Tagged With "Public Speaking"
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The House of Mourning (www.themoth.org)
Sometimes I free-write and riff when I first wake up. I let go of grammar, punctuation and sometimes even logic. I follow the words and the pen and see what happens. It doesn't have to be neat, artistic, poetic or amazing. It feels wonderful and is like splashing around in a pool in the mind. Today I was thinking about grief and ACEs and storyteller because I'd been listening to Kate Braestrup tell a story on Moth. Beautiful audio is what this is. I recommend listening. It's about grief,...
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The Importance of Connecting with Your Inner Child
When I first started therapy, every time I heard the words "inner child" I wanted to puke. First of all, the only memories I have from my childhood aren't really memories. They are home videos. I have no idea how I felt as a child, and I certainly didn't care to do so. I wanted to put all of that in the past. After all, could my so-called "inner child" really play that big of a role in my life today? Well, as it turns out, she does. Sometimes, my inner child takes over, and I become an...
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A Day At a Time
We are not strangers to unusual challenges in the addiction’s world. We have lived with chaos and unmanageability before and we have learned to use program principals to create calm in a storm. We have also learned to accept and even embrace challenges as part of our spiritual growth. And we have found that embracing those challenges has ultimately led to our being happier, stronger and more resilient people. This current moment in time however, is giving “practicing these principles in all...
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Accountability In Recovery
I finally got sober after about 6 years of being in and out on in 2015. The list of reasons why this time worked against all the others is very extensive, almost everything about me had to change. One of the most important ones was learning how to be accountable. From a young age, before I even touched drugs, my word meant very little. I was king of doing what I want when I want to and vice versa. If I said I would be somewhere or do something for someone it was more likely I was going to...
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Cancer as a survivor
Many people use the phrase CPTSD to stand for PTSD from complex trauma. To me, C-PTSD means cancer and PTSD. I have cancer and I’m a trauma survivor. I’m a survivor with cancer but not yet a cancer survivor. Will I be a survivor squared?
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Healing Trauma From a Yoga Mat [iowapublicradio.org]
By Charity Nebbe, Katelyn Harrop, and Sthefany Nobriga, Iowa Public Radio, January 8, 2020 The impacts of trauma can be unexpected, affecting not only mental and emotional health but also physical well being. Through Trauma Sensitive Yoga, a modified yoga practice that prioritizes a healthy realtionship with one's body and similarly informed tai-chi programs, some survivors have found a new kind of relief. On this episode of Talk of Iowa, host Charity Nebbe talked with Matthew Vasquez, an...
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How Making Music Can Help Students Cope with Trauma [KQED News]
By Juli Fraga, MindShift Podcast, KQED News, July 15, 2019 Studies about the Ten Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have shown that most people have experienced one of these traumas in childhood, such as being abused, having a parent who is incarcerated, experiencing homelessness, among others. The trauma one experiences in childhood can affect adult mental and physical health in later years, especially if a person has multiple ACEs. While the harm can have lasting impacts, health...
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How to Live a More Courageous Life [greatergood.berkeley.edu]
On any given day, many of us wrestle with our fears. We might be contemplating a career change, telling someone we love them, or wanting to speak up for what’s right when we see injustice. But a voice within us pipes up saying that there’s no point, or that we aren’t really capable of creating the life or world we desire. Whether you call it “fear” or some other name—anxiety, stress, discomfort, life challenges—the cycle often plays out in the same way. We have a desire for change, but our...
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How Trauma Therapy Cultivated My Recovery
I was 5 years old when I had my first encounter with trauma. Too young to comprehend the magnitude of the situation, my first grade class participated in a “Good Touch/Bad Touch” workshop,centered around educating and recognizing signs of sexual abuse. I found relief in finding a safe place to lay down the burden I had been carrying. I went straight to the school counselor and told her, in vivid description, the intimate details of my unwarranted molestation. I remember the grueling...
