Stop. Before you continue scrolling, assuming this post does not pertain to you or your life or otherwise interest you, please consider this: the topic of this posts pertains to everyone, everywhere, including you. I ask you to give me the benefit of the doubt and to read to the end. Since 2012, the PACEs Connection (formerly ACEs Connection) site has served as the social network for the growing PACEs movement. PACEs (Positive and Adverse Childhood Experiences) affect each of us every day,...

When determining your own need for mental health care – or the needs of your family – it is vital to consider not just the illnesses, but any past trauma that may have shaped those illnesses. One in four children in the US experience physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. One in four women has experienced domestic violence. A sobering number of both women and men have been raped in their lives, often before the age of 10. Bearing all this in mind, mental health practitioners are becoming far...

Every time there’s a mass killing, politicians direct our attention to mental illness as the primary cause. And although mental health issues are more prevalent than ever among our youth and treatment is certainly called for, statements like this ignore the fact that we can prevent young men from reaching the point they are motivated to kill others. Most of these young men have a long history of exposure to trauma. In the case of the shooter in Uvalde, Texas, he was reportedly bullied over...

Summary: A progressive exercise training program may help mitigate some of the psychological and physiological effects of adverse childhood experiences in otherwise healthy young women. Source: Experimental Biology New research shows a progressive exercise training program mitigates some physiological and psychological effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) in otherwise healthy young women. These experiences are linked to “lasting, negative effects on health, well-being, as well as...

This is what the result of unresolved trauma looks like. What we witnessed Will Smith do in assaulting Chris Rock during the Academy Award ceremony was a trauma response. While I am in no way condoning violence, this is a very public and important opportunity for us to understand what a trauma response can look like. A trauma response can take many forms and look like: Slapping someone for saying “the wrong” thing. Yelling at someone for not doing something “fast enough” or “up to your...

By Lori Teresa Yearwood Ms. Yearwood is a reporter covering housing for the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. My descent into homelessness felt as though it happened in the blink of an eye. It was as if one moment I was standing in a meadow next to my horses, stroking their manes, and the next I was lying inside a plastic garbage bag on a park bench, wrapping clothes around my shivering body. In fact, it happened over the course of 12 devastating months from 2013 to 2014. The house I was...

Laura's note: This story is not an easy read, but in the end it's about a triumph over "the system" and is a textbook example of how children often receive diagnoses, treatment, and punishment instead of help and intervention when they are being abused. I've often wondered how my own experience growing up would have diverged had I "acted out" instead of internalizing by way of "freeze" and "fawn" -- this account below is how. I'd bet there are thousands of others who can say the same. I was...

Laura's note (added 12/24/20): This article contains graphic descriptions of sexual assault and abuse. This article contains descriptions of sexual assault. On Jan. 12 , Lisa Montgomery is set to become the first woman executed on federal death row in nearly 70 years. The last executions, both in 1953, were of Bonnie Heady, killed in a gas chamber in Missouri, and Ethel Rosenberg. Ms. Montgomery would be only the fifth woman put to death in a federal civilian execution, according to the...

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — A program through the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been extended through the end of the school year providing free breakfast and lunch meals. In a social media post, Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation announced the meals, previously set to expire in December, now runs through the end of the school year. The School Nutrition Association has been advocating for the waiver extensions, according to the post, saying "they are vital for students and their families...

Just let it go … get over it … stop living in the past …it could have been so much worse … don’t be so soft, so weak … it’s time to forget about it and move on …. These are some of the messages that people who’ve experienced a traumatic event may give themselves. Sometimes, concerned co-workers, friends, or family may communicate those same messages to those who’ve experienced trauma. Whether it comes from self-talk or from someone else just trying to help, the implication is the same:...

Play is the language of children — which is why play therapy can help kids speak the unspeakable. Dee Ray doesn’t learn how children feel by listening to their words. Ray, a researcher and counselor in Texas, learns by watching them play. She directs the Center for Play Therapy at the University of North Texas and often works in schools, where she sections off a 10 feet by 10 feet area in a classroom and fills the space with toys — a child sized kitchenette, puppets, a bop bag that a child...

