February 2019

We hope you will join ther first annual Trauma Informed Schools Network Conference: Cultivating Connections coming to Nashville, TN in mid-July. Details to come soon. The RFP wil open this Friday.

A new mother who had just worked nine hours as a retail associate entered a medical clinic to seek care for her four-month old son who has been coughing over the past three days. Her google search yielded a clinic in the economic upper echelon of the southwest suburbs, between her place of employment and her condominium, which she recently purchased to give her infant son a chance at a better life, far from the violent community of Austin on the westside of Chicago. After a two-hour wait, a...

Research shows that the right kind of support and care can mitigate the impact of toxic stress in children and help them bounce back.

We've been parenting our youngest daughter since she was a toddler adopted from China. She came to us with unspeakable pre-adoptive abuse. There was a big learning curve but we (all of us) jumped in and learned what we need to know about RAD and the underpinning trauma. As child separations and the news continued - it was clearly a trigger for me. This separation of children from parents is what happens to all the children in China as a result of the cruel one-child policy was enforced, and...

Benjamin Franklin once said; “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Nowhere is this axiom truer than in the field of children’s mental health. My years of education, training and experience as a school-based clinical social worker at The Guidance Center , working with children, their families and educators, has led me to realize the value of a trauma-informed lens. This means I have an understanding of how the brain forms and functions in relation to the environment, and that...

One of the fundamental drivers of the environmental justice movement is that low-income communities and communities of color are often at the forefront of environmental harm, since they are more likely to live in the path of air pollution and near toxic facilities like oil refineries . But a study recently published in Nature Sustainability highlights the fact that communities of color are also disproportionately missing out on the benefits of rooftop solar power. Led by Deborah Sunter, an...

One of the key findings of the most recent United Nations report on the mounting perils of climate change is that rising temperatures pose a distinct risk to indigenous people, who are often small farmers, fishers or herders. The report noted that punishing storms, lasting drought and stifling heat threaten the lives and livelihoods of aboriginal groups from the Amazon rainforest to the Arctic Circle. The Sámi people offer a case in point. The only recognized indigenous group in Europe has...

How do you measure a year? The cast of Rent sings about measuring life over the course of a year in love. It's been five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes since my niece hid in a closet during the Parkland shootings that killed 14 students and 3 staff members. It has also been almost seventy years since my father survived the mass shooting that killed his mother, father, and grandmother, along with 10 others. Over the course of this past year since the Parkland shooting, I've...

Present-Centered Therapy is a non-trauma focused treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This therapy modality is called “present centered” as the goal is to focus on the client’s current/present life while recognizing the connection between PTSD symptoms and current struggles. All the while doing this without focusing on past traumatic events.

By P. Berman, K. Hecht, & A. Hosack This is a weird place. So much rushing around. Claire can just barely hear someone talking on a phone in the next room. Who are these people? What will they do to her and Davy? Claire takes a risk and asks Nancy, “Do you know what Ms. Alexandra is going to do with me and Davy?” Nancy has been working with Ms. Alexandra for about a month. It has been mostly good, but she has been warned that if her drug testing ever becomes positive, Sara is going into...

Are you a part of this week-long focus on children of addiction (COAs), the issues that face them, and a celebration of recovery possible for them? Join this international campaign as we explore the hope and healing possible for COAs during COA Awareness Week 2019 . Learn more . This year we are focusing on the #7Cs : from Betty Ford Center Children's Programs Jerry Moe; the best guide to provide hope and healing to children living with parental addiction. We will be featuring one each day...

Kids with RAD don’t know how to trust. These kids have been hurt so many times, that they don’t know how to handle consistency. Trauma at a young age kills off parts of the brain that handles trust — belief — understanding — emotions.