Blog

Need your help! Beautiful Poem Poster supporting Suicide Prevention and NAMI Walks (National Alliance on Mental Illness). With a change in the date and year it can be used across the USA for all NAMI state and local chapters as well as all people and organizations In support of mental health well-being. Please share your ideas and connections on people and places to whom I should reach out. Many thanks!

All of us have rider off the horse moments. Many times we need a trusted other to help us get our riders back on (like when you have a tough day and call your mother/brother/partner/sister/roommate/friend to tell them about it). Who are your trusted others in your school or workplace? Let them know you appreciate them!

A child’s early years are a time of exceptional growth, and ones that can be profoundly affected by traumatic experiences. Research has firmly disproven the idea that infants and toddlers are “too young” to be affected by such experiences, leading to an increased awareness of the need for trauma-informed services for children. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs have the potential to play a central role in identifying and addressing the effects of trauma, with lifelong...

With a grant from King County’s Best Starts for Kids, Vashon Youth & Family Services plans to help Vashon become a “trauma informed community” in an effort to improve the overall health and resilience of islanders. “With this program, we see a unique opportunity to create a culture shift,” Roderick McClain, VYFS’ grantwriter, said. “The ultimate goal is for individuals and organizations to be better equipped and organized to deal with those experiencing the effects of trauma.” The roots...

In the past few weeks, we tragically lost two Parkland mass shooting survivors—Sidney Aiello and Calvin Desir—to suicide . Around the same time, Jeremy Richman , whose daughter was killed in the Newtown mass shooting, died by suicide too. These heart-wrenching losses have prompted public discussion about connections between suicide and trauma . What is PTSD ? The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5) defines trauma as exposure to actual or threatened...

By K. Hecht , A. Hosack & P. Berman Wouldn’t Davy be better off with a dad? Maybe Larry could learn more patient in jail, and then they could be a happy family when he got out? Claire was sending letters to Larry in secret. She would post the letters on her way to school. She understood what the Carsons and Ms. Alexandra were saying about Larry being dangerous. She was as determined as ever that Davy never be hurt by Larry again. She had read an article Ms. Alexandra gave her and...

Be sure to tune in tonight to The Healing Place Podcast at 7:00 PM EST on iTunes, Spotify, or Blubrry for my thought-provoking conversation with ACEs Connection member, Dean Walker, of Safe Circle, The Poetry of Predicament, and Living Resilience.

Be sure to tune in tonight to The Healing Place Podcast at 7:00 PM EST on iTunes, Spotify, or Blubrry for my amazing conversation with Ingrid Cockhren of ACEs Connection and Sue Fort White of Our Kids Center in Nashville, TN. See links below to listen in!

California's first-ever Surgeon General has launched a listening tour that will take her around the state to hear about people's hopes for the new position and the state's new commitment to improving Californians' health. Dr. Nadine Burke Harris is a pediatrician with degrees from U.C. Berkeley, U.C. Davis Medical School, and Harvard University. She says, as the daughter of a biochemist and a nurse, she knew what her dream job was at an early age. "My immediate priorities as Surgeon General...

California’s new surgeon general made Sacramento the first stop on her statewide listening tour, and after Tuesday’s event, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris told The Bee that capital residents are powerfully grappling with the long-term impact childhood trauma has on their families and neighborhoods. Burke Harris said many of the 100 Sacramento-area residents she met with asked her to find ways to bring training, resources and support to families, educators, nonprofits and other community-based...

When Taylor Lytle began fainting every morning when she stood up, she had to make a decision: Should she seek medical care or should she save her hard-earned wages to buy soap, shampoo, deodorant and feminine hygiene products? People across the United States struggle with similar concerns. But Lytle shouldn’t have had to make that decision. That’s because in a country without universal or even a nationalized health care system , one group of people has a constitutionally guaranteed right to...

The village of Taholah on the Quinault Indian Nation is just a stone’s throw from a pebbled stretch of beach pocked with the tiny holes of razor clams. The town is wedged between Washington state’s rocky Pacific coastline and a hillside of towering cedar and Douglas fir evergreens. It’s been the home of the Quinault peoples for 12,000 years. And for the last 50-odd years, the home of tribal member Larry Ralston. Back in 2008, when Ralston first learned climate change would cause sea levels...