Tagged With "trauma brain"
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1000 TELLINGS!
I just had to cradle a bundle of books when my publisher showed me the first 1000 copies that arrived from the printer. A thousand copies! At this very moment the most important thing is they exist. Not if or when they’ll be purchased. Not who will get a copy or what they’ll think of it as they read it. What’s happening is I am telling. A thousand times over, I am telling. A lot of people already know that after every rape my father said, “You tell anyone and I’ll kill you.” And I’ve worked...
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A New Documentary About Breaking the Cycle of Trauma is Launching This Fall!
We are thrilled to announce the premiere of Wrestling Ghosts , a documentary about breaking the cycle of trauma, at the LA Film festival on Sept. 27th. “Incredible. Haunting and strange and beautiful and incredibly moving.” -Dan Cogan, Founder Impact Partners Wrestling Ghosts follows the epic inner journey of Kim, a young mother who, over two heartbreaking and inspiring years, battles the traumas from her past in order to create a new present and future for her and her family. In this...
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A New Word to Help Children and Adults with High ACEs: Lasticity
We can talk about grit, resilience and mindsets all we want. These approaches, while useful in a limited way, operate off a deficit model. There is something wrong in individuals that needs to be fixed -- repaired. And, there is a built in assumption that those who have high ACEs can return to the status quo ante -- they can bounce back. But, these are flawed arguments and here's why. Those with high ACEs are forever changed; they cannot bounce back. (There are neurological reasons among...
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A song of acceptance
Hello my musical friends. A cover tune to share, a favorite of mine, a song of acceptance, for me, it asks the question, will you take me for who I am? For those who have encountered rough times in life, acceptance is not always part of the landscape. Take care, Michael. Live Performance of "If I Were A Carpenter" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLJzSKBvb2U
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ACEs Validated My Teaching Experience
When I first heard about the CDC-Kaiser Permanente ACE Study , it felt like a light bulb had actually gone on. Finally, FINALLY, someone was validating what I saw every single day teaching in East Oakland. For eight years, I taught at an elementary school in the most violent part of Oakland , the part that the police called the “Killing Zone.” The kids in my class had seen friends, neighbors, and family members shot or stabbed, and routinely hid in bathrooms and closets when gang fights...
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Addiction, Attachment, Trauma, and Recovery: The Power of Connection
This book provides a fresh take on addiction & recovery by presenting a more inclusive framework than traditional understandings. Utilizing an initial case study that continues throughout, it blends cutting-edge information from addiction studies, interpersonal neurobiology, attachment psychology, social ecology, and trauma science into a coherent analysis. The implications of each perspective for treatment and fostering recovery are explained. Several chapters review what is currently...
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Addiction, Attachment, Trauma, and Recovery: The Power of Connection
This book provides a fresh take on addiction & recovery by presenting a more inclusive framework than traditional understandings. Utilizing an initial case study that continues throughout, it blends cutting-edge information from addiction studies, interpersonal neurobiology, attachment psychology, social ecology, and trauma science into a coherent analysis. The implications of each perspective for treatment and fostering recovery are explained. Several chapters review what is currently...
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Anna, Age Eight: The data-driven prevention of childhood trauma and maltreatment
ENDING AN EPIDEMIC OF CHILDHOOD TRAUMA REQUIRES COURAGE, COMPASSION AND A PLAN. ANNA, AGE EIGHT PROVIDES THE SOLUTION. NEW BOOK ANNA AGE EIGHT: THE DATA-DRIVEN PREVENTION OF CHILDHOOD TRAUMA AND MALTREATMENT By Katherine Ortega Courtney, PhD and Dominic Cappello If one in eight children suffered from an unknown but debilitating virus, outrage would boil, editorials would harangue public officials, and agencies would mobilize to counter the threat. The CDC would scramble resources to develop...
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Babies and Toddlers Risk Emotional Damage and Post-Trauma Stress in Toxic Homes
Saving your children, family and loved ones from inter-generational post-traumatic stress... Following is an excerpt from my latest book, My Journey of Healing in Life After Trauma, Part 2. "Extensive research has shown babies will pick up on toxic circumstances and behaviors and demonstrate post trauma stress symptoms as they become older. The goal of My Journey of Healing, Part 2 is to specifically help parents with stress triggers to save their kids from becoming emotionally damaged...