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How You and Your Kids Can De-Stress During Coronavirus [pbs.org]
By Deborah Farmer Kris, Public Broadcasting Service, March 13, 2020 A few weeks ago, my eight-year-old daughter made a glitter jar for my students: “Tell them that when their brain has a glitter storm, they can shake this up and take deep breaths as the glitter falls.” We could all use some help settling our glitter right now. If you are feeling stress about the COVID-19 pandemic, your brain isn’t misfiring. Stress is a normal, healthy biological response to perceived threats and challenges.
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It Makes Sense
I felt inadequate and ill-prepared to speak to licensed mental health professionals about ACEs. But when I was asked to attend the 40th Annual Training Institute on Behavioral Health & Addictive Disorders in Clearwater, Florida to represent ACEs Connection, I was honored and eager. My background is in health planning, not mental or behavioral health. I review health data and look for gaps and inequities. My time is spent looking for and addressing the health needs of a community. So,...
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Soul Writing – Creativity in a Time of Crisis (wakeup-world.com)
I’m a Soul Writing coach. I see writing as a spiritual practice. When we connect to our authentic voice and transform our feelings and imaginative dreams, visions and fantasies into words on the page, something magical happens. By expressing the experiences of our inner worlds and our authentic self, whatever the voice inside us wants to say, we move into alignment with ourselves and give ourselves permission to speak. When we do that with love and let go of judgment, it can be a liberating...
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Re: The Healing Place Podcast - Missy Garcia: Sexuality, Leadership, Healing
I appreciated what Missy Garcia had to say about how non-sexual types of touch -- stroking one's arms when upset, for example -- provide the sort of pleasure that can soothe emotional upset. I have read that one "tell" when people are, say, fidgeting with their hair or with a pen is that if the object of fidgeting is external -- such as the pen -- then most likely what's causing them turmoil is outside of themselves, whereas if a person is twisting their hair, then something internal --...
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Re: The Healing Place Podcast - Missy Garcia: Sexuality, Leadership, Healing
Fascinating! I'm betting there's some truth to that theory, as well. I had never thought about using my feminine sexual power to heal my sexual trauma remnants. I loved Missy's ideas of empowerment and leadership growing from that place of hurt by "taking our power back". She certainly has me looking at this from a new angle. Which is why I love these podcast interviews so very much! Thanks so much for taking the time to offer feedback. Peace, Teri
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Re: CPTSD Confusion: How to Get Clarity in All Your Relationships (Resilience Series)
Yep. When growing up the adults around you are all "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" or you just don't know your experience isn't healthy because it's the only one you know, that inability to gauge just what's going on and what it all means can dog one for life. Thanks for another insightful post, Anna.
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Re: Toxic Childhood? 5 Spiritual Exercises to Heal the Soul [psychologytoday.com]
Hi, Tosca, Yes, it's an uncomfortable topic for many and it often evokes denial in those who don't wish to face the reality that in many cases, a mother's unmet needs, unaddressed trauma, mental health issues, or other difficulties directly impact her children and often in turn traumatize them. It's taboo in our society (and I'm guessing in many other societies) to view or discuss mothers in any but the most flattering--even idealistic--light. We're not doing anyone any favors or supporting...
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Re: How You and Your Kids Can De-Stress During Coronavirus [pbs.org]
I like that! Forgot about those! And one of their best features is that, to enjoy it, you have to slow down and appreciate the effect of the 'glitter storm.' One of my favorite mentors told me long ago that the answer to many of the maladies I was observing was from what she called, 'too much, too fast.' I keep this in mind as much as I can, no matter what the situation, intervention or protocol. And I preach it to my students and clients: Slowing down helps us better regulate our system,...
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Re: How You and Your Kids Can De-Stress During Coronavirus [pbs.org]
I loved reading your article and it inspires me. I am working on a children's show to do on You Tube to teach kids all the different healing modules. I have been working in a private practice for over a decade in trauma and want to get the sciences that heal my clients out to the kids...since mainstream doesn't really know much about these sciences...thank you for all that you do! Blessings!
