Getty Images In the opening arguments to Harvey Weinstein’s criminal trial in Los Angeles this week, the producer’s defense lawyer pointed to his moldering, overweight client and asked the rhetorical question, “ Do you think these beautiful women had sex with him because he’s hot?” The inference is that poor Harvey was not going to get laid unless in exchange for what he provided in career advancement to conniving “Hollywood wannabes.” That was not my experience as one of his victims. When I...

As a survivor of interpersonal trauma, commitment and intimacy have never been easy, which is why I never did remarry after my first marriage fell apart. That is until last October, when my boyfriend who had been living at a comfortable distance (measured in thousands of miles) suggested I pack up my apartment and ride out the pandemic with him in Hawaii. Thus began an adventure that had me breathing into paper bags and him warranting a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. I get bent out of...

I’m a survivor of Harvey Weinstein. There’s a question I’d like people to stop asking me. BY LOUISE GODBOLD AUG 23, 2021 5:45 AM Last month, Harvey Weinstein was in the news again following his extradition to Los Angeles , where he faces additional charges of sexual assault. I am a Weinstein survivor. My case falls outside the statute of limitations and therefore will never be prosecuted. But because I have been public about my experience—and also because I have made a career of training and...

I know the Echo parenting course is life-changing — not least because as a parent I've experienced the benefits myself— but we at Echo don’t always get to hear the individual stories of the families we serve. However, at the onset of the pandemic, we were making a lot of calls to help parents transition from in-person to online classes. As a result, I got to talk to two parents—Kenia and Lilian—who were so generous in their appreciation of the parenting course and so clear about how this...

Kindness does not equate to being ‘trauma-informed’. And being trauma-informed sadly does not always equate to being ‘survivor-informed’.

EARLY BIRD PRICING ENDS FRIDAY, FEB 29! $90 /individuals; $150/ professionals* . *Professionals are those attending on behalf of their organization, and Individuals are those attending of their own accord.* The Echo conference, which is being held in Los Angeles next month, is known for shining a light on new developments in the trauma field, and this year, our "And Still We Rise" conference will be no different. Only the difference this year is that we will be doing something revolutionary...

The Echo conference is known for shining a light on new developments in the trauma field, and this year, our "And Still We Rise" conference will be no different. Only the difference this year is that we will be doing something revolutionary in our field - providing information on trauma and resilience DIRECTLY TO SURVIVORS . Historically, the conference audience has been service providers and - as any trauma survivor will tell you - it is imperative that our services, systems, and...

( Download the infographic on our website here . ) With the Harvey Weinstein trial underway, once again the news coverage is bound to churn up emotions for sexual assault survivors as it did during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings in 2018. During that time, many of the women around me were subdued and anxious, suffering from migraines or coming down with colds. This was not a coincidence - these are just some of the ways trauma reminders can impact us physically and emotionally.

Trauma-informed care is the new gold standard. For the last several years, Echo has been providing professional development in trauma-informed care but we’re beginning to notice a worrying aspect of the new push to train staff and transform systems. Some human service professionals are seeing ‘trauma-informed care’ as another skill to add to their resume or a box to check off on a grant proposal. But if the information stays with the professionals and is not used to empower survivors, then...

I wanted to tell you about our SUMMER ACADEMY - TRAIN THE TRAINER - your opportunity to become a facilitator for Echo's Trauma & Resilience training. In June, we will be holding a 3-day intensive to train future Echo trainers and others who want to become facilitators in our 6-hour Trauma & Resilience training. Covering the basics, such as the Adverse Childhood Experience Study, the triune brain, the impact of trauma on the nervous system, trauma responses and trauma-informed care,...

30 years ago, Dr. Shapiro was walking through a park when she noticed that her eyes started to move from side-to-side rapidly when she was thinking about something upsetting. Then she noticed that when these thoughts came up again, they didn't have the same power to upset her. That was the beginning of what has now evolved into an evidence-based practice for resolving trauma. At the Echo conference in Los Angeles on March 18 & 19, 2019, you will learn about EMDR from Ana Gomez, who was...

Echo conferences have a reputation for being chockfull of innovative approaches and cutting edge science. We featured Dr. Vincent Felitti and ACEs science in 2013, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk in 2015, and hosted the first national trauma-informed schools conference in 2016. What we have prepared for 2019 is no exception. I guarantee it will be unlike any conference you have attended before. The innate wisdom of the body has long been understood by traditions like yoga and harnessed for...

