Blog

We are seeking a few additional leaders and experts in education to join as panelists for a special closed meeting roundtable discussion taking place on 4/9 @ 11:00 am - 2:30 pm (ET). Topics will include equitable access to quality education for children of African descent, the viability of a whole-person education for children of African descent, providing school children of African descent tools for healing and resilience, and ensuring that the education of children of African descent...

Have you ever thought - Why did he act like that? Why did she say that? That reaction seemed extreme! What was I thinking? Maybe a presentation from Take a Second Look Educational Foundation is right for your organization? Take a Second Look Educational Foundation - Our purpose is to provide information about how we can understand each other better and develop more compassion once we understand what is going on in a person’s brain. “Let’s take a second look at what is really going on…” Who...

Primary prevention is a medical term that describes powerful measures that prevent rather than treat illness, e.g. immunization, regular exercise, proper nutrition, not smoking. Ask yourselves why there is so much attention given to secondary and tertiary prevention of child abuse and so little attention given to primary prevention. Dr. John Briere, professor of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, and Center Director of...

"Helena, it's like life and business. You have to start at the bottom, work your way up and hold tight. You never start at the top." For hours upon hours, I would sit as my mom parted, combed, washed, conditioned and braided my thick, curly hair. While she meticulously worked on my hair, my mom taught me many things. It certainly wasn't just about my hair. It was a sacred time of closeness and connection that I now hold dear. I sure didn't then! In my years working with foster youth, I often...

New book on education is being released. Webinar at Rutgers GSE offers discount code for book and PowerPoint deck.

For many organizations, the inability to recognize the ways that sociocultural trauma is activated becomes the missing link in otherwise genuine efforts to create a healthy workplace environment. In this webinar, we’ll: + define socio-cultural trauma + learn how it becomes activated at work + learn how to create a truly inclusive community at your workplace >>Register Here<< This event is part of a weekly series by Tend Collective , a trauma-informed care consultancy. @Donielle...

By Laura Gallant, 3/11/24, https://positiveexperience.org/blog/ The HOPE framework, centered around positive childhood experiences (PCEs), helps professionals and organizations achieve their mission of improving the health and well-being of children, families, and communities. It is an impactful framework that can be used on its own and alongside other models such as strength-based and trauma-informed care approaches. While many models and frameworks also celebrate strengths and promote...

The current conversation about anxiety and depression is lacking a vital dimension: emotions education. We are now learning that many instances of anxiety and depression are actually symptoms of buried core emotions. These types of symptoms could be prevented with more education surrounding emotions and trauma.

“It is not the bruises on the body that hurt. It is the wounds of the heart and the scars on the mind.” - Aisha Mirza. “The goal of recovery is not to become normal. The goal is to embrace the human vocation of becoming more deeply, more fully human.” - Patricia Deegan. “Be careful what you water your dreams with. Water them with worry and fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream. Water them with optimism and solutions and you will cultivate success. Always be on...

The Journal of the American Medical Association has reported that the national economic burden of ACE-related adult health conditions was $14.1 trillion annually ($183 billion in direct medical spending and $13.9 trillion in lost healthy life-years), or $88, 000 per affected adult annually and $2.4 million over their lifetimes. and The most important and least discussed takeaway from The ACE Study is that many aces could be prevented with an entirely new kind of parenting education that...

International Women’s Day, is a day to both celebrate and advocate. As part of advocating, I’m resharing this 32min “An introduction to insidious trauma” video, I did for a Dr. King event. Also, for those who don’t normally read YouTube descriptions - there are links to the handout and more there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfJK9MDG8Ek Video description: Insidious trauma is the daily incidents of marginalization, objectification, dehumanization, intimidation, et cetera that are...

This splinter story is an APOE metaphor, a term I have coined as "adverse pre-onset experiences" aka APOEs. This builds on the term for our knowledge that ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) influence risk for chronic illness. This is about how chronic illness starts for many of us within weeks or months of a stressful or traumatic event. And how we think, very normally, that this particular event is the cause...