Tagged With "Kelsey T. Chun, MFT"
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The Healing Place Podcast: Barbara Rubel, MA, BCETS, D.A.A.E.T.S. - How to Help Suicide Loss Survivors & the Traumatic Impact of Suicide
Barbara Rubel is a suicide loss survivor and leading thanatologist. Thanatology is the scientific study of death. As a thanatologist, Barbara Rubel specializes in suicide loss survivor grief and educating professionals about traumatic loss. The third updated and revised edition of her book, But I Didn’t Say Goodbye: Helping families after a suicide, just launched on Amazon.
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To Help Heal Trauma, Talk Less, and Write More
For a lot of people with Childhood PTSD, talking about traumatic memories can make symptoms worse -- worse than if we were to do nothing at all. Yet talking about the past is the default mode of therapy for virtually everyone who is depressed, anxious or troubled about the past. It's true that talking can be crucial to emotional healing. But there is a lot of research that supports WRITING as a more effective way to communicate past trauma and relieve symptoms of Childhood PTSD. In this...
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U of T expert: What the Oasis brothers can teach us about resilience [utoronto.ca]
Liam Gallagher is performing this week in Toronto, and as I prepare to take in the concert, it’s all coming back: the epic battles, still ongoing, between the infamous Liam and his brother Noel of the hugely popular ‘90s rock band, Oasis. Oasis topped the charts globally with hits that included Champagne Supernova and Wonderwall. I was a fan and still am – the band’s music stands the test of time, and the seemingly endless feuds between Noel and Liam continue to capture our attention. But 20...
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Unity Radio - ALL NEW Talking Wellness. Today's special guest is Michael Skinner
Unity Radio WUTY 97.9FM Worcester, MA ALL NEW Talking Wellness with Mike MacInnis. Today's special guest is Michael Skinner I'm particularly proud and happy about yesterday's "Talking Wellness" episode. Michael Skinner was a trailblazer in trauma informed peer support work, getting it done before people even knew it was a thing. A class act and genuine good guy. Definitely give this show a listen!
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Vital Signs: Estimated Proportion of Adult Health Problems Attributable to Adverse Childhood Experiences and Implications for Prevention [cdc.gov]
By Melissa T. Merrick, Derek C. Ford, Katie A. Ports, et al., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, November 5, 2019 Summary What is already known about this topic? Adverse childhood experiences are common and are associated with many poor health and life outcomes in adulthood. What is added by this report? Nearly 16% of adults in the study population reported four or more types of adverse childhood experiences, which were significantly associated with poorer health outcomes, health...
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When It Comes to Your Mental Health, Listen to Your Body [verilymag.com]
In our culture, lack of sleep is worn like a badge of honor. We glorify busyness. Very few things cause us to change up our usual routine or do anything other than what we expect of ourselves. We tend to run on overdrive, barreling through the day’s to-do lists regardless of what we are feeling, to the point that we often don’t even realize what we are feeling—and not just emotionally. We often suppress or ignore physical and emotional feelings that get in the way or slow us down—feelings...
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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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Diet and Depression
The new study adds to a growing body of research that supports the connection between diet and mental health. "We have a highly consistent and extensive evidence base from around the globe linking healthier diets to reduced depression risk," says Felice Jacka , a professor of nutritional and epidemiological psychiatry at Deakin University's Food & Mood Centre in Australia. ...
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Dr. Felitti Describes Future of ACE on TV Show with Dr. Alman
Scared? Since childhood, S. T. has been anxious & scared of dying. He learned helplessness from his mother. He learned self-punishment from his father. From the outside, he lived a successful life; good job, married & kids. Inside he was divided between constant self-doubt & an ongoing secret life of escaping into porn. He spent decades like this. One day he decided to get help. He started by talking to someone he trusted at church. He got referred to me. Not surprisingly, it can...
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From Compassion Fatigue to Healing Centered Engagement: Turning Trauma Informed Values into Action
To pave the way for a truly strengths-based approach to full healing and recovery for both service users and burned out staff, we must educate them on (1) the central role of primal body responses to trauma (past and present), and (2) the early development of adaptive thoughts and behaviors in response to
traumatic experience.
