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Inspired her work with ACEs, resilience and Walla Walla’s Community Resilience Initiative , documentary-film director Amy L. Erickson created Visceral: transforming trauma though theatre , which has its first screening at the 5 th Annual “Beyond Paper Tigers” conference June 24-25, 2020. The film features a number of Walla Walla residents, including Etiene Vela, a student at Walla Walla Community College (WWCC), whose life is transformed by performing in WWCC productions with Kevin Loomer,...

Photo credit Unsplash.com/🇸🇮 Janko Ferlič (The article below is an excerpt from my book, Crazy Was All I Ever Knew: The Impact of Maternal Mental Illness on Kid s. I have used a pseudonym to protect the privacy of family members.) As a child, I lived in dread that something would set my mother off and she’d fly into a violent rage, unleashing a torrent of physical abuse. There never was any reason for the abuse. There didn’t have to be. Something would invariably infuriate my mother. I...

Hello 4CA friends – Sending a quick update on the state budget. Please add on if you have more/different information – thanks! The short story is that many of the worst cuts that were discussed were NOT enacted in the final budget, which is good news. Some of the items most related to childhood trauma include: The final budget rejects the May Revise proposal to reduce $4.5 million General fund from the Black Infant Health Program . While there will be no cuts to Prop 56 Medi-Cal supplemental...

By News Editor, July 1, 2020, Science Mission. In their search for what triggers the damaging side-effects caused by acute psychological stress, the researchers found an answer by doing a fat check. In the face of psychological stress, an immune system response that can significantly worsen inflammatory responses originates in brown fat cells, the team reports in the journal Cell . Since the hormones associated with stress, cortisol and adrenaline, generally decrease inflammation, it has...

Unbecoming an Armadillo By: Victoria F. Burns, PhD, LSW Victoriafrances49@gmail.com Instagram: @betesandbites “When you are traumatized, you are basically in a permanent defensive mode” — Gabor Mate I’m sitting across from Meg on her charcoal grey love seat. My forearms are resting on a velvety mustard-yellow throw cushion and I’m holding crescent shaped pulsers in each hand. Meg’s my psychologist; a rare gem who specializes in chronic illness and trauma. Every two weeks, we spend an hour...

By May-Ying Lam, The Washington Post, June 30, 2020 For women who are pregnant amid a pandemic, a recession and racial turmoil, the future is an anxiety-stirring unknown. They began their pregnancies in the “other world” that promised baby showers, gender-reveal parties, visits with grandparents and browsing stores for onesies. Now, they contemplate how they would handle a novel coronavirus diagnosis, prepare to give birth while wearing a mask and fight through old traumas that the virus has...

By Rada Dagher, Ph.D., M.P.H. Posted on June 28, 2020 , National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Maternal mortality rates in the United States have reached an all-time high. While these rates have dropped globally in the last few decades 1 , in the United States, they have more than doubled between 1987 and 2015 2 . The picture is even grimmer for racial and ethnic minority communities, where African American and American Indian/Alaska Native women have the highest...

By Adriana Gallardo, June 27, 2020, Pro Publica. She was still small enough to climb on her mother’s back, too little to step from the family boat without help, when the violations began. “Touching games” led by older men with big smiles at her family’s fish camp, across the water from Kotzebue, a regional hub of 3,000 people known as the “gateway to the Arctic.” From those early years into her adulthood in distant Anchorage, Tia Wakolee, 46, says she was molested, raped or stalked nearly 30...

By Jay Behel and Jennifer A. Coleman, June 22, 2020, STAT. Some experts are warning of a looming mental health crisis in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic that we are apparently ill-prepared for, and journalists are amplifying this message. Everyone, it seems, is depressed and there is a new health curve to flatten. We believe these warnings are being overdone, and definitely overlook the potential for post-traumatic growth (more on that in a minute). [ Please click here to read more. ]

CRACKED UP THE EVOLVING CONVERSATION Episode 4: Generational Trauma - Breaking the Cycle with Darrell Hammond, Comedian, actor, SNL Legend Michelle Esrick, Filmmaker, activist Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Author of The Body Keeps the Score Jane Stevens, Founder of ACES Connection and special guest Jane Fonda Academy Award-winning actor, producer, author and activist Thursday June 25th at 1pm PDT / 2p MT / 3p CT / 4pm EDT Hosted by ACEs Connection THE PRICE OF THIS LIVE EVENT IS $12.50 We have...

Register Now for This Free Trauma Awareness and Trauma Responsive Care Symposium The Collaboration As neighboring Healthy Start partners providing maternal and child health services for Metro Atlanta, the Atlanta Healthy Start Initiative (AHSI) of the Center for Black Women’s Wellness, Inc. and the Healthier Generations Project (HGP) of the Clayton County Health District collaborate on several initiatives to improve perinatal outcomes in the region. The “A Call to Action, A Call to Heal:...

By Kelly April Tyrrell, May 10, 2020, uwmadscience.news Adapted from original story by Brita Larson, Center for Healthy Minds: We can feel stress in the body through common sensations: sweaty palms, racing heart and shallow breathing. Some people cope with signs of stress in their lives by ignoring it. Some may not recognize these as signs of stress. What if the key to well-being during stressful periods in our lives involved syncing our physical and mental experiences of stress? For the...