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by WILLIAM J. KOLE Associated Press, Wednesday, April 15th 2020 BOSTON (AP) — Seven years ago Wednesday, the unthinkable happened to Bobby O'Donnell: He was nearing the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon , where his family was gathered to cheer for him, when terrorist bombs killed three spectators and injured more than 260 others. His family escaped unscathed. Not O'Donnell, whose wounds were invisible and scarred his soul. “My injury,” he says, “was in my head.” It took years for...

Transforming Trauma: Soul Death and the Reclamation of the Soul – Healing Complex Trauma in Africa with Wangui Wanjiru The Transforming Trauma podcast welcomes special guest Wangui Wanjiru, a Kenyan clinical psychologist and first NARM Therapist on the African continent, who describes Soul Death, the Reclamation of the Soul, and the challenges of complex trauma care in Africa. Wangui describes the cultural orientation that’s very present in Kenyan culture, a key ingredient being the strong...

Reaching beyond the daily grind: Free, Easy, and Cheap options to achieve balance and a sense of control You like free and cheap strategies – read on! You already know the reality at this point - disrupted routine, boredom, kids home that demand attention, yearning for personal connection, trying to be productive and engage in meaningful activities. How do you reach beyond your current circumstances and bring color to your day, have structure, meaning, and texture in your life? Sinking into...

Human brains are hardwired to react viscerally to traumatic events. They then store those emotions in our central nervous, so that when we feel and experience similar future events, we will be alerted to new potential dangers. Emotional flashbacks, experienced by those living with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, are sudden and horrific, often prolonged, attacks from past highly traumatic events. Although these flashbacks are somewhat different than those experienced in post-traumatic...

Due to high demand we've added a 5th and final FREE Online ARTIC webinar Tuesday, April 21st, 3:00-4:00 pm EST Register today at this link The Traumatic Stress Institute (TSI) is hosting a FREE webinar for leaders in health, trauma, and trauma-informed care (TIC) to preview the new Online ARTIC, a cutting-edge online tool for measuring TIC. The Attitudes Related to Trauma-Informed Care (ARTIC) Scale is one of the only validated measures of TIC. It measures professional and para-professional...

By Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, The New Yorker, April 16, 2020 The old African-American aphorism “When white America catches a cold, black America gets pneumonia” has a new, morbid twist: when white America catches the novel coronavirus , black Americans die. Thousands of white Americans have also died from the virus, but the pace at which African-Americans are dying has transformed this public-health crisis into an object lesson in racial and class inequality. According to a Reuters report ,...

By Dante Chinni, American Communities Project, April 9, 2020 The Covid-19 pandemic is spreading across the United States in an uneven way that offers unique insights when viewed through the prism of the American Communities Project . For many Big Cities , the worst is here now. For the rural Aging Farmlands , the worst is likely still to come. And differences in medical resources in various county types suggest the coming months could bring serious challenges to some communities as the virus...

By Huiyun Kim, Sarah A. Burgard, and Kristin S. Seefeldt, Housing Matters, April 8, 2020 During and following economic recessions, labor market instability leads to housing instability as income shocks and increased volatility in income cause missed rent payments. To avoid the cascade of negative outcomes associated with housing instability, policymakers must understand what kinds of support can help families remain stably housed. In this study, researchers examined the association between...

By Jennie Day-Burget, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, April 3, 2020 The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in thousands of deaths in the United States and has upended daily life for millions of people across the country. Part of the emergency response at all levels of government has been to ensure that children and families continue to have access to healthy affordable foods. The largest nutrition assistance program in the United States is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program...

This pandemic renders everyone vulnerable to trauma, from those who are marginalized like the homeless, poor, and disabled to those who previously felt invincible and now realize they are neither immune to or insulated from this insidious virus. In addition to the urgent tasks of slowing the spread of infection and treating the ill, there must be a focus on implementing trauma informed care (TIC) at every level of care, in hospitals, doctors’ offices, and community settings.

Now more than ever, the safety and security of our nation's children is paramount. The Children's Memorial Flag was created in honor of National Child Abuse & Neglect Prevention Month. Flown on the fourth Friday in April — on April 24 this year — the Children’s Memorial Flag honors each lost child and serves as a symbol for the protection of children and young people from all forms of violence. The flag raises public awareness about the continuing problem of violence against children.

Join ME 10am (pst) on Facebook Live Doctor Beasley for an awesome idea to SHARE! Just say, “NO!” to Social Distancing! Feeling Alphabet: “Q” is for Quiet. [ Please click here for the Facebook post .]