Childhood Trauma Is Not Just a Mental Health Problem
Exposure to continuous trauma causes the body’s alarm system to be easily triggered, releasing stress hormones that interfere with reasoning and activate that flight, fight, or freeze response. Children cannot learn or get along with friends or family members when living in a constant state of fight, flight or freeze. Rather, their goal is to survive.
What is Childhood Trauma?
He was six and it was his unexpected, quiet remark that clearly described the struggle, “I just feel like something bad is going to happen all the time.” For this boy, like many others, childhood included too many scary life experiences. He was well prepared to respond to danger at any time – he knew it well.
Three Ways to Support Suicide Prevention
Recently, I had a friend call and ask if I could help a co-worker who was struggling with his 15-year-old daughter. Of course, as someone in the mental health industry, I automatically said yes. Not knowing what was going to be asked of me, I called this father who was looking for advice and my heart sank as I listened to him talk.
Your Child and Virtual Learning
As summer ends the reality (whether parents, students, or school systems like it or not) is that most students are headed toward a mostly or entirely virtual fall. This time, instead of a sudden switch to remote learning, everyone has had some time to consider the best way to educate children virtually.
A New School Year: Expect the Unexpected
Figuring out how to safely reopen schools this fall is one of the most challenging decisions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr.
What Are You Doing with One of Your Most Powerful Superpowers?
Our CEO was leading a Zoom meeting the other day, the beginning of a series of meetings on a topic of great importance, but not urgency. Conceivably, this series of meetings could put our agency on a very strong course over a multi-year span; no one would deny its importance. Yet, many of us were not completely present.
Employees Feeling the Stress?
COVID-19 has turned our lives upside down. We’ve had to adjust our approach to nearly every part of our lives, from how we get groceries to how we work and spend our free time. One thing is true – we’re stressed.
Raising a More Resilient Child
As a parent, one of the most important things you can do is to help your child learn to deal with the inevitable challenges that life brings. Children who can successfully manage the stressors that come into their life have lower rates of mental health issues, greater levels of happiness, and often have more success later in life.
Better than Gazing at Grass
Do you remember the profound sense of boredom that could inflict you as a child? Perhaps with the influx of screens many kids access at will, they don’t have those loooong summer afternoons with nothing to do; the times when it’s on you to make up your own fun.
The Air Beneath Us
Lately, in my regular rotation of podcasts, on phone calls with family and friends, or in my own reflections, the feeling of unsteady ground underneath our feet is continuously repeated.