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Best Selling Memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” tells an inspiring story of overcoming ACEs
In search of insight into the country’s stark cultural divides in preparation for a week of potentially difficult conversations in Kentucky where I’d be attending family reunion and 50-year high school reunion, I dove into “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis” by J.D. Vance . Throughout this mesmerizing, painful, and hilarious memoir, I kept wondering if the author might know about the ACE study. The answer was found on page 226 when “ACEs” jumps out at me and...
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Books by Category
The following books have been recommended by ACEs Connection members. Categories (see below) Brain and Neurology Child Abuse Child and Human Development Children’s Books Depression Domestic Violence Foster Care Grief Law Enforcement and...
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Book Review: The Stress-Proof Brain [PsychCentral.com]
Who wouldn’t love a stress proof brain? The title of this book, The Stress-Proof Brain, is enough to intrigue anyone going through a stressful time. Melanie Greenberg provides background on how our brains respond to stress and how that response is what determines how we feel. Depending on the situation, our amygdala releases hormones and neurotransmitters that prepare people to either fight or flee. In the short-term, this can be a good thing; it can energize people and help overcome...
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Books Inspiring Us: Being the Change [yesmagazine.org]
It can be hard to find hope in climate change mitigation. But that’s exactly what NASA climate scientist Peter Kalmus does in Being the Change. While he’s not your typical government scientist—he commutes by bicycle, meditates, grows and exchanges food—he does approach his life and global warming with the solution-driven focus of one. To Kalmus, individual actions matter: His family cut their climate impact to one-tenth the national average. He finds hope in the data—cutting out some things,...
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Brain-based Pedagogy
For those that work directly in education, there is a growing list of resources available to educators that focus on brain plasticity, self-regulation, executive control, brain architecture, and in general - brain-based approaches to teaching and...
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Brainspotting: Processing Trauma without Talking About It (dvd video) 2 hours, 4 minutes
Symptoms of unprocessed trauma–including dissociation, numbing, and chronic anxiety–are notoriously difficult to eliminate through talk therapy, since the overwhelmed brain is unable to process verbal information about the events. But Brainspotting, a brain-based method of clearing trauma blockage, without their having to talk about it, nurtures clients’ capacity for natural self-healing. You will learn Brainspotting techniques through observation, a demonstration, and participating in a...
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Broken Places after Screening Summary & Resources
Almost 2,500 ACEs Connection members signed up to watch the Broken Places documentary online on March 21st, which was made available for Vimeo streaming all day. We are grateful to KPJR Films for sharing this documentary and helping make this event happen (special thanks for the hard work of @lynn waymer, Keely Badger, @Gail Kennedy, and @Carey Sipp. Following the event, we had a one hour chat with featured guests and many of you have asked...
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Can Upstream Prevention Make the US Safe from Violent Crime?
New book on Science and Secrets of Ending Violent crime uses the best evidence available to conclude that the US has the knowledge to dramatically reduce violent crime. It shows to how to persuade the public and politicians to make a major shift from mass incarceration to smart investments in proven ¨upstream¨ solutions before crime happens. Action would save thousands of lives, avoid unnecessary trauma and protect women and children.
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ACEs Science Champions Series: Child of Holocaust Survivor Explores Generational Trauma
In her recently published book, Survivor Café , Elizabeth Rosner brings a deeper meaning to genocide, an experience she has been trying to process as a writer and the daughter of Holocaust survivors. In her first work of nonfiction, she explores the common threads that tie all survivors of mass trauma – from Armenia to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Bosnia – but always returns to Buchenwald, the concentration camp where her father, a young teenager, was imprisoned during the last year of WWII. She...
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Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal
What is soon to become one of the go-to resources for ACEs related books by Donna Jackson Nakazawa. July 7th, that the date the book Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal by Donna Jackson Nakazawa is on...