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Growth through Trauma-Informed Strategies: Coaching and Consultation with Rick Griffin
There is a Chinese proverb that states, “If you want 1 year of prosperity, grow grain. If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people." The benefits are evident, yet the real question becomes, “how do you grow people?” This Big Idea Session, CRI’s Trauma Coaching and Trauma Consultation Training, answers this question. Schools, organizations, and parents are discovering that the traditional “command and control” style of working with...
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Helping children from going limbic (www.fatherhoodchannel.com)
Cissy's note: Excerpts from the most helpful article I have read so far about parenting during COVID-19 are below, from the Fatherhood Channel. It reminds me that my curiosity, interest, and ability to offer a safe space are most important even if my inclination is to want to know what to say and to do. It's an article that helped me exhale instead of feeling guilty - and that alone is a relief.
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How Are You Feeling? Take a Minute to HALT for Your Health [goodtherapy.org]
Laura's Note: A common outcome of childhood trauma is disconnection with one's emotions and feelings and a tendency to minimize those emotions and feelings one does recognize. This article describes a simple way to recognize several types of feelings that demand our attention and care. How do you feel right now? Great? Okay? Not so good? If you aren’t feeling your best, taking a moment to HALT is one of the best things you can do for your overall mental and physical health. “Halt” translates...
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Junk Journaling for Resilience (During COVID-19)
This is an activity that came to me during a time of incredible turmoil and hardship for my family, and it quickly became my go-to practice to shift out of fight-or-flight, gain perspective on my situation, find peace in the chaos, and sort through my many colliding thoughts and feelings about the impossible time we were in. It was how I metabolized, sifted, and found my right way through a significant family crisis. It honestly saved me/us, in part because it is so fun, easy and feels good!
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My Story about Healing Moving from “What is wrong with me” to “What is happening – how can I take better care of myself?”
When I was a little girl, I had a lot of ear infections. Did anyone else experience that? Every summer in the middle of the fun of swimming in the pool, I would get an ear infection and one year I got one on my birthday. Obviously, I still remember it. It was a sad time. I always felt like I was missing out on things. And it became a pattern. I would go to the doctor and get lamb’s wool and drops put in my ear. It hurt a lot. I can still remember trying to get comfortable lying on the couch...
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Real Resilience is now a PODCAST
Women who support an incarcerated loved one finally has a place to share their stories on the Real Resilience P.W.L. Podcast.
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Seven Benefits of Working with a Therapy Animal from a Handler's Perspective
Sometimes I feel selfish for walking away from our therapy dog sessions with my heart overflowing with joy, a smile radiating from my face AND heart. I love watching this dog turn a child’s tears into giggles. Sammie has a thing for kids. Her tail wags every time she sees one. Whether we are walking the halls at a school or the trails at a nature preserve. She wants to meet them all and offer a snuggle. As a result, her tail thumps in canine happiness, and I just can’t help but grin.
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The Neurobiology of Trauma: Somatic Strategies for Resilience
The Neurobiology of Trauma: Somatic Approaches to Resilience By Jennifer Walsh As we have all come to experience over the past several months, trauma is simply a component of the human condition. While it affects both individuals and communities in a variety of ways, we have all experienced difficult, stressful, or even traumatic events over the course of our lifetime. Although social workers have traditionally worked with these vulnerable populations, there are numerous professionals...
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Christine (Cissy) White Returns. Hear My Story (www.thetraumatherapistproject.com)
Yesterday, Guy McPherson of the Trauma-Therapist Podcast shared the interview we did a few months ago. It was just after my last round of chemo and though I was tired and pale and my wig kept slipping - and also - I was super excited to be on one of my favorite podcasts and engaged in conversation. Here's an excerpt and the link to the video and audio. I appreciate how often Guy McPherson shares the perspective of trauma survivors with his podcast audience. Here's the link to the Trauma...
