Tagged With "Healing Collective Trauma in the Time"
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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 New Year's Thoughts
Wishing you a Happy New Year of Peace, Joy, Love, Hope & Healing. Take care, Michael. "JOY" - a song of thanks to all of those in my life - performed at the NYAPRS Conference 9/13 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by4tWjowZVo “JOY”© Michael Skinner Music There’s joy in knowing what I have found There’s joy in knowing that I’m still around There’s joy in knowing that I still care Joy in knowing you’re still there Joy in knowing you’re still there I’m so glad you’re still around Thanks for...
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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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A Survivor on Speaking Out Against Shame, Silence, and Sexual Assault (yesmagazine.org)
If you’re a survivor yourself and reading this, you know that when I write “I had finished being shocked and upset long ago,” I don’t mean it’s done and dusted and put away and now I’m finished with the rape. I remember a male friend to whom I talked less than a year after it happened. “Do you think I’m thinking about it for too long?” I wanted to know. “I still feel scared and upset; do you think I’m making too big a deal out of it?” “Yes,” he said, “you are. You should be over it by now.”...
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A Yoga Practice for Healing Emotional Trauma (dvd) 1 hour 6 minutes (with instructions)
This follow-along chakra-based yoga practice is designed for healing, both mental and physical, from the aftermath of emotional trauma. This one-hour practice can easily be divided into two separate, shorter practices. The first half is more physical and the second half is more meditative. Beginning with an introduction that provides a healing perspective, the video then moves into a yoga practice where you join a class that includes poses, affirmations and breathing practices. Section 1: "I...
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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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Adversity Needn’t Thwart or Define You. Here’s How to Cope. [nytimes.com]
The author had a chipped tooth. It ruined her looks, she thought. She had to interview someone for her book, and she really wanted to cancel. The interview subject was Mariatu Kamara, the young woman from Sierra Leone who wrote “The Bite of the Mango,” a memoir about surviving a civil war, rape, losing the baby that resulted from the rape, having her hands chopped off, making it to safety and finally leaving everyone she knew to seek refuge in Canada. The author thought about this, about why...
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Alice Miller's For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence
In Alice Miller’s classic book For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence, Miller hammers home her provocative stance that the root causes of ALL violence are a consequence of childhood trauma.
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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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[Announcement] 3 Part-Series on ACEs from "Terrible, Thanks for Asking" (Podcast) [ttfa.org]
Hosted By Nora McInerny, Terrible, Thanks for Asking, October 28 2019 'Terrible, Thanks for Asking' the award winning podcast hosted by Nora McInerny and produced by American Public Media (AMP), challenges real people to candidly discuss their feelings. Beginning November 5, 2019 'Terrible, Thanks for Asking' will be asking guests to share the experiences and challenges they encountered while growing up with ACEs. With the knowledge that adversity and trauma has harmful implications later in...
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Announcing FREE Trauma-Informed Schools Book Club.
Announcing FREE Trauma-Informed Schools Book Club. Please join me in a community book club using the Facebook page Trauma-Informed Schools Book Club . https://www.facebook.com/groups/1938017869661667/ We will be starting with two chapters (16 & 17) from Supporting and Educating Traumatized Students: Second Edition that were made FREE online thanks to Oxford Psychology - one on Secondary Traumatic Stress, and another on Crises & Natural Disasters with chapter author Ben Fernandez .
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Author Hopes to Put Her Emotions Journals in the Hands of Girls in Every State
Back in the spring, I was in the middle of putting together a panel on community interventions for ACEs when the conference planning chair suggested adding Tara Shephard. We had an amazing panel that day, but Tara hit it out of the park. Her love and care for African-American girls in Arkansas and the adversities they face was apparent in every word she spoke that day. To give some background, Tara is an author, education and mental health advocate; an auditor for the American Correctional...
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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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Baylor College of Medicine students introduced to ACEs science
“I was one of those statistics that ACEs scientists and researchers talk about,” Dr. Gregory Williams, an administrator in the Baylor College of Medicine, told the school’s first-year class. Williams’ presentation about the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and his own experience as a trauma survivor, was organized by Dr. Reena Isaac of Texas Children’s Hospital for her class, "Hiding in Plain Sight: Understanding and Identifying Victims of Violence.” Williams regularly speaks...
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Bearing Witness to the Wounds of Internment (lionsroar.com)
In American Sutra, Williams, a professor of religion and East Asian languages and cultures at the University of Southern California, offers an account that is remarkable on several fronts. First, it is rich in ethnographic and historiographic detail. And although based primarily on historical records—including publications, official documents, correspondence, and journal entries—many of the cited sources provide first-person accounts, lending an approachable, human tone to the work. Much of...
