As we continue to honor women in the worldwide PACEs movement, this week our guest is Beth Tyson. Beth Tyson is a childhood trauma consultant and author. Our discussion will center on the state of infant and child mental health post-Covid. Beth Tyson, MA , is an international childhood trauma consultant, acclaimed author, CASA volunteer, and co-chair of the PA Child Abuse Prevention Team. With a background as a family-based trauma therapist, she honed her expertise in stabilizing mental...

This week, in honor of Women's History Month, we will speak with Elona Washington . Elona is the founder of The Author’s Journey , an award-winning marketing agency. Elona is a childhood trauma survivor who understands firsthand the challenges of revealing life's most intimate, personal moments. After self-publishing her memoir, she was catapulted in the public eye as a #metoo activist, appearing in the USA TODAY, Canadian Broadcasting Network, and other major outlets. A 3x bestselling...

As we close out Black History Month, we must reflect on the vital role of Black non-profit leaders. Often lacking in funding and support, Black non-profit leaders are driving the work to liberate Black communities and bring in an age of equity and reconciliation. This week, we welcome Travis Claybrooks , founder and CEO of the Raphah Institute. Raphah Institute envisions a cradle-to-homeownership pipeline that has replaced the cradle-to-prison pipeline. Through partnerships and programming,...

Candice Valenzuela, whose 2022 podcast was among the most popular episodes of the last year, joins hosts Ingrid Cockhren, PACEs Connection CEO, and Mathew Portell, this Thursday at 1 p.m. PDT; 4 p.m. ET , to discuss the importance of healing intergenerational trauma. “How can parents ensure that generational issues do not continue to impact future generations?” is one of the questions to be addressed in this live episode. “This topic is especially important for parents who have a background...

We are excited to announce an encore episode of History. Culture. Trauma. ! Our next conversation is an encore episode featuring an excerpt of an interview with best-selling author and developer of the Neurosequential Model, Dr. Bruce Perry . As our nation celebrates Black History Month, we at PACEs Connection believe it is appropriate to recognize the history of enslavement, discrimination, Jim Crow and domestic terrorism that Black people have endured. The resulting historical trauma of...

We are excited to announce another episode of History. Culture. Trauma. ! Our next conversation is with author of the upcoming book, The Trauma Informed Pediatric Practice: A Resilience-Based Roadmap to Foster Early Relational Health, Dr. Amy King . In this week's episode, we are excited to have Dr. Amy King. Amy King, PhD, is a licensed psychologist who provides training, consultation and education to professionals and organizations. She specializes in trauma-informed work and resilience...

We are excited to announce another episode of History. Culture. Trauma. ! Our next conversation is with VictimFocus CEO & Sunday Times Bestselling author, Dr. Jessica Taylor . Late last year, the World Health Organization and the United Nations acknowledged that environmental factors played a large role in the current mental health epidemic . Also, with a new understanding of scientific colonialism and scientific racism, the question is... "Is anti pathology the next frontier for the...

We are excited to begin another year of History. Culture. Trauma. ! We kick the year off with a conversation with CTIPP's Jesse Kohler . This episode is dedicated to the work of the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy & Practice , known as CTIPP. CTIPP's mission is to create a healthy, just, resilient, and trauma-informed society where all individuals, families, and communities have the social, political, cultural, economic, and spiritual opportunities and support necessary to thrive.

Click here to make your donation today. Happy New Year! You may have already noticed some changes as we enter 2024. Please give us grace as we navigate the challenges these first few months will bring. Updates to come! Despite funding deficits and staff reductions, our work for the New Year is just kicking off and we have ambitious plans for 2024. PACEs Connection recognizes the impact of a wide variety of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in shaping adult behavior and health, and that...

Click here to make your donation today. PACEs Connection is a social network that recognizes the impact of a wide variety of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in shaping adult behavior and health, and that promotes trauma-informed, healing-centered and resilience-building practices and policies in all families, organizations, systems, and communities. We support communities to accelerate the science of positive and adverse childhood experiences to solve our most intractable problems.

By Elaine Miller-Karas, Photo: from article, Psychology Today, December 26, 2023 Trauma-informed care serves as a guiding light for countless individuals who have endured traumatic experiences. It embodies a benevolent and compassionate approach, with its paramount objective being to avoid inadvertently re-traumatizing trauma survivors. There are many healing practices categorized under an overarching set of practices called " mindfulness " that, although helpful and transformative for many,...

Platinum print made by F W Edwards c 1892-1893 from an original wet collodion negative by Oscar Rejlander. (Photo by The Royal Photographic Society Collection / Victoria and Albert Museum, London/Getty Images) By Anuradha Varanasi, Forbes, December 26, 2023 A new meta-analysis of 57 studies including over half a million people found that childhood trauma is associated with a 45% higher risk of developing chronic pain and pain-related disability in adulthood. Researchers estimate that more...