When Jay'Aina Patton was three, her father, Antoine, went to prison for gun possession. It wasn’t until she was seven or eight that Jay’Aina (or “Jay Jay” as friends and family call her) really understood where her father was. She also knew just how difficult maintaining a relationship with him was. Her father was imprisoned hours away. Her mother, raising two children on her own, could only afford to take them to visit twice during his seven-year incarceration. They couldn’t make up the...

FLINT, Mich. — A baby born in Flint, Mich., where I am a pediatrician, is likely to live almost 20 fewer years than a child born elsewhere in the same county. She’s a baby like any other, with wide eyes, a growing brain and a vast, bottomless innocence — too innocent to understand the injustices that without her knowing or choosing have put her at risk. Some of the babies I care for have the bad luck to be born into neighborhoods where life expectancy is just over 64 years. Only a few miles...

Teletherapy app Ayana matches users to licensed professionals based on their culture, race, and experiences. Can it help close the mental healthcare gap? It was a cry for help that inspired entrepreneur Eric Coly to launch his startup. The former investment banker was approached by a close friend who confided to him that she needed counseling, but she couldn’t find a therapist. Or more specifically, she couldn’t find an African-American therapist. She wanted someone who could understand her...

What are adverse childhood experiences and how do they impact us later in life? In California, where I live and work as a sex and intimacy disorders specialist, there is a movement for mandatory adverse childhood experiences (ACES) assessment in all public and private medical and psychotherapeutic settings. So, regardless of an adult patient’s presenting issue(s) – medical, psychological, or both – clinicians would screen for childhood trauma. The reason for this push, which I strongly...

Laura's Note: I realize that an obituary is not typical of the type of posts we share here, but because Francine Shapiro's work has influenced and benefited so many people on this site, it seems fitting. Shapiro died in June 2019. One spring afternoon in 1987, a psychology student trying to shake off an upsetting memory took a stroll through a park in Los Gatos, Calif., distracting herself by darting her eyes back and forth. The sting of the memory quickly faded, and the student, Francine...

Offering all students free lunch helps boost academic performance, a new report, which looked at meal programs in New York City middle schools, shows. The study, out of Syracuse University’s Center for Policy Research, assessed the impact of universal free lunch on students who previously didn’t have access to such a meals program. Researchers found “statistically significant” bumps in reading and math state test scores once students attended schools with universal free lunch. One way to...

Laura's note: This story of sheer determination of transformation of self and community in the face of personal trauma AND systemic racism is breathtaking. Be warned: it may blow you away, as it did me. As a child, Ebony Smith survived sexual assault but didn’t have the tools to cope with the trauma until years later, when she found yoga. Now, she’s bringing the practice to her community, and others in crisis. Exactly 247 people came to practice yoga with me today. Why is that such a big...

In prisons across California, inmates are unlearning toxic masculinity. It might be the answer to the state’s recidivism problem. It’s been 10 years since George Luna was behind bars, but he still goes back to correctional facilities on a regular basis. He has spent most of his life cycling in and out of the justice system in Northern California. Now, he says he’s out for good and he’s looking to help other inmates do the same. The former inmate is a facilitator of a prison rehabilitation...

High percentages of incarcerated women suffer from untreated PTSD. One quickly expanding program is successfully using dance to help them move forward. When 38-year-old Cassy Bustos first saw a poster advertising the Dance to be Free program at La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo, Colorado, she felt a rare spark of excitement. It was Spring 2016 and Bustos was in the midst of serving her three-and-a-half year sentence for first-degree burglary and third-degree assault. Prison was...

Friday, April 12, 2019 marked an exciting, auspicious, and perhaps pivotal day in the history of Monroe County, Indiana. That’s a lot of adjectives—and pressure—to pile onto just another glorious spring day in Bloomington. But I think many folks who virtually congregate on a site that supports communities implementing trauma-informed and resilience-building practices grounded in ACEs science would agree that a county’s first-ever ACEs conference deserves a little ballyhoo. But this ACEs...

Is our country looking in the wrong places in our efforts to prevent child neglect? By focusing on individual families accused of maltreatment, are we letting society off the hook? That is the contention of a new paper by researchers at the University of Connecticut, University of Illinois and Georgia Tech, who say we can reduce child neglect by putting more money in the pockets of poor families. The authors say our current approach is a version of the "streetlight effect." "A guy is looking...