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Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead (brainpickings.org)
Researcher and thought leader Dr. Brené Brown offers a powerful new vision that encourages us to dare greatly: to embrace vulnerability and imperfection, to live wholeheartedly, and to courageously engage in our lives. In Daring Greatly , Dr. Brown challenges everything we think we know about vulnerability. Based on twelve years of research, she argues that vulnerability is not weakness, but rather our clearest path to courage, engagement, and meaningful connection. The book that Dr. Brown’s...
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"Don't Try This Alone" on Amazon
Don't Try This Alone: The Silent Epidemic of Attachment Disorder" on Amazon 2-28-18; Kindle out soon... http://www.amazon.com/dp/1976120128 Thank you to my ACEsConnection community for all your support for the last five years during the daunting experience of documenting this story... Kathy was an overachiever—an economist, technical writer, and classical singer married 27 years to her college sweetheart. It looked like Kathy was fine. But deep within her hid a pain from infancy so severe...
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Dr. Claudia Gold: Empathy & Listening as ACE-Informed Practice
"You are absolutely not doomed from having ACEs."
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Dr. Dan Siegel: What Hearing “Yes” Does to Your Child’s Brain (mindful.org)
Yes is more than a word. It’s a state of being, of relating, and a gateway to curiosity, growth, and resilience, according to internationally recognized educator, neuropsychiatrist, and bestselling author Dr. Dan Siegel. He and co-author Tina Payne Bryson have written a new book that offers parents everywhere a roadmap for developing and growing their child’s inner spark and internal compass to guide them throughout their lives. It’s called, “ YES Brain: How to Cultivate Courage, Curiosity,...
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Dr. Gabor Mate speaking at ACEs to Assets in Scotland June 11, 2019 (https://www.youtube.com)
The latest gift from @ACEAwareNation #ACEsToAssets conference. @DrGaborMate talking about self-regulation, self-acceptance, self-healing, forgiveness, my favourite #AliceMiller, and good ways to intervene for child welfare. Gems of wisdom. So thankful for the access generously provided for those of us unable to attend in person.
My biggest take aways: encouragement to "Keep doing what you're doing..." and validation that historical "evil is an emanation of the traumatized human unconscious."
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Empathy, Stress, Neural Science – the Movie! (socialjusticesolutions.org)
Here is the short, half day course on Empathy, Stress (Reduction) and Neural Science delivered at the Joe Palombo Center for Neuroscience at the Institute for Clinical Social Work on December 03, 2016. The session engages each of the following modules in the discussion segment, including suggested readings. Except for the first two topics, we can take them in any order and the participants will get to select: This is your mind on neuroscience – mirror neurons: do they exist, and if not, so...
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Eyes Are Never Quiet
From our recent book: Eyes are Never Discipline is not something we do to children. It is something we help them to build from within. Far too often school district discipline policies and procedures equate discipline with forms of punishment. For many schools, the code of conduct is made of long lists of possible behavioral infractions and the associated consequences (i.e., punishments). To properly engage with this debate, an overview of terminology is needed. “Discipline,” on the one...
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Ground-breaking Bible study on trauma-informed ministry/ACEs now available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble
I've been busy trying to make the study as accessible and available to those interested in sharing trauma-informed principles within their churches and fellowships, and I am pleased to announce a few new developments: First, the study is available as an e-book on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble. In fact, to celebrate the release of the book on Barnes and Noble, you can get the study for half price through June 15. Just use the code BNPCHRIS50) at check out! Click HERE to go directly to the...
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Healing Justice: Holistic Self-Care for Change Makers
Announcing the publication of a new book, Healing Justice: Holistic Self-Care for Change Makers , published this month by Oxford University Press. Here's a brief description: "In the context of global oppression, intergenerational trauma, burnout, and public services retrenchment, this book offers a framework, critical inquiries, case studies, and practices for social workers, counselors, activists, and other helping professionals. Drawing from the East-West modalities of mindfulness and...
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Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors: Overcoming Internal Self-Alienation, by Janina Fisher
From Amazon: Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors integrates a neurobiologically informed understanding of trauma, dissociation, and attachment with a practical approach to treatment, all communicated in straightforward language accessible to both client and therapist. Readers will be exposed to a model that emphasizes "resolution"―a transformation in the relationship to one’s self, replacing shame, self-loathing, and assumptions of guilt with compassionate acceptance. Its...