Childhood trauma can affect a woman's sex life. Image courtesy: Freepik By Natalia Ningthoujam, healthshots, December 26, 2023 Be it emotional, physical or sexual abuse as a kid or growing up in a home with violence or insecurity due to parent’s divorce, traumatic childhood experiences may have lasting effects on your well-being. It is not just mental health that may be affected. You may also notice childhood trauma affecting your adult sex life. Let us tell you how childhood trauma and your...

By Adrianna Rodriguez, Image: from article, USA TODAY, December 24, 2023 America has a new epidemic. It can’t be treated using traditional therapies even though it has debilitating and even deadly consequences. The problem seeping in at the corners of our communities is loneliness and U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy is hoping to generate awareness and offer remedies before it claims more lives. “Most of us probably think of loneliness as just a bad feeling,” he told USA TODAY. “It...

Photo-illustration by The Atlantic. Source: H. Armstrong Roberts / Getty. By Stephanie H. Murray, The Atlantic, December 8, 2023 For most of american history , when parents separated, their kids almost always ended up living with just one of them. But recent studies have confirmed a new era: Joint physical custody, in which a child resides with each parent a significant portion of the time, has become dramatically more common in the U.S. The trend was first documented in Wisconsin, where...

Click here to make your donation today. PACEs Connection is a social network that recognizes the impact of a wide variety of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in shaping adult behavior and health, and that promotes trauma-informed, healing-centered and resilience-building practices and policies in all families, organizations, systems, and communities. We support communities to accelerate the science of positive and adverse childhood experiences to solve our most intractable problems.

This week's episode focuses on how grief and mental health issues can be exacerbated by the holiday season. As we are emerging from the collective trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic, many have lost loved ones. And, even pre-pandemic, the holiday season was often a time of grief, loss and sadness. Our host Ingrid Cockhren will welcome former PACEs Connection team member and Grief & Wellness consultant, Gail Kennedy, and Yolo Cares for Kids Grief Specialist, Elisa Stone to discuss effective...

By Andrea Bonior, Image: Unsplash, Psychology Today, December 17, 2023 It has long been understood that people who have experienced trauma have a different relationship to those memories than they would to memories of typical, everyday events. Even memories with negative emotional connotations, like sadness, still seem to be in a different category than memories of trauma—where shock and helplessness force the body into an extreme threat response. The intrusion that comes with...

Aja Johnson holds a photo of herself and her mother Lenene Muldrow in their former Woodlawn apartment. Muldrow's husband was shot and killed on the South Side, and Johnson left Woodlawn due to frequent gun violence there. Carolina Sanchez for The Trace By Justin Agrelo, The Trace, December 15, 2023 This fall, I attended a support group for parents who’ve lost children, mostly to gun violence. The monthly gathering is hosted by Elizabeth Ramirez with Parents for Peace and Justice and Rincon...

Shakima Tozay, of Stanwood, Wash., held a portrait of her son, Jaxson, who died in the womb and was delivered via cesarean section.Credit...Chona Kasinger for The New York Times By Rony Carin Rabin, The New York Times, December 12, 2023 Shakima Tozay was 37 years old and six months pregnant when a nurse, checking the fetal heart rate of the baby boy she was carrying, referred to him as “a hoodlum.” Ms. Tozay, a social worker, froze. She had just been hospitalized at Providence Regional...

‘A panel of medical experts has recommended that doctors screen all patients under 65, including children and teenagers, for what the panel calls “anxiety disorders”.’ Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA By Robert Reich, The Guardian, December 11, 2023 I want to talk about an uncomfortable topic that needs much more open discussion than it’s receiving: the United States’ extraordinarily high level of anxiety. A panel of medical experts has recommended that doctors screen all patients under 65,...

From The Imprint, Image: from article, The Imprint, December 2023 Who Cares is the nation’s first public resource on foster care capacity. The Imprint collects data directly from each state, and combines that with specially obtained federal reports to shed light on two critical questions: How many kids are in foster care today? And where are they living? This year the data suggests that nationwide, the number of youth in care is going down, and so is the number of licensed foster homes.

Community members representing various races, ethnicities, ages, genders, and people with disabilities stand on rectangular bars from a bar graph while holding up a line graph, conveying representative data collection. Photo credit: Gracia Lam By Tina Kauh, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, December 7, 2023 To advance health equity, the research field and philanthropy must address underlying racism present in data collection. My parents, like so many other immigrants, moved to America with...

By Laura Newberry, Illustration: Patrick Hruby, Los Angeles Times, December 12, 2023 Woven throughout most of this newsletter is the understanding that our past informs our present. It shows up in the choices we make, our relationships, our work. No corner of our lives goes untouched by the shadows of our former selves. The concept that personal history plays a key role in our psychology has been formally recognized since the days of Freud . A younger, burgeoning field of study is now...