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“BECOMING MS. BURTON: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women” by Susan Burton and Cari Lynn
I met Susan Burton in 2010, but I had learned her name years before. I was doing research about the challenges of re-entry for people incarcerated due to our nation's cruel and biased drug war. At the time, I was in the process of writing The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness - a book that aimed to expose the ways the War on Drugs had not only decimated impoverished communities of color but had also helped to birth a new system of racial and social control eerily...
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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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Beyond the Crack Generation, Author K-Rahn Vallatine
Beyond The Crack Generation takes readers on an autobiographical journey to explain how dysfunctional, counterproductive behavior became a cultural norm in the quest for prosperity and survival among youth. Addressing the pervasive and lingering impact that the crack cocaine epidemic had on mainstream Hip Hop culture and Urban America as a whole, it answers the echoing question: How did our young people lose their way? It offers a glimpse in the psychology of a young man in search of...
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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: Juvie Talk: Unlocking the Language of Juvenile Justice [JJIE.org]
Juvie Talk: Unlocking the Language of Juvenile Justice Richard Ross Richard Ross Photography 2016 271 pages “Juvie Talk” is a visual diary of juvenile justice, taking the reader on a journey to meet young people across the country who share their stories with a startling and refreshing open and honest dialogue. They speak of their parents, their siblings, their foster homes, their struggles and experiences, often with violence, abuse and drugs. They speak of their ambitions, their schooling,...
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Book Review: Juvie Talk: Unlocking the Language of Juvenile Justice [JJIE.org]
Juvie Talk: Unlocking the Language of Juvenile Justice Richard Ross Richard Ross Photography 2016 271 pages “Juvie Talk” is a visual diary of juvenile justice, taking the reader on a journey to meet young people across the country who share their stories with a startling and refreshing open and honest dialogue. They speak of their parents, their siblings, their foster homes, their struggles and experiences, often with violence, abuse and drugs. They speak of their ambitions, their schooling,...
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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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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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"Breaking the Silence" Warriors of HOPE Series Concludes This Sunday with a 2-Hour LIVE Worldwide Webcast Event!
The “Breaking the Silence with Dr. Gregory Williams” radio program will be featuring a SPECIAL LIVE 2-HOUR WORLDWIDE WEBCAST this Sunday evening, May 10 th from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM Central Time. This event will be a special conclusion to their WARRIORS OF HOPE series featuring all the guest from the entire series together for one life-changing webcast. The guests are some of the most sought after authors, experts and speakers on the various topics of trauma, abuse, and resilience in the...
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Broadcast Premier of 'Broken Places' on PBS [pbs.org]
From Public Broadcasting Service, March 3, 2020 Peabody Award-winning and two-time Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Roger Weisberg teams up with WNET’s Chasing the Dream public media initiative on his 33rd national public television documentary Broken Places, premiering on April 6 at 10 PM on PBS (check local listings). WNET is presenting Producer/Director Roger Weisberg’s 33rd national public television documentary, Broken Places on April 6th. This poignant production represents the...
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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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Building a Collection of Books for Children, Teens and Adults
The Drug Endangered Children’s Initiative is grateful to our community partners who shared their favorite book titles with us, especially Joanne Peterson from Learn to Cope and Gina Williams from East Bridgewater Public Schools for these suggestions. We look forward to discovering and sharing more resources in the new year, please comment with your favorites.
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Building Resilience to Trauma: The Trauma and Community Resiliency Models by Elaine Miller-Karas
From the book's page on Amazon : Description After a traumatic experience, survivors often experience a cascade of physical, emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and spiritual responses that leave them feeling unbalanced and threatened. Building Resilience to Trauma explains these common responses from a biological perspective, reframing the human experience from one of shame and pathology to one of hope and biology. It also presents alternative approaches, the Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM) and...
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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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Garbage Bag Suitcase-Available Now!
Plagued and embarrassed by my name, made worse by a nomadic childhood that made it impossible to build lasting relationships, I developed tough skin at an early age. Along the way I learned to deal with disappointment, push through discomfort,...
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Check out 11-yr-old Aslan Tudor’s Standing Rock book: 'Young Water Protectors' (Indian Country Today)
Aslan Tudor, who first traveled with his mom Kelly Tudor to Standing Rock when he was just eight-years-old, has written a book about his experience in a book titled “Young Water Protectors: A Story about Standing Rock.” “I thought it would be a good book to hear about kids in Standing Rock,” said Aslan, who traveled to Standing Rock when he was eight in August of 2016, and had turned 9 by the time he returned in October. Aslan’s mother Kelly Tudor, who helped Aslan write the book, and who...
