Our Skin: A First Conversation About Race is the book we’ve been waiting for! The team (Megan Madison, Jessica Ralli, and Isabel Roxas) did an incredible thing: they explained race and racism to young children. Not only did they do it in a few pages of a board book, but they also provided guidance to the adults who will read it to children. As soon as you open the book, the reader is greeted with colorful representations of the authors and illustrator, as well as a note on the purpose and...

For most of my career, I was taught that social change occurs from mobilization, collective action, and deep community engagement. The challenge with this view of change is that it doesn’t require reflection on one’s own individual trauma. So instead of taking time for ourselves when we’re exhausted, many of us hide our trauma, bury our exhaustion, and push our worries beneath a thin veneer of optimism. This leads to burnout and ineffective leadership. No one told me that rest was...

Michael Skinner has represented male child abuse survivors on Oprah, spoken to the National Press Club, and been a keynote speaker at a conference presented by the United Nations and the State Department at Georgetown University on the sexual exploitation and trafficking of children and adults. He’s also been the advisor/consultant to SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) at the national level, helping to implement trauma informed care. Skinner’s professional...

Healing the Mind, Body & Spirit 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 March 2022 Hi Folks, The latest edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter - sharing Hope and Healing Resources for Trauma, Abuse & Mental Health is posted at the website -...

By Anne Branigin, Photo: Bill Kalina/The York Dispatch, The Washington Post, February 24, 2022 Edha Gupta can count on her fingers the number of times she’s learned about Asian Americans in history class — lessons so meager she refers to them as “slivers.” “It was mostly to do with the California gold rush,” recalls Gupta, a senior at Central York High School in Pennsylvania. She didn’t learn about how India’s history intersected with the United States' until AP World History, and even then,...

By Hannah Giorgis, Image: Getty/The Atlantic, The Atlantic, February 25, 2022 Zora Neale Hurston once observed that America’s most prominent historical narratives prioritize “all these words from the seller, but not one word from the sold.” Much of American life is built on the knowledge and labor of Black people, especially those who were once enslaved. But the origins of, for example, the country’s cuisine or its music are commonly underreported, under-credited, or intentionally...

Yesterday I logged onto Goodreads, the website that tracks the books you and your friends are reading, and I noticed that an old college classmate had marked a book "to-read": What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing From Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo. "Ooh a new trauma book?" I thought, my interest piqued. Turns out this book was very new—the newest. It was released on the auspicious 2/2/22, mere days ago. I wondered if her story and insights would be boring since I've been spending at...

"The Routledge International Handbook of Indigenous Resilience", released on 12.31.21, is a textbook available for colleges and universities around the world. This handbook provides a comprehensive and cutting-edge strengths-based resource. Considering Indigenous resilience in many forms: cultural, spiritual, and governance traditions are being revitalized in others to reclaim aspects of culture that has been outlawed, suppresses, and undermined. The handbook is divided into five sections; *...

Healing the Mind, Body & Spirit 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 Hi Folks, The latest edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter - sharing Hope and Healing Resources for Trauma, Abuse & Mental Health is posted at the website - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/index.php or here's...

Healing the Mind, Body & Spirit 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 Hi Folks, The latest edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter - sharing Hope and Healing Resources for Trauma, Abuse & Mental Health is posted at the website -...

December 31, 2021 – Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows , a provocative new picture book by Jamaican poet and Chevening Scholar Juleus Ghunta, has been released today by CaribbeanReads, a St. Kitts-based publishing company. The book follows the title character, Rohan Bullkin on his journey from reluctant to enthusiastic reader. Rohan’s reluctance to read is fuelled by Shadows – manifestations of his adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress. He improves his literacy with the guidance...

Documentary filmmaker Shannon Kring first heard about the protests at Standing Rock while she was living and working in Honduras. Her parents, back in Wisconsin, sent her a link to Amy Goodman’s coverage on Democracy Now! Kring was struck by the “gross abuses of power” and unfettered violence police were inflicting on unarmed water protectors. “I needed to do what I could to help get the story out there, because it was clear to me that it was being ignored by the mainstream publications and...