You've maybe heard of EMDR, neurofeedback, EFT (tapping) or practiced yoga. Maybe you've taken part in traditional healing ceremonies or religious rituals that are part of your culture. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Do these things really heal the hurts that we acquire during life and can we trust our recovery to something other than pharmaceuticals or the therapists' couch? There are plenty of communities that say yes .

At the Echo conference in Los Angeles on March 18 & 19, 2019 we will be showcasing many new and traditional ways to use the body to reverse the impact of trauma. One of these ways is Havening. During her workshop, Dr. Kate Truitt will explain how stressful events impact brain functioning and how the Havening Techniques harness the power of neuroplasticity to create sustainable healing. Her workshop will cover: Fundamentals of the Havening Techniques Key areas for fast and effective...

Never before have we gathered such a range of interesting, revolutionary and effective means of healing from trauma. If you don’t come for yourself, come for those you love and/or serve.

(click to download) We love science at Echo. It has been my greatest pleasure to share the science about the impact of trauma, including the changes that happen to the various systems of the body in our Trauma and Resilience trainings . The list is pretty exhaustive, and to try to make sense of it all, we’ve developed another of our popular infographics. Nervous system: This is where we focus a lot of our attention in trauma and recovery. The nervous system takes a beating when we live with...

We have been banging the drum at Echo for some time now about trauma and how it gets stored in our bodies. We uphold the work of people like Dr. Peter Levine, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk and other researchers who have concluded that talk therapy alone is not enough to release and overwrite the disruptive patterns trauma creates in our bodies. At our 2019 conference , Trauma Recovery: Community Evidenced Practices (March 18 & 19) you will be able to explore for yourself a variety of new and...

What would we do if we could see every psychological wound ever inflicted as a physical bruise? We would see a lot of black and blue people walking around! We might also be more careful of each other, understanding the degree of suffering we each have endured.

This is the era of the survivor. The people who think that we can go back to business as usual have not understood that we have become emboldened to speak our truth and to demand that we are treated better.

One of the biggest shifts when acquiring a trauma-informed lens is to realize that there is no therapist, guru, healer, fantasy rescuer or parental stand-in who can heal you from trauma. The old paradigm was that someone, an expert, would perhaps hand you a Kleenex, and then offer you wisdom and insight metered out in 50-minute increments. Maybe the expert took the form of a religious figure and you traveled to an ashram to sit at his feet. Or maybe you believed that fast-talking salesman...

Want to get certified in Echo's new trauma-informed nonviolent parenting curriculum? For the last 18 years, Echo has been providing sliding-scale parenting classes in Los Angeles. The 10-class series includes the latest science on the brain and childhood trauma and gives parents many tools for creating the kind of safe, stable nurturing relationship we all want with our children and underpins healthy development. Classes are available in English and Spanish. This fall, Echo will be offering...

Want to get certified in Echo's new trauma-informed nonviolent parenting curriculum? For the last 18 years, Echo has been providing sliding-scale parenting classes in Los Angeles. The 10-class series includes the latest science on the brain and childhood trauma and gives parents many tools for creating the kind of safe, stable nurturing relationship we all want with our children and underpins healthy development. Classes are available in English and Spanish. This fall, Echo will be offering...

Asia Argento is under sickening attacks following the suicide of her partner, Anthony Bourdain. One of the most vitriolic attacks was by the female writer of an article in Penthouse who talked about ‘toxic femininity’ while bashing Asia and other sexual assault victims. Apparently, in the writer’s view, someone forcing oral sex on you is not sexual assault but transactional sex. Not only is that view unfathomable but it defies belief that women could bash other women and then accuse THEM of...

When the survival responses take hold, you still think you’re in control. In fact, for a trauma survivor it is imperative to delude ourselves into thinking we are in control because lack of it is how we got hurt in the first place. We need the illusion that we have choice, and that choice just happens to be… fight, flight, freeze or befriend.

The problem about being a tourist in the world of endocrinology and molecular biology is that some of the finer points of the science can be beyond us. However, Echo takes great pride in being able to sift through and break down complex concepts, making them accessible to the people who need this information – and when it’s trauma-related that means just about everyone. One of the things we get excited about is cortisol. Cortisol is one of the cocktail of stress hormones that get released...