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Healing the Heart of Democracy: Parker Palmer on Holding the Tension of Our Differences in a Creative Way (brainpickings.org)
“Full engagement in the movement called democracy requires no less of us than full engagement in the living of our own lives.” In a sentiment that calls to mind Leonard Cohen’s wonderful insistence that “a revelation in the heart” is the only force that moves minds toward mutual understanding, Palmer considers the deeper rationale for his title: “Heart” comes from the Latin cor and points not merely to our emotions but to the core of the self, that center place where all of our ways of...
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Healing the Wound That Won't Heal: the Reality of Trauma
“Healing the Wound That Won’t Heal: the Reality of Trauma.” In this book I share my in-depth work to understand the psychology and neurobiology regarding trauma and neglect in the first two years of life. My father was suffering extreme shell-shock due to his WWII mission to bomb the oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania. He was too ill to care for himself: yet, I was left with him everyday as my mother worked as a waitress. When I was thirteen-months-old, he died on the floor in front of my...
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Helping Kids Find the Wisdom in Overwhelm
In an unprecedented global shutdown, many of us, especially without the noise and distraction of everyday life, are facing intensified, often destabilizing feelings. And that includes kids—whether they’re able to say so or not.
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Hope Rising: How the Science of HOPE Can Change Your Life to be published Nov. 27, 2018
What if we all lived in a culture of hope? What if we all worked in a culture of hope? What if everyone dealing with childhood trauma, challenges and difficulties found a place where hope was so high that it invaded their lives as they soon as they arrived? What if our families had a culture of hope? What if every marriage had high hope?
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How (My Story of) Trauma/ACEs Unexpectedly Snuck Its Way Into My Memoir
Long before I heard of ACEs or the phrase “childhood adversity,” I started to write a book; my first. Now, hot off the press, my memoir isn’t the book I set out to write. But who am I kidding? It’s exactly the book that had to be written. It finally gnawed at me, dared me, to excavate for truth. My book was supposed to be about walking the Camino de Santiago Compostela in 2013. After I’d hiked nearly 1000 kms of trails across Spain, I told my family and friends that I would write a book...
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How Neuroscience Can Help Your Kid Make Good Choices (greatergood.berkeley.edu)
Self-regulation may sound like a tall order—but it’s also the best choice, according to Erin Clabough, a neuroscientist, mother of four, and author of the book Second Nature: How Parents Can Use Neuroscience to Help Kids Develop Empathy, Creativity, and Self-Control . Self-regulation is a skill that we need whenever we want to make a good choice or work toward a goal, especially when strong feelings are involved—in ourselves or others. Unfortunately, the qualities that support...
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How Neuroscience Can Help Your Kid Make Good Choices (mindful.org)
Imagine the following scenario: Your eight-year-old son is repeatedly poked with a pencil by his classmate at school. How does he respond? He might endure the pokes without complaint by using willpower, or he might stay silent, succumbing to feelings of fear or powerlessness. He could lose his self-control and act out, attacking his classmate verbally or poking him back. Or does your son “self-regulate” by considering his options and resources, taking stock of his feelings and strengths,...
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A conversation with Dr. Jess P. Shatkin, author of "Born to Be Wild: Why Teens Take Risks, and How We Can Help Keep Them Safe" [greatergood.berkeley.edu]
Teenagers. We’ve all been one at one time or another, and we probably remember how fraught those years were. Growing up is risky, there’s no way around it. But why did we, as teens, get pulled toward taking dangerous chances in the first place? And, now that we’ve grown up, how can we help the next generation of teens develop good judgment, especially when whatever we say seems to fall on deaf ears? These questions are at the heart of Dr. Jess P. Shatkin’s new book, Born to Be Wild .
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Inflammation! Who knew???
I found this book through a side door. I have been looking for information to suppress inflammation,since my knees have been hurting more and less for twenty years. During an exam, my doctor said I had considerable crepitus...