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Re: How You and Your Kids Can De-Stress During Coronavirus [pbs.org]
"Too much, too fast." YES! Simple and clear but not easy to adjust that internal motor/setting/way of responding. Thanks for encouragement, reminder, explanation, and this comment, Jondi! It's just what I needed! Cissy
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Re: Why Women Need Fierce Self Compassion [greatergood.berkeley.edu]
I like how Kristen describes the yin and the yang of self compassion. This quote stands out to me: When we hold our pain with fierce, empowered truth, we can speak up and tell our stories, to protect ourselves and others from being harmed . Thank you for posting! Karen
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Re: Opening Up by Writing It Down: How Expressive Writing Improves Health and Eases Emotional Pain
Jill: I love this. I think this is a new version of an older work, is it not? I know his first version of Opening Up is from the 80's and I have that copy. I have written a white paper on this topic as well, how expressive writing eases symptoms of traumatic stress, which includes an overview of Pennebaker's work. I love free-writing, and sometimes do it alone, sometimes in community. When the community is safe, it's a BEAUTIFUL process because all are invited to share and are often prompted...
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Re: The House of Mourning (www.themoth.org)
We don't trust children to be able to handle, with gentle, loving guidance and support, the toughest that life dishes out--such as, in the story in this podcast, a young friend's tragic death--nor do we trust adults to be able to do the same. Much more suffering results from that lack of trust, that handling with kid gloves, so to speak, than of facing and acknowledging what has happened. I suspect most ACEs/trauma survivors feel a lot of relief at finally being able to name what has...
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Re: The House of Mourning (www.themoth.org)
Laura: I couldn't agree with this more: "Much more suffering results from that lack of trust, that handling with kid gloves, so to speak, than of facing and acknowledging what has happened. I suspect most ACEs/trauma survivors feel a lot of relief at finally being able to name what has happened to them and having the truth of its terrible impact validated by someone outside their own hearts and heads, their own self-doubting, questioning, and minimizing of their own experiences." Thank you...
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The Kind of Hunger People Don’t Talk About (thriveglobal.com)
During this time of isolation, small moments of tenderness can help us feel more connected than ever. I believe that what is too often missing in people’s lives is the satisfaction of a fundamental need that they have not fully grasped or understood. The Dutch have a word huidhonger, meaning “skin hunger,” the feeling people develop when they are disconnected from one another. Let’s add to that another word that relates to emotional hunger: a Japanese everyday noun amae, loosely translated...
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Unbecoming an Armadillo: Recovering from Trauma with EMDR
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...
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Rebecca Lewis Pankratz: Breaking Generational Poverty, Poverty Circles, & Poverty Programs
"A CEs Connection is the curator of incredible hope, healing and possibility. Parents are not the bad guys. Most of us are just kids with ACEs who grew up..." Rebecca Lewis-Pankratz Last Friday, @Rebecca Lewis-Pankratz joined our A Better Normal series to discuss poverty circles and programs. Rebecca is the Director of Learning Centers as Essdack, as well as a poverty consultant, and we met online, via Twitter (her handle is @pOVERty’s Edge. Rebecca is a brilliant speaker, gifted writer, and...
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Back-to-School in a Pandemic? Questions, Concerns, and Discussion with School Nurse, Robin Cogan
Robin is a brilliant, passionate, and vocal school nurse with almost two decades of experience as a New Jersey school nurse in the Camden City School District. She is the Legislative Co-Chair for the New Jersey State School Nurses Association and she joined us last week for A Better Normal community discussion about back-to-school (or not) plans families are facing this school year. Robin serves as faculty in the School Nurse Certificate Program at Rutgers University-Camden School of Nursing...
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4 Simple Phrases to Halt Anxious Thoughts
Anxiety is a fact of life. There's much we can do to calm ourselves in the short and long-term. Here are some tips for immediate relief.