By Alexa Spencer, Photo: South_agency/Getty, Word In Black, December 6, 2023 Being locked away in a prison cell for years on end can be devastatingly lonely for people behind bars. Aside from mail, TV, radio, and guest visitation, their access to the outside world is limited. Perhaps, lesser known is how loneliness impacts the loved ones of incarcerated people. A 2018 report by Essie Justice Group found that 1 in 4 women in the United States, and nearly 1 in 2 Black women, have a loved one...

Left: On Dec. 7, 2022, family and friends released pink balloons in remembrance of Andreae Lloyd, whose boyfriend has been charged in her 2021 death. Right: Andreae Lloyd. Intimate partner violence is a serious public health problem that disproportionately affects Black and Indigenous women, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. States are encouraging more use of lethality risk assessments by law enforcement. Courtesy of Alfreda Lyons By Nada Hassanein, Stateline,...

The impacts of childhood trauma can follow people into adulthood causing what the CDC has determined is a 14 trillion dollar impact. Kira/RooM RF/Getty Images By Sujata Srinivasan, Photo: Kira/RooM RF/Getty Images, Connecticut Public, December 12, 2023 The U.S. economy could be $14 trillion larger if adult health conditions caused by Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are prevented, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers at the Centers for...

Click here to make your donation today. PACEs Connection is a social network that recognizes the impact of a wide variety of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in shaping adult behavior and health, and that promotes trauma-informed, healing-centered and resilience-building practices and policies in all families, organizations, systems, and communities. PACEs Connection supports local PACEs initiatives in neighborhoods, cities, counties, states, and nations. We provide initiatives with a...

As we wind down the year, let's reflect on the success of our podcast. In the last year, HCT has reached over 30,000 people. We are grateful! Here is an encore of our very first episode. Long-time health, science and technology journalist and PACEs Connection founder Jane Stevens joins PACEs Connection CEO Ingrid Cockhren to do a deep dive into why people aren’t getting an accurate picture about violence in their communities in this encore episode — our first episode, in fact — which was...

Adverse Childhood Experiences: From Screening to True Healing April 20th, 2024 Unresolved childhood trauma underlies some of the most pressing social issues of our day including homelessness, drug overdoses, obesity, loneliness, falling lifespan and crime. GOAL The goal of this conference is to bring together medical professionals, mental health professionals, faith leaders, community leaders, and government leaders to provide actionable solutions that result in true healing for those with...

By Columbia University, Photo: freestocks/Unsplash, Technology Networks Neuroscience News & Research, December 11, 2023 Racial discrimination and bias are painful realities and increasingly recognized as detrimental to the health of adults and children. These stressful experiences also appear to be transmitted from mother to child during pregnancy, altering the strength of infants’ brain circuits, according to a new study from researchers at Columbia, Yale, and Children’s Hospital of Los...

Elderly people sit on a bench in the Chinatown neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg By Sarah Holder, Bloomberg CityLab, December 7, 2023 In a brick rowhouse in Baltimore County live unlikely roommates, born half a century apart. Lena Wilson is 81 years old and has owned her three-bedroom home for over four decades. Her tenant is in his 20s; before moving in with Wilson, he was homeless. Since 2021, Wilson has welcomed young people for...

By Nina E. Cerfolio and Ira D. Glick,Photo: Unsplash, MDedge Psychiatry, December 5, 2023 Our psychiatric research, which found a high incidence of undiagnosed mental illness in mass shooters, was recently awarded the esteemed Psychodynamic Psychiatry Journal Prize for best paper published in the last 2 years (2022-2023). The editors noted our integrity in using quantitative data to argue against the common, careless assumption that mass shooters are not mentally ill. Some of the mass...

Patients in the study were examined using an fMRI machine such as this one. fMRI is a noninvasive way to measure and map activity in the brain. Getty Images By Laura Baisas, Popular Science, November 30, 2023 New research indicates that the traumatic memories of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder are represented very differently in the brain than “regular” sad autobiographical memories . A small study published November 30 in the journal Nature Neuroscience supports the idea that...

By Dara Mathis, Photo Illustration: Alanna Fields; Photo: Spelman College Archives, The New York Times, November 11, 2023 On June 24, 1983, Byllye Avery welcomed busloads of Black women to the campus of Spelman College in Atlanta. She was in a state of disbelief. The women had traveled from Mississippi, New York, Pennsylvania — even as far away as California — for a three-day event billed as the First National Conference on Black Women’s Health Issues. She had hoped that 200 women would...

