Blog

What are the elements of a healthy and equitable community? How do we create conditions in which all children and families can thrive? ChangeLab Solutions is excited to announce the Building Healthy, Equitable Communities Series —a virtual space for collaborative exploration of the topic of health equity. In this multimedia training series, we examine how law and policy coupled with community power can catalyze new opportunities for everyone to achieve their full health potential. Roughly...

In one of the largest and most diverse studies of transgender youths to date, researchers led by a team at The University of Texas at Austin have found that when transgender youths are allowed to use their chosen name in places such as work, school and at home, their risk of depression and suicide drops. “Many kids who are transgender have chosen a name that is different than the one that they were given at birth,” said author Stephen T. Russell , professor and chair of human development and...

As an editor, I sometimes coach writers as they're in the process of creating a manuscript. At present, I'm working with a novelist who "needs a better ending." I asked her to ask her characters to reveal what they needed from her, but I suggested that some research be done in the "outer world." Not content to leave the issue to the writer alone, I had some time to a bit of research on my own, and look...I found this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdhnP7MvvWo Rabbi Manis Friedman, author of The...

“Kill him,” a white mob chanted as Martin Luther King Jr. marched across Marquette Park in the late summer of 1966. King had recently moved to Chicago, and on that August afternoon, he joined a Chicago Freedom Movement march to demand that realtors not discriminate against black residents seeking to live in white neighborhoods. But a group of white counter-protesters grew violent and started hurling rocks, bottles, and bricks at the demonstrators, eventually striking King in the head . “I’ve...

In 2014, a team of Harvard researchers visited San Diego Unified and produced a report that convinced school district administrators their punitive, zero-tolerance policies weren’t working. According to the researchers, a disproportionate number of suspensions and expulsions had involved students of color and those with disabilities. Students repeatedly suspended from school were more likely to drop out of school or be involved with the criminal justice system. [For more of this story,...

Recently a journalist colleague of mine put out a call for quotes from those who suffer from severe premenstrual syndrome and premenstrual dysmorphic disorder (more commonly known as PMS and PMDD, respectively) who also suffered a history of childhood abuse. Her interest was piqued by a 2014 peer reviewed article that appeared in the Journal of Women’s Health linking the disorders with early onset abuse. I answered the call, having both PMS and PMDD, as well as a history of child abuse by...

On March 11 of this year, “60 Minutes” aired a report on the long-term effects of childhood trauma, or Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). The report featured renowned psychiatrist Dr. Bruce Perry who stated that because of their developing brains, children are much more sensitive to developmental trauma than adults. As evidence of the impact of childhood trauma continues to permeate child-serving institutions, teachers, social workers, pediatricians and caregivers are changing the way...

Like millions of others in the U.S. and throughout the world, I’ve been depressed a lot in my life. I’ve taken medications to help relieve the hopelessness, irritability, and lack of energy that plagued me. In 2004, I wrote a book, “ The Irritable Male Syndrome: Understanding the 4 Key Causes of Depression and Aggression ” that gathered the information I had discovered in 35 years as a psychotherapist. But since then, I’ve learned something new about the hidden cause of depression and have...

On the day after the 2016 presidential election, a group of pediatricians arrived at the Customs and Border Protection processing center here. Their host was Marsha Griffin, MD, a pediatrician who practices in this border town and is co-chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Immigrant Health Special Interest Group. Griffin had been at work with two fellow AAP members on a policy statement for the academy calling on the government to stop separating families who've been apprehended...

Last week I shared the link to the video with Oprah on 60 minutes. In that show, she talked about the role of childhood trauma in her life. I believe that this was an important event for all of us in the Trauma and Attachment fields. It furthers our work and brings collective light on these important issues so they do not stay in the shadows! I'm also excited to let you know that next week we will be reopening our free video training series on Attachment, for the first time since 2016. You...

I've been a member here for what seems like a very long time, but this is my first post. I want to start with a quick introduction to myself. I came to the work of trauma informed care and ACEs almost by accident. I had never even heard of this branch of psychology, although I had been working in it even before I was a licensed practitioner. I have long worked with people on the down side of power, especially children. When I went to my first formal presentation about trauma, I suddenly...

No matter the poll, no matter the year, and no matter the conditions of life in America for people of color, white folks have rarely ever believed racism to be much of a problem. Nothing shocking there, I suppose. Whenever a system works to your benefit, taking that system for granted becomes second nature. We don’t see what others who are harmed by that system see, because we don’t have to. Most slaveowners never questioned the legitimacy of their system, and most whites — including those...