not whipped by white people and that the N-word, a racist slur, “just means...
By Hua Hsu, The New Yorker, March 1, 2021 On the evening of April 28, 1997, Kuan Chung Kao, a thirty-three-year-old Taiwan-born engineer, went to the Cotati Yacht Club near Rohnert Park, a quiet suburb in Sonoma County, California, where he lived with his wife and three children. Kao went to the bar a couple of times a week for an after-work glass of red wine; on this evening, he was celebrating a new job. According to a bartender working that night, Kao got in an argument with a customer,...
The Healing Place Podcast, is in the TOP 10 of the "Best Healing Podcasts on the Planet". Wow. Wow. Wow.
From Healthy Places by Design, March 2021 NEW REPORT Socially Connected Communities Solutions for Social Isolation In recent decades, people in the United States and around the world have experienced soaring rates of social isolation, with profound impacts on community health and well-being. Healthy Places by Design, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has released a new report that reframes the conversation about isolation and outlines five recommendations for creating...
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) leave different kinds and levels of mental or physical trauma on each individual. Physical child abuse may leave kids needing the services of a reliable pediatric surgeon . Some children may need help from a facial plastic surgery specialist to address self-esteem issues caused by facial scars. Some ACEs may require long-term therapy sessions. Despite their therapeutic benefits, the best essential oils for anxiety can only do so much when dealing with...
By Erin Eskew, Killen Daily Herald, February 28, 2021 From childhood, Shawnnell Batiste was inspired to help people and expressed a desire to become a child psychiatrist. “Most people would say, I was an empath,” Batiste said. “I tended to draw people to me who needed help. If you can help, help, and if you can’t, just listen” Born and raised in Louisiana — primarily New Orleans but also in Shreveport — Batiste pursues her dream of helping people feel heard and understood. [ Please click...
From United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, UNICEF, March 3, 2021 At least 1 in 7 children – or 332 million globally – has lived under required or recommended nationwide stay-at-home policies for at least nine months since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, putting their mental health and well-being at risk, UNICEF warned today. While almost all children worldwide have lived under some form of intermittent lockdowns for the last year, the new analysis by UNICEF, which uses...
By Alyson Sulaski Wyckoff, American Academy of Pediatrics, March 13, 2021 More than 130 Americans will take their lives today. High school students will make over 3,700 attempts to kill themselves. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for individuals ages 10-34 years — representing 425 deaths a year. Yet most health care settings are not screening for this risk. Improved training is needed on early identification of suicide risk, assessment, follow-up and counseling. Those were among...