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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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Children, Race, and Power: The Book That Continues to Read
I recently read Markowitz and Rosner’s Children, Race, and Power . This book is a recount of Dr.’s Kenneth and Mamie Clark Northside Center in Harlem in the late 1940’s. Their journey while valiant was met with much heartbreak. Fast forward 70 years and it doesn’t appear that much has changed. Dollars continue to be wasted, and the contentment with the status quo and lack of outcomes seems a close resemblance to today. We can say we have the best intentions and well-meaning hearts, but...
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Cracked Up Movie announces Theatrical Release this September!!
Witness the impact that childhood trauma can have over a lifetime through the incredible story of award-winning actor, comedian, master impressionist and Saturday Night Live star, Darrell Hammond . Theatrical release dates begin September 13th & 14th at IFC Center in NY and September 20th & 21st in LA at Laemmle Monica Film Center . Tickets and additional events can be found on the Cracked Up website at crackedupmovie.com. # CrackedUpMovie Watch the trailer here .
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Director's Note about tonight's PBS broadcast of Broken Places (4//6)
The film trailer is available here. Learn more about Broken Places via this review written by @Laurie Udesky (ACEs Connection Staff) entitled, Documentary Broken Places uses archival footage to tell stories of ACEs and resilience over time . Tonight's Airing: Check your local listing time here. Film clips and more viewer information can be found on the PBS website .
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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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Dorothy and Steven Halley will this week's Special Guests on "Breaking the Silence" Radio Show
This Sunday evening's "Breaking the Silence with Dr. Gregory Williams" special guests will be Dorothy and Steven Halley from 8:00 to 9:00 PM CST. Their over 25 years of professional life together will be discussed including the River of Cruelty model explaining how cruelty is passed from person to person and generation to generation. This model helps expand the Adverse Childhood Experiences conversation. Many other topics including their work with domestic violence and helping bring...
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Dr. Anthony Biglan- The Nurture Effect and recent post
Hi there everyone- please check out Dr. Biglan's book The Nurture Effect: How the Science of Human Behavior Can Improve Our Lives and Our World. Very practical! As well Dr. Biglan offered the following blog post recently that regardless of your political orientation I hope that you will be able to find value in the core message. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/an-evidence-based-strategy-for-bringing-everyone-together_us_587bad19e4b03e071c14fdf7 Additionally if you haven't had the...
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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. 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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Educational Trauma: Examples From Testing to the School-to-Prison Pipeline (Dr. Lee-Anne Gray)
Educational Trauma is the inadvertent and unintentional perpetration and perpetuation of harm in schools. The use of standards and the normal distribution or the bell curve to rank students and identify those at risk of developing problems later is born in the same theories and practices as eugenics. Eugenics practices thrive in schools and feed the school-to-prison pipeline, which is the most extreme example of Educational Trauma. This book ambitiously aims to open a feld of inquiry into...
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EMDR & Beyond: The Trauma Power Therapies (dvd video) 2 hours, 8 minutes (with instructions)
This video is the “must see” for anyone currently using, or considering EMDR and EMDR-inspired modalities. EMDR and Beyond: The Trauma Power Therapies includes the world’s leading experts on traumatic stress discussing the current “power therapies”, trauma’s most effective psychotherapeutic interventions. Join Bessel van der Kolk, Peter Levine and others as they discuss EMDR, Somatic Experiencing and Brainspotting and other approaches to trauma treatment. In addition they will explore the...
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Emotional First-Aid for Children: Compassion in Action: How to Quickly Help in Times of Trouble
In Compassion in Action, Emotional First Aid for Kids , you will learn valuable techniques to help children successfully move through upset and trauma. You’ll find self-regulation and recovery techniques to help yourself, so you can help others more effectively. These practical tools support parents, caregivers, teachers and community members who want to protect children. The strategies are easy to learn, apply and remember, for both every day use, and in times of trouble. In Emotional...
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Emotional Sobriety: From Relationship Trauma to Resilience and Balance, by Tian Dayton, Ph.D.
I was checking out some new reading material on Amazon when I stumbled on a book review of Emotional Sobriety , in which the reviewer included author Tian Dayton's definition of codependency: "Codependency, I feel, is fear-based and is a predictable set of qualities and behaviors that grow out of feeling anxious and therefore hypervigilant in our intimate relationships. It is also reflective of an incomplete process of individuation....Though codependency seems to be about caretaking or...
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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...