Creating Resilient Communities

Why is Self-Care Vital? Some might think of self-care as doing something for yourself after a long day of work. Most individuals think self-care is something they should make time for after work, but self-care is much more than that. Especially when working in a relationship-intense profession, it is imperative that you take time for self-care before becoming burned out. On Simmons University's website, they discuss the importance of self-care before reaching the burnout state. One common...

Violence against women and girls remains one of the most pervasive human rights violations across the world. In many communities, it has become normalized, with survivors often blamed or silenced. Yet, this is not an inevitable part of life. Preventing violence requires shifting how we perceive women and girls in society, challenging harmful norms, and fostering safe spaces where they are valued and protected. Prevention starts with recognizing the root causes of violence—patriarchy,...

Applications are open for the 2025 TraumaWise Summit Series! These are virtual summits for people who want to increase their trauma wisdom, compassion, and capacity for activating sustainable healing and systems change in their spaces and places. We are looking for people with lived-experience to bring their trauma wisdom and skills to the TraumaWise Community! TraumaWise equips change agents to transform broken systems by activating trauma-informed communities. Our virtual summits (which...

The next quarterly meet of the RESILIENT NJ TASKFORCE will be held on Thursday December 12th from 10am-12pm. Please see attached flyer. Registration link is below and also on the flyer. Meeting Registration - Zoom

WE HAD A GREAT MEETING YESTERDAY!!! THANK YOU TO EVERYONE FOR CONTRIBUTING! Thank you ROAR community stakeholders for your continued commitment to building individual and collective resilience in Robeson County!!! We have lots to ROAR about this month!!! READ THIS NEWSLETTER IN FULL TO FIND OUT ABOUT SOME IMPORTANT COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES THAT WERE SHARED AT THIS WEEK'S MEETING! For additional information about ROAR or any of the information shared within this email, please...

A special thank you to Lorilee Binstock for her publication and re-publication of my posts. In her online journal, Authentic Insider , she share a myriad of articles on trauma and its amelioration. Well worth perusing regularly. In her May issue, linked here, she shares an article I wrote (and illustrated) on trauma art and the many ways it leads to healing. I often do art when working with groups. See:...

Acevedo-Garcia, D., McArdle, N., Shafer, L., & Noelke, C. The State of Racial/Ethnic Equity in Children’s Neighborhood Opportunity: First Findings from the Child Opportunity Index 3.0. diversitydatakids.org and Brandeis University. https://www.diversitydatakids.org/research-library/state-racialethnic-equity-childrens-neighborhood-opportunity The Children’s Hospital Association (CHA) has integrated the Child Opportunity Index into its Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS), a vast...

Workshop after workshop asks people to check off their ACE's. Then, presenters tell you about your odds of having all sorts of adverse, unhealthy, or worrisome outcomes. You face doom without mitigation, as the story is told. As a clinician and behavioral scientist, one needs to take a sip of water and some steady breathing before resigning one's self or to affected individuals to the dung heap of life. I recall the first time I heard a breathless clinician talking about ACE's about...

Highlights of my year include time spent and powerful discussions with CRC Accelerator and Fellowship participants. Insight shared by our dedicated participants, graduates, and fellows about what they learned about trauma-informed awareness, resilience building, and PACEs science as a result of the CRC will continue to inspire the movement.

Next Sunday the zoom conference "Sunday with Gopal" will take place (for free). More information and Zoom-link: https://www.sundaywithgopal.com Everyone is invited who is interested in solving actual problems and who wants to understand what lies at the heart of all our problems and suffering. You are most welcome to attend this meeting. You will see how it is possible to deal with deep and unresolved attachment trauma that lead to all the problems we have in everyday life. For more...

Last month, Elon Musk endorsed “Bad Therapy,” a new book written by a reporter that places blame on mental health therapists and trauma-informed care as the cause of the children’s mental health crisis. The book proposes that children’s mental health professionals are taking advantage of their clients by intentionally keeping them in a therapy loop to make money. The author also posits that the trauma-informed movement is the catalyst of the children’s mental health crisis and is...

In an ideal classroom setting, students would leave their worries at the door alongside their backpacks as they step into a space conducive to learning. However, the reality is far from this utopian vision. Issues from home, conflicts in relationships, anxiety over assignments or exams, and broader concerns from the world beyond the school gates often accompany students throughout their day. This persistent background noise of stress undermines their ability to concentrate on academics,...