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Interview with Hilary Jacobs Hendel
I first came across Hilary Jacobs Hendel’s work when I read a New York Times article in which Hendel, a practicing psychotherapist and writer, described the “Change Triangle,” an upside down triangle that explains how emotions work. The Change Triangle is also a roadmap that teaches us how we can use emotions as guides to both heal trauma and attain a more vital and calm state of being. As a follower of Hendel’s blog—and an avid user of the Change Triangle to understand my own inner...
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Interview with Jason Lee, author of Living with the Dragon: Healing 15000 days of Abuse and Shame
Jason Lee is an author based out of Coquitlam BC. He’s also a mental health advocate and speaker at events across Canada. His book Living with the Dragon, Healing 15 000 Days of Abuse and Shame has received praise from counselors and comes highly recommended as a resource particularly for men in recovery from depression, anxiety and anger stemming from childhood abuse and trauma. In this interview, we talk about how his book is changing the way people are viewing mental health, depression...
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It's Not Always Depression was the Winner of the 2018 Best Book Award in the Mental Health/Psychology Category
To prevent and treat trauma, we all benefit from receiving a basic education in how emotions work in the mind and body. Sadly, we don't get this education in our formal schooling. So we must take it upon ourselves to learn.
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KPJR FILMS Presents June's Book Club Selection & Author Tweet Up!
The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook - What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love, and Healing By Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D. What happens when a young brain is traumatized? How does terror, abuse, or disaster affect a child's mind -- and how can that mind recover? Child psychiatrist Dr. Bruce D. Perry has helped children faced with unimaginable horror: genocide survivors, murder witnesses, kidnapped teenagers, and victims of...
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LOOK FOR ME Video Now on YouTube
Video of the first-ever performances of LOOK FOR ME, the musical about healing from trauma, is now available on YouTube. Look For Me was created to challenge one of the most pervasive myths about trauma and PTSD: that the damage done by traumatic experiences is a life sentence. The video now available is from performances of a 25-minute excerpt of the show presented at the New York New Works Theatre Festival in September, 2018. The excerpt captures the full storyline of the main character,...
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Meet the ‘Monsters:’ Documentary Looks at California Juvenile Debate [JJIE.org]
One’s kicking himself over an unrequited lifelong crush. One dreams of being a Navy SEAL. Another leads you on a mocking tour of his new home. They’d seem like typical teenage boys — if they weren’t awaiting trial for violent crimes. Juan Gamez, Antonio Hernandez and Jarad Nava are the youthful offenders at the heart of “ They Call Us Monsters ,” a new documentary that follows their lives in a Los Angeles juvenile detention center. They’re held in a special wing of the lockup reserved for...
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Michigan Trauma Informed Education
We are working with PESI, a leader in professional development, to offer a full day training in trauma informed education. This content follows the content of our book on Supporting and Educating Traumatized Students. We will be in Michigan April 19, (Sterling Heights) 20, (LIvonia) and 21 (Ann Arbor) See the attached brochure If this goes well they will continue to offer this next year. Hope to see you there
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How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character
Claudia Gold, a pediatrician who blogs on Child in Mind and Boston.com , wrote a terrific post about Paul Tough and his book How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character . He was...
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Lost Lives: The Pandemic Violence Against Children by Dr. Einar Helander
Dr. Anna Luise Kirkengen, professor in family medicine at the Universities of Tromso and Trondheim, reviewed this book for the Kaiser Permanente Journal in Fall 2011 . The 298-page can be purchased on Dr. Helander's site for $20. In her review...
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Neurofeedback in the Treatment of Developmental Trauma: Calming the Fear-Driven Brain Hardcover – April 21, 2014
Review “This is a truly groundbreaking book. Sebern Fisher combines a mastery of neurofeedback with a real knack for applying neuroscience to do nothing less than lay the groundwork for a new, powerful, mind-brain approach to the most...
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Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much
We have all experienced those times when there is just not enough time to get everything done. We probably have experienced a time when we did not have enough money to pay all our bills and meet all our wants. We have probably all been on an extreme...
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Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect by Lieberman (2013)
In Social, renowned psychologist Matthew Lieberman explores groundbreaking research in social neuroscience revealing that our need to connect with other people is even more fundamental, more basic, than our need for food or shelter. Because of...