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The pandemic has had a lasting effect on youth mental health. Moved by a desire to reduce youth’s toxic stress and increase their resilience, The Dibble Institute, in partnership with a team of students and alumni from ArtCenter College of Design and author Carolyn Curtis, PhD, is releasing Me & My Emotions —a new, free adaptation of our beloved Mind Matters Curriculum. The mobile-friendly Me & My Emotions website features engaging graphics and bite-sized lessons teens can access and...

Notice and read this article: Maternal Voice Reduces Pain in Premature Babies Featured Neurology Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Pain August 27, 2021 This is especially for all employees of Oranga Tamariki (Child protection services in NZ), NZ Family Court judges, and NZ Lawyers for Children Get informed with scientific evidence Work harder at getting trauma-responsive Babies need to be kept with their mothers at birth, from birth and onwards If you want the best for our children...

This arrived in my Gmail inbox from Dr. Aimie ~ Trauma Healing Accelerated. I am sharing as it may resonate with someone out there What is The Freeze Response? The pattern of stress and then collapse. High energy and then exhausted. Anxiety followed by heaviness and feeling down. If you identify with this up and down pattern, you may likely be experiencing a chronic freeze response. This is a very common pattern of the biology of the nervous system! The freeze response is one of the states...

This post in my inbox this morning from PACES Connection Weekly Roundup Schroeder K, Schuler BR, Kobulsky JM, Sarwer DB. The association between adverse childhood experiences and childhood obesity: A systematic review. Obes Rev. 2021 Jul;22(7):e13204. PMID: 33506595 From a research review, “Findings suggest ACEs are associated with childhood obesity. Girls may be more sensitive to obesity-related effects of ACEs than boys, sexual abuse appears to have a greater effect on childhood obesity...

I discovered this article that gives me HOPE. The article is of interest because it raises the term "Emodiversity. The definition of Emodiversity from the article is: How does this fit in with Trauma The article states: This gives me HOPE because it tells me that all the emotions I have experienced through my life journey of adversity and trauma, has been beneficial to my health because it means I have a "more balanced and nuanced appraisal of daily life" The final paragraph of the article...

How the Brain Perceives and Remembers a New Place Featured Neuroscience·August 24, 2021 Summary: Combining virtual reality with neuroimaging, researchers identify how the brain perceives and remembers a novel place or landscape. Source: NTNU Surprising discovery #1 : We remember where, but not what It turned out that the subjects had an easier time remembering where things were placed than exactly what things were placed in each location. Surprising discovery #2 : Good networks mean...

Americanprogress.org released an article 'Social and Emotional Supports for Teachers During and After the Pandemic' giving a ton of great information on the stress that educators deal with regularly. The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning defines SEL as the process where youth and adults learn skills to manage emotions, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible decisions. "Research by Pennsylvania State University found that teachers who...

Hechingerreport.org released an article giving five ways of helping ease the stress from 2020 in children. Be responsive - By engaging in conversation with children, it helps to stimulate their brain. This is especially important for the first 3 years of a child's life. Share information - "Being transparent with kids, at an appropriate level for their age, can help lessen anxiety kids may feel" Help children share their feelings - Children tend to show their feelings which can lead to...

Communal Mastery could be applied to the NZ context as it embraces the Maori way of doing things The article Coping with Trauma Communally Reduces PTSD Risk By José G. Luiggi-Hernández August 18, 2021 Provides us with additional evidence of the importance of investigating and using "Communal Mastery" to address not just PTSD in women but the possibility of addressing many issues that we addressed individually in the past. You see, as individuals, we face harm from others and from our...

I have PTSD. It sounds scary and many people judge me and sometimes fear me It does not help when I get dysregulated because I get loud, aggressive, and send out words of my truth like daggers. My truth, my message no matter how insightful and valuable is LOST in translation as I watch the walls go up over the ears of the recipients ~ the very ones that I want to LISTEN to me. Delivery of the message counts, people, more than it should. Human nature dictates that it does. The anger that I...

In response to a comment to a post Misdiagnosis: Is It Bipolar Disorder or Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder , I made this comment. I believe it could HELP others I agree that the two overlaps and may co-exist hence why it is so very important to access a full history of life experiences from the person. The difficulty of course is that the person has often lost trust with people including those who want and can help. That is why TIME is so important - TIME to build a trusting...

By Carly Gooch, Stuff, July 12, 2021 Studying how to curb childhood harm in Aotearoa will be at the top of Jane Kinsey’s agenda when she heads to the US on a prestigious fellowship award. Nelson Marlborough Health’s general manager of mental health, addictions and disability support services Jane Kinsey has been awarded the Harkness Fellowship, allowing her to take a sabbatical from her role for a year to research adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) at the University of California, Los...