If you’ve watched “Madagascar,” you’re sure to have seen King Julien leading the jungle in a rousing chant of “I Like to Move It, Move It” while doing just that. It turns out King Julien was onto something. If the iconic lemur were a scientist, he might have written a dazzling paper on what our ancestors already knew: Dance can help heal what ails you. As it is, more and more researchers studying the healing power of rhythmic movement on people who’ve experienced trauma from Adverse...

According to many sources in the mainstream medical literature , anywhere from 60-90% of illnesses have stress-related emotional underpinnings, which can be translated into one word—trauma. Indigenous healers, shamans, energy healers, and gurus have known this for millennia, but in spite of statistics thrown around in medical journals, the medical community’s approach to disease treatment has been slow to catch up. The good news is that things are changing, and this idea that...

Resilience, or the ability to overcome challenges in life, is a trait many parents hope their children will develop. Resilient children are more likely to have good emotional and mental health. Research has shown that children who know more about their families and family history are more resilient and tend to do better when facing challenges in life. This may be because seeing patterns of overcoming failures and surviving hard times can help children recognize that people can recover and...

Louis Boria, a.k.a. Brooklyn Boy, at right, shows New Visions sophomore Russell Arnold, 16, at center left, and other students a new knitting pattern during his two-hour workshop with the Knitting Club at New Visions School on Blue Hills Avenue in Hartford. After Louis Boria heard about the student knitters of Hartford, he came to Connecticut with a message — and a challenge. “Fall in love with your passion. Love yourself first,” Boria — the founder of his own knitting company, Brooklyn Boy...

Susan Cole, director of the Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative at Harvard Law School and Massachusetts Advocates for Children, believes the most effective school settings weave trauma sensitivity into other affairs of the school day. The principal of a small elementary school in central Massachusetts was approached by his staff with a request. They asked about their school becoming more responsive to trauma owing to the number of children in their classrooms who seemed to be facing...

A living wage is an antidepressant. It is a sleep aid. A diet. A stress reliever. It is a contraceptive, preventing teenage pregnancy. It prevents premature death. It shields children from neglect. IN 2014, Julio Payes was working 80 hours a week at two full-time jobs. A permanent resident from Guatemala who came to the United States on a work visa, Payes labored in Emeryville, Calif., a city of roughly 12,000 residents and almost 22,000 jobs, sandwiched between Oakland and Berkeley. He...

Research shows African-Americans are less likely to access treatment for mental illness. Cultural norms and the stigma associated with having a mental illness are partly to blame, according to Shardé Smith , assistant professor of human development and family studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Smith studies the role that race-related stress and trauma has on entire families, and what strategies people use to cope. She spoke recently with Side Effects Public Media...

"If you’ve survived a traumatic incident, ignoring mental health treatment can negatively impact your body." Often, when someone survives a traumatic incident — such as a sexual assault , police brutality , a hate crime , or a school shooting — the trauma stays with them, even though the danger is gone. If trauma is left untreated, it can impact your physical health. In other words, if you’ve survived a traumatic incident, ignoring mental health treatment can negatively impact your body. If...

It's hard to empathize with someone who carries out a school shooting. The brutality of their crimes is unspeakable. Whether the shootings were at Columbine, at Sandy Hook, or in Parkland, they have traumatized students and communities across the U.S. Psychologist John Van Dreal understands that. He is the director of safety and risk management at Salem-Keizer Public Schools in Oregon, a state that has had its share of school shootings. In 2014, about 60 miles from Salem, where Van Dreal is...

Last weekend I saw The Grinch at the movie theater with my nephews and family. Everyone knows the historic tale of the Dr. Suess book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Grouchy green guy steals Christmas from innocent town in an attempt to make his own pain go away. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t work, and the kind hearts of the Whos in Whoville show the Grinch that the spirit of Christmas comes from their hearts and not material goods. I guess this was the first time I watched The Grinch in...

An ambitious initiative unveiled this week by British Health Secretary Matt Hancock may soon enable the country’s doctors to prescribe therapeutic art- or hobby-based treatments for ailments ranging from dementia to psychosis, lung conditions and mental health issues. Writing for the Times , Kat Lay explains that this unconventional strategy, described by the U.K. government as “social prescribing,” could find patients enrolled in dance classes and singing lessons, or perhaps enjoying a...

