Trauma-Informed Parenting

By Jessica Grose, The New York Times, October 20, 2021 I have heard from many readers and friends that their kids are struggling to adjust to in-person schooling this year. For the little ones, there’s more separation anxiety, which means more tears at drop-off, and struggles to even get out the door. For older children and teens, I’m hearing that some previously motivated kids are less engaged. Perhaps they fell behind during remote learning and feel discouraged now that they’re back in the...

Healing the Heart Through the Creative Arts, Education & Advocacy Hope, Healing & Help for Trauma, Abuse & Mental Health “ Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars”. Kahlil Gibran The Surviving Spirit Newsletter October 2021 “Don't Quit” by John Whittier When things go wrong as they sometimes will, When the road you're trudging seems all uphill, When the funds are low and the debts are high And you want to smile, but you...

By Sarah MacLaughlin, LSW, and Rahil Briggs, Psy.D, Psychology Today, October 19, 2021 World Mental Health Day was October 10 and the American Academy of Pediatrics, alongside the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Children’s Hospital Association, just declared a national state of emergency in child and adolescent mental health. These kinds of public acknowledgments about the importance of mental health suggest we have come a long way toward recognizing its impact.

Aristotle believed, "Courage was the first of human virtues because it makes all others possible." The need for courage is paramount in today's new world. While some wish to return to 'normal' I believe it’s a time to take advantage of being out of our collective comfort zone and embrace our growth as individuals and as a society. Change takes courage and it is no coincidence that this is our first character value in the formula for Choosing Love! As American poet laureate and legend Maya...

By Caitlin Gibson, The Washington Post, October 13, 2021 P atty Sang sat alone in the living room of her Seattle apartment, riveted by the breaking evening news on her television. A White gunman had just murdered eight people — six of them women of Asian descent — in a rampage that spanned three spas near Atlanta. It was March 16, one year into a global pandemic that incited a torrent of anti-Asian racism and violence, and Patty, a 48-year-old Korean American actor, instructor and solo...

Flexible Program Fees! Register by Friday, October 15, 10pm. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/176760243647 Parenting is challenging at the best of times…and these are not the best of time! Join this engaging, online series where we apply the latest brain science and child development research to the challenges of today. Learn effective strategies and approaches while you connect with others who are raising elementary school-aged children. 6-week online series Tuesdays, October 19 - November 23,...

By Shanicia Boswell, The New York Times, Oct. 15, 2020 Tips for creating safe spaces and developing emotional intelligence in your children. “Did you learn your lesson?” my mother asked. Those five words have been etched in my mind since I was a teenager. I was a good kid but, between boys and shenanigans with my friends, I was always pushing the boundaries. This time, I had received a speeding ticket for rushing to get home before my curfew. When I told her what had happened, my mother...

By Richard Schiffman, The New York Times, Aug. 6, 2020 Highly sensitive children, like orchids, thrive in the right environment, experts say. The new mother from a rural area near Burlington, Vt., noticed that her toddler’s behavior didn’t seem to fit the descriptions in the child-rearing books she was reading. Her daughter would burst into tears when she heard a loud bird call or a person singing out of tune, or if she wore scratchy clothes. And she always demanded to be carried by her...

Juleus Ghunta’s empowering book Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows—A Story about ACEs and Hope , vibrantly illustrated by Rachel Moss, is a much-needed story of a boy who experiences Shadows that interfere with his ability to read because they make his mind “flicker like a hurricane,” go blank, and sometimes race and “refuse to shut down.” This is an affirming, normalizing contextualization of how bad events and scary experiences, now understood from the science of adverse childhood experiences...

By Chloe Caldwell, The New York Times, Sept. 3, 2020 Getting a pandemic puppy seemed like a bad idea for a blended family. Until we did it. Even as a child, I never wanted a dog. When I was a longtime single through my 20s, a friend once asked me who I’d rather be with: a partner who had a dog or a partner who had a cat. I said, “a kid.” My stepdaughter, Louise, is 10 years old and like many girls her age, she has a nurturing and maternal streak. She’s attuned to the needs of her parents,...

By The HOPE Team, 10/5/21, positiveexperience.org/blog A year ago, we posted a blog with ten ways to help children have positive experiences during the pandemic. Now, we know that most families have struggled – successfully – to create positive experiences for their young children during this terribly disruptive time. Although we had hoped that the pandemic would be behind us, we are still living with COVID-19. Progress has been stalled by the rise of the more infectious delta variant and...

Due to relatively recent student-led school shootings and youth suicides, bullying has come to the forefront of the public eye. Several campaigns have evolved to prevent youth bullying in schools, but in reality, many people have forgotten that kids aren’t the only ones capable of bullying. Adults often engage in the act; and unfortunately, some adults in trusted positions, such as teachers and child care workers, focus their mean-spirited behaviors on children. For this reason, every parent...