Blog

Attachment & Trauma Network (ATN) is excited to announce the addition of a screening of the Mott Haven Documentary at the 5th annual Creating Trauma-Sensitive Schools Conference on Thursday, Feb 24, 2022. The screening will include a conversation with JC Hall, LMSW, EXAT a Hip Hop artist and clinical social worker who runs the Hip Hop Therapy Studio program at Mott Haven Community High School, a “second-chance” transfer school in the South Bronx. In 2013, Hall assembled a professional...

By Jonathan Klein and Lisa Patel, Photo: Julie Leopo/EdSource, EdSource, January 4, 2022 After several years of ongoing disruption from the Covid pandemic, wildfires and heat waves, California’s 6 million students and their parents know firsthand that far too many school buildings are not equipped to address our present challenges. This is especially true for Black and brown children who face disproportionate climate change impacts and are more likely to attend school buildings in poor...

Happy, Healthy New Year’s Wishes for You! Most of us have heard this phrase multiple times over that past week. Where exactly do happy and healthy start?? I believe the felt sense of safety is the common denominator. We are all looking for relief from the stress of the past few years, but some of us also continue to help ourselves or others cope with and learn from the adversities and toxic stress from our past. Research tells us that connection to competent and caring people and...

The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) Foundation has awarded the Trauma-informed Design Society a $30,000 grant to conduct a pilot project culminating in the creation of a tool schools can use to evaluate their physical space and identify changes that can lower the stress levels of students and staff! PROJECT OVERVIEW The space in which students learn can communicate safety and promote secure attachments with teachers, or it can symbolize lack of dignity and agency, encouraging...

There is national consensus on the youth mental health crisis. In October the American Academy of Pediatrics, AACP and CHA d eclared a national youth mental crisis followed by the US Surgeon General issuing a n advisory to respond to this public health emergency. Partnering with schools is key to any scalable solution to address the youth mental health crisis. Authors of th e recently rel eased guide, School Mental Health 101: A Primer for Medi-Cal Managed Care Plans and school mental health...

This truly is a special time for many of us, but let's also acknowledge that this is a very busy, stressful, and sometimes overwhelming time. This blog post imagines a new kind of holiday tradition, grounded in all the kinds of things that help us in stressful times. We also share newly available resources and exciting news about what's to come in the new year, including a grant-funded project to help lower stress levels in schools!

By Anne Vasquez, Photo: Allison Shelley/All4Ed, EdSource, December 13, 2021 After 18 months of distance learning, I took a breath before the start of this school year. What would the new normal look like? I feel like I’m still holding my breath, waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop that comes in the form of an end-of-semester report card. As the mother of a newly minted middle school student and a high school junior, I knew this year would test my personal code of ethics about grades:...

As many of our nation’s young people returned to school campuses to reconnect with teachers, coaches, and classmates this fall we rejoiced in their voices and comradery from the bus stops, classrooms, and playgrounds. These sounds take on a greater meaning as we reflect on the significant learning and relational losses that the COVID-19 pandemic has imposed on students globally. With the recent declaration from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent...

This is an urgent all call to those of us who believe in trauma-informed and healing-centered schools that support the whole person. After reading the recent NBC article “Parents protesting 'critical race theory' identify another target: mental health programs , ” I quickly put aside the blog I had been working on because I knew this was too important. Concerns from colleagues about the rising backlash against increased priorities of mental health and social-emotional learning (SEL) have...

Please join us for December installment of Education Upended: Talking Out of Turn . This monthly series features a conversation facilitated by Lara Kain, PACEsConnection Education Consultant , with special guests on education related current events and hot topics. We will use a trauma-informed and PACEs science aware lens to examine what is going on K-12 education, what needs changing, and strategies being used in the field to disrupt harmful policies and make positive changes in the system.

By Alli Lindenberg, EducationNC, November 29, 2021 I want you to take a moment and check in with your body. How are you feeling? What do you notice? These are the questions that Elijah Sellers and Gabby Taylor want you to ask yourself. In their new podcast, The Resilience Zone, these two students take listeners on a journey of finding resilience through accessible trauma-informed tools. “Sometimes we have to go through heavy hitters, right? And we have to put our minds and our brains under...

Being Trauma-Informed means that we are Culturally Attuned. Heal Trauma Global is a sister company to Heal Historical Trauma and was cultivated to fill a wide gap in stress science & trauma training. The trauma-informed movement is beautiful! It's wonderful that as a society we are moving in a direction that honors an individual's past as part of the driving force behind current behaviors. Yet, time and time again, I have attended trainings that are labeled as Trauma-Informed only to...