In the fall, Echo will be rolling out the new Training & Certification Course (TCC) for selected candidates who want to become certified in the Echo trauma-informed, nonviolent parenting curriculum. This is the first time Echo will be offering the certification course since 2016. We've been spending the intervening time systematically revising the old parenting curriculum, bringing it up-to-date with the trauma and resilience information that we are already teaching in the parenting...

My close friend and fellow Harvey Weinstein survivor, Lysette Anthony, wrote a response to the widely reported speech by Germaine Greer at the Hay Festival during which she claimed most rape doesn’t involve " any injury whatsoever " and that it should be viewed as merely a “ lazy, careless and insensitive ” act. If you read the reports more closely, you'll notice that Ms. Greer's use of the words ‘outrage’ and ‘humiliation’ and the suggestion that rapists should have an R tattooed on their...

Sexual abuse is so personal - it is between two people, not like business fraud for example. If there is no acknowledgment the abuser is saying, “You meant nothing to me when I assaulted you, and you mean nothing to me now because I will not validate your pain and suffering by admitting to what I did, nor give you the satisfaction of my remorse.” It’s hard to heal when the abuser maintains there is nothing to heal from.

Trauma-informed care should be like universal precautions – in the same way you wouldn’t clean up a blood spill without wearing gloves, you should always assume that someone has experienced trauma and treat them accordingly. Only it doesn’t happen that way. Once our indignation or any other parts of our wounded selves come into play, that usually goes out of the window unless you have been conditioned to wear a trauma-informed lens. And even then, there will be times we fail. Let me give you...

I was eight years old when I was coerced into acts that haunt me to this day. The boy was older, bigger, enjoyed his status as my senior, and took advantage of being given the responsibility of looking after me to satisfy his sexual curiosity at my expense. Only it wasn’t just sexual curiosity between two minors; I was confused, horrified, transfixed by disgust, and made to feel complicit because I accepted my reward of soda. The first time. The following occasions, he didn't need to reward...

One of the five domains of post-traumatic growth is spirituality. Helping us understand the role of spirituality in recovering from trauma at the Echo Frontiers of Resilience conference is Shaun Tomson . If you think the name and face look familiar then perhaps you know him from his days as a world champion surfer. Shaun needed every single one of the lessons he had learned about facing challenges in the form of towering waves and overcoming wipe-outs when he lost his 15-year-old son to a...

I wanted to give the heads up to our ACESConnection friends about Dr. Monique Marrow who is one of the keynotes at Echo's March 21 & 22nd Frontiers of Resilience conference. Dr. Marrow will be speaking on “ Addressing Trauma in System-Involved Youth ," drawing on her extensive experience as a child psychologist in the juvenile justice system. She talks about the ' invisible suitcase ' that system-involved youth carry - a suitcase full of thoughts and perceptions about the world that have...

Thanks to #MeToo there is now less stigma and a great deal of empowerment surrounding those who choose to come out about sexual harassment and assault. As there was a veritable tsunami of people posting the hashtag, victims were released from becoming the focus of attention or being pressed by friends and family for details that the victim is not yet ready to give, or can find retraumatizing. It was enough to post those simple words and stand, freed from shame and blame, in solidarity with...

Part of the fun of being deeply immersed in the world of trauma and resilience is that you get to learn about pioneers around the world doing great work. Better still, sometimes you're able to persuade them to bring their work to LA! Kirstie Seaborne is based in the UK, where she supports parents and professionals in "responding to children under pressure." She does this by helping adults rewrite their embodied response to challenging behaviors. Kirstie already had a career in dance and...

Please check out the inspiring keynote speakers and embodied resilience workshops we have lined up for Echo's 2018 conference . We will be looking at how trauma and resilience are transmitted across generations and learn how to not only be resilient but also thrive despite trauma histories.

Read "The Promise of Post-Traumatic Growth Part I" here . What do you imagine post-traumatic growth looks like? Feeling stronger in the face of a new challenge, knowing we’ve already overcome the worst that life can throw at us? Being more grateful for the little things? More connected to our friends and family? Finding new perspective and priorities? Or maybe having a deeper sense of the mystery and sanctity of life? The answer is all of the above. In the first part of our article “ The...

Sarah Ann Masse is one half of the incredibly talented “We Are Thomasse" duo. She is also one of the women who came forward about Harvey Weinstein. Sarah and her husband, Nick Afka Thomas, created a holiday video about consent that has been causing an Internet stir. "I've been using my comedy as a way to address issues that I am passionate about for the past few years, but trying to tackle sexual assault, rape culture, and victim-blaming head on felt more difficult and much more personal."...