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Freedom From Trauma – Powerful & Profound Practices To Heal Trauma & Consciously Create The Body, Mind, Spirit You Truly Desire
We are living in complicated and stressful times. What needs to be healed seems more palpable than ever. It feels like the call to release what no longer serves has never been louder and we are feeling that tug at our core. While the founder of The League of Extraordinary People, Alfred White, has been gaining more clarity everyday on this, he was invited to be part of an event, more like a movement, to help others find freedom from what has been holding them back. It is a free, online...
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Why It’s Important to Identify as a “Trauma Survivor”
My clients aren’t running around town wearing “I’m a trauma survivor” t-shirts. Of course they aren’t. Who wants to announce that bad things happened to them? No one! And yet, unfortunately, many live with the aftereffects of trauma every day and don’t know it. Trauma is what happens to your nervous system after you’ve felt unsafe and scared, and powerless to escape or protect yourself. If a person can’t eventually resolve that sense of danger, that person’s nervous system is likely to...
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Getting Back Up on That Horse: The Struggle for Resilience in 2020
It’s little contested 2020 has been a sh*# show for most every American. It has personally knocked me down countless times. There are so many aspects of this pandemic and 2020 that have challenged my resilience as an individual, a mother, a small-business owner, and a female leader in my field. Despite what people assume, resilience-lacking 2020 hasn’t been a personal failing. Resilience is not a choice. Resilience is not an attitude or a mindset. Resilience is a physiological phenomenon. I...
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Why I Promote the Science of Hope over Resilience
I said then what I believe even more strongly now: "Hope is the belief that your future can be brighter and better than your past and that you actually have a role to play in making it better."
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List of Books, Therapies & Resources for Healing Chronic Illness and Other Effects of Trauma (Free Downloadable PDF)
These are the books, therapies and resources I wish I'd known about when I was a family doctor and when I first started getting sick with what would turn out to be a disabling chronic illness. This compilation includes the most helpful resources I’ve found over the past 20 years of learning about the science of adversity, why it's not psychological and how to heal the effects of trauma.
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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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Practicing resilience during social distancing
Welcome to the COVID-19 and PACEs Science Collection for Self-Care Practices! We have four topic-specific resource lists related to COVID-19 and PACEs Science. All four will be updated for as long as this pandemic lasts. They are as follows: ACEs in Education & COVID-19 COVID-19 Resources for Healthcare Providers Parenting with ACEs in a Pandemic Practicing Resilience During Social Distancing We hope these lists, and the resources, practices, and information in them, are helpful and easy...
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A Better Normal: Practicing Resilience | Tools to Reduce Stress & Anxiety | Thursday April 29, 2021
Join us for the next episode of A Better Normal! Hosted by PACEs Connection's Gail Kennedy. Thursday, April 29, 2021 | Noon to 1pm PDT >>Click here to register<< T his will be a workshop format and will not be recorded or reposted. The stressors of 2020 and 2021 are leading to burnout and exhaustion among ACEs professionals. Join IsraAID and PACEs for a specialized, interactive self-care session, on concrete ways to reduce stress and anxiety in order to continue your important...
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Ellen Turner, MFT
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Bradley Alan Harden
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Vicki Packwood
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Professional Joy Stalker
I was thinking today that I might make t-shirts and coffee mugs that say, “professional joy stalker” and come with a list of blissful things to remind myself and others to appreciate. As my friend Lynn says,” What if joy is stalking us?” and all we need to do is be still long enough to notice and marinate in multiple daily pleasures. I love that idea but it didn't come naturally to me. What came naturally was fear. I was always on the search for danger, betrayal, and disappointment. I hunted...
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Are you in need of some new inspiration or a renewed call to action? Then read on!
Some of you may have heard my “call to action” story while I was at a WA state conference on ACEs with Dr. Rob Anda in Winthrop, WA on October 3, 2007 (yes, I remember the date!). Although I had already been active in using the ACE Study locally, in a research project at our Juvenile Justice Center (JJC), it was Dr. Anda looking straight at me (or so it felt), pointing his finger at me (at least I thought he was) and saying, “Go home and make something happen!” I almost saluted, reacting to...
