Blog

One of the things going on in Childhood PTSD is dysregulation of our brains. When we’re calm, brain activity is even and it’s driving emotions and body responses (like heart rate variability, shown in the very badly drawn illustration below) in an even and predictable way. With dysregulation, our thinking, behavior, heart rate and breathing can become erratic. We might feel panic or depression out of nowhere, or our emotions can suddenly explode and flood us with adrenaline (the fight/flight...

When Kristy Yates’ daughter passed away in 2010, Yates sank into a deep depression and alcoholism that led to a drunken driving arrest. After a slew of health issues and losing all three of her jobs, the Fort Worth, Texas, resident became homeless and end ed up checking in at the Presbyterian Night Shelter. Yates’ new address made it hard to get hired. But after two months of living in the shelter, she learned about Clean Slate, and her life has changed since. Toby Owen, CEO of the shelter,...

When Dan McNevin was nine years old, he served as an altar boy to Father James Clark in Corpus Christi Church in Fremont, California. There he worshipped alongside generations of his Irish Catholic family, attending mass and answering phones for the parish office. At first, says McNevin, now 60, Clark was "grooming him." But soon the priest began to abuse him both physically and emotionally, undressing, touching, and assaulting him. He didn't tell anyone, including his parents, for more than...

The parents in Overland Park, Kan., were fed up. They wanted their children off screens, but they needed strength in numbers. First, because no one wants their kid to be the lone weird one without a phone. And second, because taking the phone away from a middle schooler is actually very, very tough. “We start the meetings by saying, ‘This is hard, we’re in a new frontier, but who is going to help us?’” said Krista Boan, who is leading a Kansas City-based program called START, which stands...

HAILEY LECLAIR SAYS SHE was about 12 years old when she started noticing her mother's drug use. “She had been losing weight, and she hadn’t really been home as much – she’d been out with friends,” says Hailey, now 15. In October 2017, the Bangor Daily News in Penobscot County , Maine , told Hailey's story, publishing diarylike entries she'd written that reflected feelings of frustration, confusion and hurt as she tried to navigate the effects of her mother's and stepfather's addictions. [For...

Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” – John Muir As a mother, a therapist, a partner, how good am I to any one if I am not taking care of myself? Not so good at all. Those of us in the helping professions (or roles that give out a lot of nurturing energy) especially need to take a pause and focus on replenishment and self-care. When our cup is not topped off, we run on fumes. And that’s...

A new study, published in Translational Behavioral Medicine, reveals that the majority of clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of major depression do not incorporate a stepped care approach and often fail to include physical activity or exercise as a recommended intervention. There is some concern that the variability in guidelines may influence the ability of clinicians to provide adequate care for individuals diagnosed with subthreshold or mild to moderate depression. In 2016,...

When we talk about “building the capacity” of frontline and grassroots leaders who are changing structures, policies, and systems, what does that really mean for funders? Many funders use antiquated and static systems of inquiry to identify and make judgements about which groups are well-equipped to achieve social change. The truth is that philanthropy holds a disproportionate amount of power; it serves as a gatekeeper for the resources that belong to our communities. And while the folks...

You know an issue has momentum when Oprah is talking about it. In a 60 Minutes segment aired in March 2018, Oprah talks about the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and a trauma-informed approach. She described the story as one that had “more impact on me than practically anything I’ve ever done.” That’s a lot coming from Oprah! As we pass the 20-year anniversary of the publication of the original Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study, the landmark study that demonstrated the...

Today Teri is joined by George Siegal, producer of the award-winning film, License to Parent, and founder of the non-profit film production company, Move the World Films, Inc.

Every public library and YMCA in the U.S. may soon be equipped with Narcan, in an effort to combat drug-related deaths by expanding access to the opioid-overdose-reversing naloxone nasal spray. Emergent BioSolutions, which this month completed its acquisition of Narcan maker Adapt Pharma, will provide a free kit including two doses of the nasal spray, as well as educational materials, to each of the 16,568 public libraries and 2,700 YMCAs in the U.S., according to an announcement released...

This is Wilson.* His mother, Aline, took the picture to mark a happy and hopeful moment following a traumatic period when Wilson participated in a University of Illinois at Chicago clinical trial that tested whether lithium was effective in treating children with bipolar disorder. ProPublica Illinois reported in April that the UIC psychiatrist who oversaw several federally funded studies, Dr. Mani Pavuluri, violated research rules, failed to alert parents of risks and falsified data to cover...