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Connection in Recovery During COVID-19
2020 has been a completely different kind of year for many of us, most notably with the current Coronavirus pandemic. As we have been forced to adapt to the obstacles it has thrown our way, new routines have been established to try to maintain some semblance of normalcy and connection with one another. As it looks like this will be our reality for the foreseeable future, it seems prudent to check in and rehash some of the ways in which we can stay connected— particularly for those of us in...
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"A Better Normal" Community Discussion: Suicide Awareness and Community Cafes
Join us on Friday November 6, 2020 from noon to 1:00 PST as we come together and join Satya Chandragiri MD, Bonnie O’Hern RN, Denise Proudfoot RN, & Michael Polacek RN for a discussion around the tender issue of suicide. Together we will discuss ways people and providers can support each other and encourage communities to take action to support one another around suicide prevention, crisis intervention, and the layers of culture and structural barriers to care. A special emphasis will be...
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Art and Trauma: Creativity As a Resiliency & Healing Factor
Art and Trauma: Creativity As a Resiliency & Healing Factor I have long believed that all of the creative arts are healing. I was drawn to music because it made me feel good, first just listening, then learning to play the drums and then performing in rock bands. Later in life, learning the guitar and singing along with songwriting. Sadly, trauma disconnects so many of us from our creative outlets...finding the ways to reconnect with our creative selves goes a long ways in healing the...
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Art and Trauma: Creativity As a Resiliency & Healing Factor
Art and Trauma: Creativity As a Resiliency & Healing Factor I have long believed that all of the creative arts are healing. I was drawn to music because it made me feel good, first just listening, then learning to play the drums and then performing in rock bands. Later in life, learning the guitar and singing along with songwriting. Sadly, trauma disconnects so many of us from our creative outlets...finding the ways to reconnect with our creative selves goes a long ways in healing the...
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Resilience against Holiday Triggers of Trauma
Trauma. “A widespread, harmful and costly public health problem. It occurs as a result of violence, abuse, neglect, loss, disaster, war and other emotionally harmful experiences. Trauma has no boundaries with regard to age, gender, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, geography or sexual orientation.” To say that COVID-19 has in some way been a traumatic experience for everyone would be an understatement. It has had far reaching effects on individual health and well-being and economic...
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Sending Love Vibrations to Lost Loved Ones (wakeup-world.com)
When we lose a loved one, we feel the helplessness and heart-wrenching tugs of grief. We are suddenly left alone. For years, the person at our side, a parent, grandparent, sibling, friend, suddenly cease to exist. The void left in one’s life is too wide to stitch. We become a shadow of our former self. Continuing life unfurls as a morbid chore. In recent months many people have lost loved ones in the cruellest of circumstances. Visitors were not permitted at bedsides or at gravesides. But I...
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Resilience
This is a blog I posted a few years ago which I hope might be helpful to others, I have learned so much on my journey of healing childhood wounds and am so happy to see resources like this group available to help others. 15/11/2017 “If the only thing people learned was not to be afraid of their experience, that alone would change the world“ – Sydney Banks. While there are many words to describe resilience such as spirit, strength, toughness, buoyancy, no one truly understands just how many...
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The Journey of Healing – De-stigmatizing the Discussion of Trauma and New Related Think Round Exhibition
t is all too common to be closed off when discussing the worst experiences we have faced in life. Feeling scared, embarrassed, emotional, or that no one else can understand are all-natural reactions when approaching the difficult discussion of trauma.
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'A Better Normal' Conversation with the Authors of 'We've Been Too Patient' - Friday, February 26th
Please join us for our next episode of our ‘A Better Normal’ Community Discussion where we envision the future as trauma-informed! We are honored to be joined by the authors and editors of ‘We've Been Too Patient: Voices from Radical Mental Health--Stories and Research Challenging the Biomedical Model’ , Kelechi Ubozoh and L.D. Green. Hosted by @Jenna Quinn (ACEs Connection Staff) and facilitated by @Alison Cebulla (ACEs Connection Staff) of ACEs Connection. Friday, February 26th, 2021 12pm...
