January 2018

I mentioned in my Introductory Post and my Now What?... Mindfulness post – I just started EMDR therapy and I plan to share the experience and my thoughts as I progress. I thought I would be starting sooner, but as it turns out you still have to do a little talking about things before you start. But, this week I finally had my first actual session. My therapist confessed that she doesn’t entirely understand how or why this works, but that she’s done it enough times to know that it does work...

“Unfortunately, the (current law) does not work,” Battis told Foster’s Daily Democrat Wednesday. “We’re definitely at a point in our society where we’re having difficult conversations about issues. We need to have a difficult conversation about restraint and isolation in classroom settings.”

Thoughts on the shift from, "What's wrong with you?" to "What happened to you?" Dear Monadnock Thrives & ACEs Connection: I have to admit, it has taken me some time to understand the value of shifting from, “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?” As a person with high ACEs, I realize I have been absolutely conditioned by our culture to resist the victim label (I resist thinking about what happened to me) and to ‘own’ my response to whatever has happened to me (I must pursue...

ORIGINAL POST 1/20/18 Right after the New Year, Jocelyn Goldblatt, Cissy White, and I discussed Jocelyn's capstone project for her Master's Thesis. The screening and panel discussion of the documentary Resilience was her brain child and the cornerstone of her project. But it would also doubly duty as the launch event for the new ACES Connection chapter in Keene, NH (Monadnock Thrives). During the discussion, I boldly announced that we would be lucky to get 30 people in the audience. And I...

ORIGINAL POST 1/20/18 Right after the New Year, Jocelyn Goldblatt, Cissy White, and I discussed Jocelyn's capstone project for her Master's Thesis. The screening and panel discussion of the documentary Resilience was her brain child and the cornerstone of her project. But it would also doubly duty as the launch event for the new ACES Connection chapter in Keene, NH (Monadnock Thrives). During the discussion, I boldly announced that we would be lucky to get 30 people in the audience. And I...

Jocelyn Goldblatt, Cissy White, and Emily Read Daniels are designing an unforgettable evening that will spur community dialogue about an important documentary - Resilience - and the reality of childhood trauma in the Monadnock Region of NH. Please join us and many, many others for this event on Thursday, February 15th 6:30-8:30 pm at the Keene Public Library in Keene, NH. Attendance is expected to be large, so please register to reserve your spot: ...

I am so happy to see ACEs covered in Politico this morning! Politico, if you're not familiar with it, is a respected publication in DC that all the policy wonks read on the Metro on their way to work every morning. So many influencial eyeballs will have this on their radar today! My favorite tidbit from the article is this: "At many talks, she said, she hears from someone acting as a primary caregiver, such as a grandmother caring for her grandchild. 'Once she begins to put the pieces...

"Findings over the past 20 years have been clear that whatever scarring experiences happened to those patients as children had physical and mental health consequences throughout their lives. Fortunately, Maine is a leader in promoting the prevention of Adverse Childhood Experiences. The Legislature has been willing to try to prevent ACEs, primarily by increasing children’s access to quality learning and educational experiences in their child care settings. But we also need legislators to be...

Let me tell you, dinner with a behaviorist is an experience, a somatic experience. Lily (name changed to protect her ;-)) and I shared Indian food two nights ago in Keene, NH. As I shuffled into the restaurant ten minutes late (typical for me), I rounded the corner and saw her sitting at a table for two. I beamed; I knew I was in for some rich discussion and a total "nerding out" session. Lily and I are former colleagues. We worked together for only a year, but it was my first year in a new...

http://www.wmur.com/article/ptsd-in-first-responders-should-be-covered-by-workers-comp-unions-say/14849003 Yes, please! Let’s support our helpers. Ideally, the whole community would be aligned in support of those who are struggling with unresolved trauma. But, the truth is that it falls on a specific few including first responders. If everyone can’t lend a hand in this work, at least let’s support the people who are!

https://www.revealnews.org/article/as-opioid-crisis-strains-foster-care-states-arent-tracking-the-damage/ As a CASA volunteer, one of the first things I learned in training is that cases are rising due to the opioid epidemic. ACEs were mentioned and there seems to be a general understanding that they are connected. This article suggests that it is important to specify opioids versus any other addiction. I’m not sure. When we say that sometimes the problem is the solution, we are indicating...

Could doctors and teachers team up to reduce stress in schools ? Both are among a variety of professions in a unique, yet limited, position to observe and support children. We know that when a child is experiencing toxic stress, the whole child is impacted. Symptoms and solutions can be complex and certainly a coordinated effort to address them would be more beneficial than disparate silos. How do doctors and teachers feel about it?