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be a challenging mental health issue to manage, especially considering it's unique to each and every individual. However, a common trigger for many people with PTSD is their “trauma anniversary,” or the date that a traumatic incident or event occurred. In fact, a trauma anniversary (and the weeks leading up to it) can be one of the most difficult times during the year for people who live with PTSD. Fortunately, mental health experts say there are ways...

About halfway through the three-hour siege at Trader Joe’s in Silver Lake, the wounded gunman, Gene Atkins, looked at one of his hostages, MaryLinda Moss, and told her it was all over for him. “I just shot at a cop,” he said. Moss, a 55-year-old artist who exudes calm, feared a suicidal gunman could spark a bloodbath. Through a series of disastrous decisions by Atkins, dozens of strangers had ended up at the grocery store on a hot Saturday afternoon, drenched in fear and surrounded by SWAT...

It's hard enough for employers to find workers to fill open jobs these days, but on top of it, many prospective hires are failing drug tests. The Belden electric wire factory in Richmond, Ind., is taking a novel approach to both problems: It now offers drug treatment, paid for by the company, to job applicants who fail the drug screen. Those who complete treatment are also promised a job. The pilot program, launched in February, is believed to be the first of its kind, and is an...

Nature really can be healing. A new study shows that removing trash and adding trees to empty lots helped people feel happier and reduced symptoms of depression. In what is perhaps the first scientific study of the effects of public spaces on mental health, a non-profit group in Philadelphia cleaned up trash-filled vacant lots and "greened up" others, primarily in low-income areas, and found that residents reported feeling happier. “Doctors can treat depression, drugs and wounds, but we need...

Thanks to the ever-present media and and rise in social media use, people across the economic spectrum are seeing dramatic examples of racism in our society in clear video. We’re talking about Black men shot for no reason, youth sentenced to disproportionate sentences and customers being arrested for sitting in a coffee shop, to name a few. Similarly, we are beginning to hear and understand the dramatic stories of our most vulnerable young people, young people who have been victimized,...

When I was 12, my mother cornered me in the bathroom of our suburban Vancouver home. “Your teeth are too yellow,” she said, handing me a can of Comet. Though disappointed that little about me ever pleased my parent, I understood from past experience how to get through the current predicament. I sprinkled green powder on my toothbrush and did my best to not let any of it go down my throat while I scrubbed. The things I didn’t do: report her to the authorities; confide in a reliable adult;...

Therapy can treat symptoms of mental conditions from anxiety to depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—but how does it work? According to a study in mice, it may tap into a part of the brain that stores trauma and uses it to heal. Researchers in Switzerland investigated how therapy tackles even long-term memories of trauma, including those that lead to PTSD. They found fear attenuation may occur in the same group of neurons in the brain that create and store the memories.

I live with someone who is 24 times more likely than the average person to attempt suicide. My husband is the survivor of extreme childhood trauma — and has lived through years of harrowing neglect and abuse, even bearing witness to his own mother’s multiple attempts to end her life. His heartbreaking upbringing makes him far more susceptible to repeating her patterns. Millions of children and adults suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder will follow suit. He survived ten of eleven...

KENT, Ohio - Kent State University researchers have received a $2.7 million grant to study how to best identify and treat depression and anxiety caused by a trauma. The five-year grant from the National Institute of Mental Health will allow a group of researchers, led by associate professor of psychology Karin Coifman, to look for more efficient treatment approaches. Depression is the leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide, the university said. According to the World Health...

Laura's note: This call for submissions of stories about mental health by the editors of YES! Magazine has the ACEs Connection Network (ACN) community's name written all over it. OK, not literally. But you know what I mean. There are so many knowledgable, passionate people posting and commenting on this site about their experiences and efforts related to preventing and healing childhood trauma and understanding the roots of it, not to mention a lot of talented writers. I bet the stories of...

“We were in special measures. We had low staff morale, parents not happy with the school, results were poor and nobody wanted to come here, we had budget issues. It’s a downward spiral when you’re there.” This is what Feversham headteacher, Naveed Idrees, told The Guardian . He continued: “We could have gone down the route where we said we need to get results up, we’re going to do more English, more maths, more booster classes, but we didn’t. You might hit the results but your staff morale...