Tagged With "Education Advocacy Hope"
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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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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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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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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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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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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: Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools [JJIE.org]
“Though media and advocacy efforts have largely focused on the extreme and intolerable abuse cases involving Black boys,” begins Monique W. Morris in the introduction to her recently published book, “a growing number of cases involving Black girls have surfaced to reveal what many of us have known for centuries: Black girls are also directly impacted by criminalizing policies and practices that render them vulnerable to abuse, exploitation, dehumanization, and, under the worst circumstances,...
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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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"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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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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"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. 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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Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (evictedbook.com)
From Harvard sociologist and MacArthur "Genius" Matthew Desmond, a landmark work of scholarship and reportage that will forever change the way we look at poverty in America . In this brilliant, heartbreaking book, Matthew Desmond takes us into the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukee to tell the story of eight families on the edge. Even in the most desolate areas of American cities, evictions used to be rare. But today, most poor renting families are spending more than half of their income on...
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Free "Managing Holiday Stress E-Book" from "Breaking the Silence" Radio Program
Last week's "Hope for the Holidays" LIVE video event was a tremendous success. The hour long program can still be watched on the shatteredbythedarkness.com website. During the program it was mentioned that a FREE PDF would be offered to those listening. This free "Managing Holiday Stress E-Book" can emailed to you if you simply request it by emailing Dr. Gregory Williams at gawilli1@texaschildrens.org "Breaking the Silence with Dr. Gregory Williams" radio program can be heard every Sunday...
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Healing ACE's
Healing Childhood Trauma I’d like to thank each member of ACE’s Connection for all your work helping and supporting children through various activities and organizations. You are clearly a collection of people who care about the children of the world. It is in recognition of these efforts that I ask you to consider two books on healing childhood trauma. They represent a life-time partnership dedicated to raising and educating healthy children. Secondly, I’d like to ask you for a word of...
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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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Helping Children To Thrive Despite Early Struggles [AnnDouglas.net]
“The beauty of being human is that we constantly evolve and change. We have experiences every day that can alter the course of our lives to help us rebuild what was broken and rediscover what was lost. We, as humans, are never irreparably broken because our brains and bodies are built to change and adapt. And young children are often able to change more easily than the rest of us, when makes the earliest years of life the most full of hope. The key to that hope is in relationships.” - Sara...
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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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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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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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Judging Me, by Mary Elizabeth Bullock
Last week I had the pleasure of attending Day 1 of the CAMFT "Advancing the Art and Science of Psychotherapy" conference in Orange County, where I got to hear Gabor Mate and Vincent Felitti weigh in on the impact of ACEs. What a singular experience to hear this dynamic duo on stage together! (My husband remarked that I was "lit up like a Christmas tree" when I got home that night.) While discussing the meaning of "resilience," Dr. Felitti recommended the book Judging Me, by Mary Elizabeth...
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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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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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Mind Matters now provides assistance for home visitors
I'm thrilled to announce that my book, Mind Matters: Overcoming Adversity and Building Resilience, is now available for use in one-on-one settings. I adapted the 12 lessons of Mind Matters into 21, 15- to 20-minute, one-on-one sessions. This allows home visitors, mentors, and case workers to seamlessly utilize Mind Matters with individuals and families. Since this curriculum can be taught by paraprofessionals, it can be adapted for many different settings. Some organizations are...
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Healing Days: A Guide for Kids Who Have Experienced Trauma by Straus, et al. (2013)
"With “Healing Days,” the American Psychological Association has published an illustrated storybook that aims to help guide young victims through their emotional or physical trauma. The book tells the tale of a child who has had an...
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"Is That Me Yelling?" A new book for parents and professionals
I am happy to announce that my book, "Is That Me Yelling? is out in bookstores and online. It's been a labor of love to write about ways parents can become more familiar with themselves as they attempt to respond, rather than over-react, to their...
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Our Encounters with Suicide (July 2013)
Our Encounters with Suicide, edited by Alec Grant, Judith Haire, Fran Biley and Brendan Stone. From the book web site : The collection brings together a range of voices on the theme of suicide — those who have been suicidal, alongside the...
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Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life's Greatest Challenges
Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life's Greatest Challenges is written by Steven Southwick, a Yale Medical School and Yale Child Study Center psychiatry professor who specializes in PTSD and resilience, and psychiatrist and...
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Super Survivors- The Surprising Link Between Suffering and Success
Super Survivors- The Surprising Link Between Suffering and Success http://www.supersurvivors.com/book-trailers/ About the Authors: Together, we examine post-traumatic and stress-related growth. We are interested in your stories of resilience and survival. Our mission to open a dialogue about the different ways that people survive trauma and tragedy, highlighting how people move forward in life. David B. Feldman, PhD , is an associate professor of counseling psychology at Santa Clara...
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Transcending family history of violence
I self-published a book Spellbreaker Transcending Violence (true story) in July 2012. I wrote with a pen name for several reasons including safety and copyright law. Patricia Evans, author of The Verbally Abusive...
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Workbook for Adults Caring for Children Who Have Experienced Trauma
Greetings - A colleague invited me to jump in here and mention my own book as a resource for folks involved in this community. My name is Sue Badeau, I live in Philadelphia and have been involved in the Trauma community for many years including the National Child Traumatic Stress Network Advisory board for a decade and worked with Multiplying Connections locally for several years helping to develop curriculum and training. My daughter (and artist) and I have created a book entitled "Building...