By Jillian McKoy, Photo: KATE_SEPT2004/iStock, The Brink, October 31, 2023 Charlene Coyne often thinks back to how her mother, Donna, struggled with severe hypertension for most of her life, battling complications that led to a heart attack and stroke by the time Donna was in her thirties. She also recalls the dismissive response from a doctor when her mother voiced concerns about the severe side effects—blurry vision, severe headaches, dizziness, nausea, fatigue—of her blood pressure...

By Isaiah Thompson, Photo: Shelly Shell/Unsplash, Nonprofit Quarterly, November 16, 2023 In a time when reproductive rights are under threat and being actively eroded in the United States—and when Black people simultaneously face a landscape of unequal and inequitable access to healthcare—what does an agenda centered around Black reproductive justice look like? A new report from In Our Own Voice , the 2023 National Black Reproductive Justice Policy Agenda , seeks to answer that question. The...

By Victoria Hughes-Barrow and Aaron Johnson, Photo: Paolese/stock.adobe.com, Pharmacy Times, November 9, 2023 The importance of mental health, although neglected in the past, has become much more prominent since the COVID-19 pandemic. Emotional, psychological, and social aspects that constitute well-being were impacted, bringing mental health to the forefront of conversations about health and wellness. Now more than ever, it is essential to consider the mental health of populations that were...

By Natasha Crooks, Illustration: from article, Ms., December 16, 2023 As of this fall, GOP leaders and lawmakers in over a dozen states, including Iowa, Arkansas, Indiana, Idaho, New Hampshire and Kentucky, have passed bans on teaching human sexuality or stymied federal grants aimed at addressing sexual behaviors and lowering rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Six states—Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Iowa and South Carolina—have discontinued their...

By Colleen DeGuzman, Photo: E+/Getty Images, California Healthline, December 5, 2023 Many people from racial and ethnic minority groups brace themselves for insults and judgments before medical appointments, according to a new survey of patients that reaffirms the prevalence of racial discrimination in the U.S. health system. The KFF survey of nearly 6,300 patients who have had care in the past three years found that about 55% of Black adults feel they have to be very careful about their...

Crystal Pérez Lira, founder of Bloodys Red Tijuana. Ana Ramirez for STAT By Olivia Goldhill, STAT, December 7, 2023 Just over a decade ago, when Crystal Pérez Lira needed an abortion, she had to leave Mexico. The procedure was illegal in her home state of Baja California and so deeply stigmatized that even Pérez Lira supported the procedure only for those who were raped. Until she unexpectedly got pregnant. She traveled to the U.S. for help, walking alone across the border from Tijuana to...

The research calls for greater attention to the long-term health of women and girls – both before and after pregnancy. Photograph: Rogelio V Solis/AP By Andrew Gregory, The Guardian, December 6, 2023 More than 40 million women a year experience lasting health issues after childbirth, a global review has found, prompting calls for greater recognition of common postnatal problems. The sweeping analysis of maternal health worldwide shows a very high burden of long-term conditions that last for...

Leslie McIntire, 69, is part of the baby boomer generation that is entering older age amid a historic affordable housing shortage and rising wealth inequality in the U.S. Keren Carrión/NPR By Jennifer Ludden, National Public Radio (NPR), November 30, 2023 A few decades ago, Leslie McIntire thought she was doing everything right for a comfortable life. She was a tax accountant in Washington, D.C., and co-owned a not-for-profit bookstore. "I had good savings," she says. "I was quite happy,...

By Catherine Hajnal and Seanna Quresette, Photo: from article, Career Wise Weekly, November 30, 2023 Do you ever wonder why you are drawn to a helping profession? As career professionals, we constantly help people through life transitions in wide-ranging ways. Along with our knowledge, skills and abilities, we bring to this work our personal perspectives and frameworks on what it means to “help” and who exactly needs helping. When we look at what gets in the way of well-being for clients,...

By Hali Kil, Photo: from article, Greater Good Magazine, November 28, 2023 With the holiday season just around the corner, families and households will soon be gathering to give and receive gifts. Many will also be sending donations to communities in crisis, and organizing charity events and food drives to help others. The reason for our holiday generosity is obvious to us as adults. We hold a sense of moral responsibility to be kind and get a satisfying feeling of having done a good deed.

By Healthworld, Photo: from article, The Economic Times Healthworld, December 4, 2023 According to a recent study, adolescents and young adults who had adverse childh ood experiences (ACEs) before the age of 18 had a substantially higher risk of presenting indications of muscular dysmorphia. The findings were published in the Clinical Social Work Journal. [ Please click here to read more .]

By Kate Woodsome, Illustration: iStock, The Washington Post, December 4, 2023 In the holiday season, people often bring more than leftovers to work. They’re stressed by tight budgets. Alcohol flows. Trips home or down memory lane can feel like a warm embrace or a chill blast of unmet childhood needs. The hangover from all of this can be noticeable on the job. But no matter the season, every day can be bring-your-inner-child-to-work day. And everyone would be better off if workplaces took...