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Healing the Hidden Wounds from Childhood: The Promise of Healing, Part III (by Glenn R. Schiraldi, Ph.D., Lt. Col., USAR, Ret.)
So many people are struggling with unhealed, hidden wounds from toxic childhood stress. For some, the pain is obvious. Others might look outwardly strong, capable, and in control. However, unhealed inner wounds cause needless suffering and can lead to a dizzying array of psychological, medical, and functional problems. Fortunately, there is hope for healing—even decades after traumatic wounding from ACEs occurs—enabling us to be 100% there for ourselves, our families, and others we work and...
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What Your Body Has to Do With Social Change (yesmagazine.org)
Using somatics to explore trauma can help make authentic connection and collectivity more possible. In 2009, my beloved movement comrade Malkia Cyril invited me to a course called Somatics and Social Justice being offered by a group called Generative Somatics. “The word somatics comes from the Greek root soma, which means ‘the living organism in its wholeness.’ It is the best word we have in English to understand human beings as an integrated mind/body/spirit, and as social, relational...
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Re: Can Gratitude Be Good for Your Heart? [greatergood.berkeley.edu]
Thanks for raising the question, Laura. I too believe in the power of being grateful (Read 'The Book of Joy' for some words of wisdom about this from the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu) BUT I absolutely agree that sometimes it feels to me that gratitude can be used as a simple answer to address painful, difficult situations. I really do not believe those that have done the work about gratitude intend this (nor the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu - their chapters include things like 'Nothing...
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Left Behind: Surviving Suicide Loss (dailygood.org)
In the spring of 2017, Nandini Murali, a South Indian journalist and author, returned from an out-of-town assignment to an eerily quiet home. Typically, her husband would greet her at the front door, but that morning he hadn't answered her phone calls. It was Nandini who discovered his body, and confronted an unfathomable reality. T.R. Murali, one of the most prominent urologists in India, and her beloved husband of 33 years, had ended his own life. "Space dissolved," writes Nandini, of that...
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What is Possible?
What is Possible? By Scarlett Lewis I love reading stories about victory! It seems we all have had something in our lives to overcome, to some degree, and learning and growing from the struggle can benefit others. Courage and perseverance are two of the most powerful ways that can be taught to get through and grow from difficulties, and sometimes the best way is by example. However, one thing is for certain -- we need each other. It has been fascinating to me to witness how we rise to the...
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Healing Is Never a Solo Journey
Developing intimate connection with even one other person can create fertile soil for social transformation.
Member
Olivia Kelly
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Horses Teach Us How to Connect on a Human Level
I have always loved horses. When I was a young girl I collected plastic Breyer model horses, read books about horses, and even watched television shows that had an equine theme. I think it is their exquisite beauty, their inherent wild nature, and the vulnerable and trusting relationship between horse and rider that is the attraction. I purchased my first horse when I was twelve, spending a year cutting lawns, weeding, and babysitting, eventually raising enough money along with my parents’...
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The Surviving Spirit Newsletter May 2021
Healing the Heart 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 May 2021 http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/pdfs/2021-05-The_Surviving_Spirit_Newsletter_May_2021.pdf Hi folks, Greetings from New Hampshire....spring has arrived and the weather has been all over the place –...
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Four Ways Self-Compassion Can Help You Fight for Social Justice [greatergoodberkeley.edu]
By Kristin Neff, Greater Good Magazine, June 14, 2021 How can we effectively bring about a more just world? Although it may not be obvious at first glance, self-compassion plays a key role in the quest to end sexism, racism, heterosexism, and other forms of oppression. By aiming compassion inward as well as outward, we can better confront the pain of injustice without being overwhelmed, and find the strength and energy to fight for what’s right. Self-compassion helps us cope by accepting our...