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Cowart Trauma Informed Partnership is thrilled to announce new initiative in trauma-informed policing!

Please join us tomorrow, Thursday July 23rd as Emily Read Daniels and myself facilitate a discussion around what we can learn from the PolyVagal theory and cultivating a felt sense of safety as we plan to retun to school. We will do a brief presentation and then breakout session to discuss in small groups. Weekly themes include: How do we create physical and psychological safety, especially in the face of so much uncertainty? What strategies can we use to create a culture of collective care?

Paul Krauss MA LPC and Robert Rhoton Psy D., LPC, D.A.A.E.T.S. discuss the physiology of trauma. Dr. Rhoton defines trauma not as a one-time, terrible event; rather, he defines it as repetitive adversity that causes physiological symptoms. When the autonomic nervous system is constantly being triggered, the stress of this is a more accurate description of what trauma does to our bodies. Dysautonomia is a medical term that describes any time symptoms emerge because the balance between the...

I'm so thrilled to announce that I've solidified my first speaking/training engagement for 2021! In March, I'll be delivering a series of trainings through CLAS - Council for Leaders in Alabama Schools! Now, more than ever, understanding the impact of trauma and stress on students is absolutely necessary for effectively reaching and teaching our students. I would LOVE to connect with others of you (or those at your institutions) who believe in the VALUE of bringing this training to your...

Our work is sacred, and so are we. Our work can sometimes feel like there is room for nothing else. No time for stillness, no time for space, and no time to nurture ourselves and our spirit. Professional Spirituality™ is a term Tovi Scruggs-Hussein created to recognize our leadership as being the “Alpha-Energy” in our work, in our schools, and in our organizations. Those who practice professional spirituality recognize that our leadership is a calling of service, a calling to show up as our...

In this article, the author makes the case that school organizations need to adopt a universal precaution approach for addressing trauma, and the systemic changes required to do so. With this approach, every adult has the potential for a positive impact on each child in his or her care. (The entire PDF document is attached and can be downloaded.)

Photo caption: Sharon Mccutcheon/unsplash.com (The article below is an excerpt from my book , Crazy Was All I Ever Knew: The Impact of Maternal Mental Illness on Kid s. I have used a pseudonym to protect the privacy of family members.) Most kids of parents with a mental illness experience childhood differently and less innocently than other children as they deal with their often chaotic home lives and navigate their worlds. **** If you are the son or daughter of a parent with a mental...

By Kelsi Anderson, July 21, 2020, KSDK. "We want to support the members of our community who experience a traumatic event in the course of serving their neighbors" ST. PETERS, Mo. — Firefighters came together to create a nonprofit mental health initiative for bystanders of traumatic events after seeing the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder firsthand. Through the new Central County Fire and Rescue Community Crisis Assistance Program (CCAP), people can receive free counseling with...

By Carrie Feibel, National Public Radio, July 21, 2020 More Americans than ever — almost 72,000 — died from a drug overdose last year, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Protection. This grim record for 2019 was driven by deaths from synthetic opioids like fentanyl, though overdoses involving cocaine and meth also played a role. Many warn that 2020 could be even worse, as the coronavirus pandemic increases isolation, despair, and economic hardship — all...

By Melissa Gomez, Los Angeles Times, July 21, 2020 At least once a week in the mornings, Elsa Hernandez walks the mile from her apartment to the Mission Language and Vocational School, sometimes falling in line behind hundreds of other Latinos picking up groceries from the Mission Food Hub. But on a recent Thursday afternoon, she stood in a different line near the hub. Wearing a mask, her red glasses propped on her head, Hernandez, 44, a longtime resident of San Francisco’s Mission District,...

By J. David Goodman, The New York Times, July 21, 2020 The starkly divergent ways in which the coronavirus has affected neighboring communities in the Houston area — one rich and one poor — underscore how it is a magnifier of inequities. To see how the virus can largely spare one neighborhood but upend one next door, look at Bellaire, with its tidy yards and spacious homes, and Gulfton, where apartment blocks pack residents in tight. “We’re last in voter turnout, we’re last in census...

By Mallory Moench, San Francisco Chronicle, July 21, 2020 Dr. Robert Rodriguez’s anxiety rises and falls with the number of coronavirus cases and deaths. Fear that he could get infected at his San Francisco General Hospital job, or bring the virus home, affects his sleep. He doesn’t hug his 16-year-old son as much. Other worried family members avoid interacting with him. The stress isn’t sustainable, he said. “If day after day, you’re waking up and dealing with patients that are extremely...