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The Surviving Spirit Newsletter June 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 June 2021 http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/pdfs/2021-06-The_Surviving_Spirit_Newsletter_June_2021.pdf Hi folks, June is NATIONAL PTSD AWARENESS MONTH I thought I would share a few of the resources that have...
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Connect All - Infographic
Our individual self-care framework which leads to realizing our global need.
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Self Care and Resilience
Self-Care and Its Importance for Relationship Intense Fields Self-care is incredibly important for new members in the counseling field, and overall for any field that is relationship intense. A relationship intense field is any field that requires the practitioner to form a strong relationship or bond with their client in order to complete their job. Examples of these positions are; nurses, counselors, teachers, healthcare providers, or social workers. Self-care is a part of creating a...
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To Resolve Conflicts, Get Up and Move [greatergood.berkeley.edu]
By Peter T. Coleman, Greater Good Magazine, February 8, 2022 In 2006, I joined a group of about 40 peace experts in a small remote village in Poland called Kazimierz, a historic haven for Jews in a predominantly Catholic region of the world. There Andrea Bartoli, an accomplished peacemaker and devout Catholic who works tirelessly around the world to reduce deadly conflict, made an hour-long presentation arguing that because highly contentious conflicts can become so constricting—in terms of...
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Re: When It Comes to Your Mental Health, Listen to Your Body [verilymag.com]
Thanks for sharing such an amazing and interesting blog. As a mental health therapist California I really like it because it is good for dealing with mental health issues.
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Re: When It Comes to Your Mental Health, Listen to Your Body [verilymag.com]
Rose, I'm so glad that you found value in this post and blog! I love that we have this space for sharing good resources that we can all benefit from.
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Indigenous and Holistic Alternatives to Mental Health and Trauma Healing
Innovative research to support community initiatives
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Upcoming event: Rx Healing Circle!
Welcome to Rx Virtual Healing Circle s! This session serves as an opportunity for building the beloved community and fostering healing through a shared humanity perspective. We invite you to join us in sharing a connective space for people to offer compassion and experience unity. Join us Wednesday, August 31, 2022 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Please register here: https://bit.ly/RxHealingCircle8-31
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Rx Healing Circle
Welcome to virtual Rx Healing Circles! This session serves as an opportunity for building the beloved community and fostering healing through a shared humanity perspective. We invite you to join us in sharing a connective space for people to offer compassion and experience unity. Join us Wednesday, September 28, 2022 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Please register here : bit.ly/RxHealingCircle9-28
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Moving Forward After Adverse Childhood Experiences, Part 2: Harness the Liberating Power of Forgiveness
The well-timed choice to forgive deep injuries from childhood, though difficult, can greatly improve psychological wellbeing and free us to move ahead. Four keys to forgiveness lay the foundation for cultivating healing forgiveness skills.
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How Hope is Different from Resilience
Hope is different than resilience. It’s better. In the last of my three posts on why hope is different from other positive traits, today I want to talk about resilience. I’ve exhibited a little hubris when it comes to hope. I’ve said it’s better than optimism, self-efficacy, and, now, resilience. I admit I’m a little biased, but I’m confident the science behind Snyder’s Hope Theory is solid. I’m less certain about resilience. The problem with resilience is a lack of uniformity in how it is...
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Self-Care: Ethical Implications For The Novice Social Worker
Greek philosopher and physician Hippocrates of Kos is considered the father of modern medicine. An influential physician and scholar, Hippocrates was adamant about effective healthcare practices. During his career, Hippocrates implemented an essential policy for future physicians to follow. To establish consent to heal, doctors should ask patients if they are willing to give up the things that cause them to be sick (Hippocrates & Asulanus, 1526). Hippocrates believed physicians needed...
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Self-Care for the Soul
Self-Care is a necessity for all mental health workers, but it is especially imperative that anyone just entering the profession practices healthy forms of self-care. The mental health field, and anyone with a “relationship intense,” role can easily experience compassion fatigue. The concept of compassion fatigue refers to exhaustion after a period of helping others through emotional, psychological, and/or physical trauma. (Figley, 2002) While some may scoff at the idea of compassion...