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The implicit bias of, “Mental Illness” and “mentally ill”, a lexicon of hurt.
How can we heal from the implicit bias of “ Mental Illness ” and “ mentally ill ”? I hear these words and it sounds like fingernails scraping down the chalkboard. “ The stain of dehumanization colors the mind, body and spirit and it is not so easily washed away.” - Michael Skinner Recently I read a blog post at the ACEsConnection website, “Erasing My ACES” by Sirena Wheeler. It was posted on April, 19, 2020. It struck a chord with me, many in fact and it put me on a spiral down memory lane.
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The King of Average is a Children's Fantasy Adventure to Find a Way out of Childhood Neglect
“This delightful, pun-filled allegory tells the story of a neglected boy who is convinced that he has no worth. ...the book is fast-moving and funny, with a touch of sadness. It will appeal to adults as much as YA readers, reminding all that average is not easy since everyone is special in his or her own way.” —BookLife Prize for Fiction
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The Relentless School Nurse: Coronavirus a Book for Children
I am excited to share this children's book that explains the coronavirus to children! Thank you to Donna Gaffney for sending this my way! Retrieved from: https://nosycrow.com/blog/released-today-free-information-book-explaining-coronavirus-children-illustrated-gruffalo-illustrator-axel-scheffler/ The book answers key questions in simple language appropriate for 5 to 9-year-olds: • What is the coronavirus? • How do you catch the coronavirus? • What happens if you catch the coronavirus? • Why...
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The Relentless School Nurse: The Angel and the Assassin by Donna Jackson Nakazawa
Author, journalist, researcher, science detective are just a few of the descriptors I can use to depict Donna Jackson Nakazawa. You may recognize her name from prior books, notably, Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology And How You Can Heal . Donna is a gifted science storyteller. She translates complex biological processes seamlessly and describes them in relatable terms that are memorable. The Angel and the Assassin is the story of how neuroscience has been turned on...
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The Soulful Journey of Recovery: A Guide to Healing from a Traumatic Past for ACAs, Codependents, or Those with Adverse Childhood Experiences
A groundbreaking new book from Tian Dayton, PhD, and the publisher of the New York Times bestseller Adult Children of Alcoholics …The book that started it all! T ian Dayton picks up where Janet Woititz author of Adult Children of Alcoholics left off…..for those who have grown up in a family with addiction, mental illness, or other adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), the heartache and pain doesn’t end when they grow up and leave home. The legacy can last a lifetime and spread to generations...
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The Soulful Journey of Recovery is out TODAY!!!
A groundbreaking new book from the publisher of the New York Times bestseller Adult Children of Alcoholics …The book that started it all! "Tian Dayton picks up where Janet Woititz author of Adult Children of Alcoholics left off…..for those who have grown up in a family with addiction, mental illness, or other adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), the heartache and pain doesn’t end when they grow up and leave home. The legacy can last a lifetime and spread to generations unseen. In The...
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The Surviving Spirit Newsletter March 2020
Hi Folks, The March edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter is posted at the website - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/index.php To sign up for an e-mail copy, please write to me @ mikeskinner@comcast.net or sign up @ Website via Contact Us. PDF - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/pdfs/2020-03The_Surviving_Spirit_Newsletter_March_2020.pdf Thanks! Michael. Healing the Heart Through the Creative Arts, Education & Advocacy Hope, Healing & Help for Trauma, Abuse &...
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The Surviving Spirit Newsletter May 2020
Hi Folks, The May edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter is posted at the website - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/index.php or PDF - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/pdfs/2020-05-The_Surviving_Spirit_Newsletter_May_2020.pdf To sign up for an e-mail copy, please write to me @ mikeskinner@comcast.net or sign up @ Website via Contact Us, Thanks! Michael . “ Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” - Helen Keller The Surviving Spirit Newsletter May 2020 – please...
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The Surviving Spirit Newsletter November 2019
Hi Folks, The latest edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter is posted at the website - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/index.php http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/pdfs/2019-11-The_Surviving_Spirit_Newsletter_November_2019.pdf To sign up for an e-mail copy, please write to me @ mikeskinner@comcast.net or sign up @ Website via Contact Us, Thanks! Michael. Healing the Heart Through the Creative Arts, Education & Advocacy Hope, Healing & Help for Trauma, Abuse &...
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The Ten Books That Changed My Life - Healing ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and Building Resilience
Teri Wellbrock offers a list of those books that had a profound impact on her life and helped her create a life filled with tranquility and joy. While she may not have agreed with every word written, she did find powerful answers, delicious little tidbits, and inspirational guidance within each book.
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Tiffany Haddish: "I Know What I'm Supposed To Do Here On This Earth" [npr.org]
Laura's note: I have not read this memoir ( The Last Black Unicorn , by Tiffany Haddish), so this post is not a book review. When I heard this author interviewed on NPR, though, I immediately recognized what she was describing as the theme of her new book: growing up with ACEs--and overcoming them through positive thinking to succeed as an actress, comedian, and now, an author. In the interview with David Greene, Haddish says it best: I hope a little girl or little boy reads this and be...