Noelle was a young woman I worked with in a school setting with a tragic story. She was what we would describe as multiply traumatized; in a sense, everything that could’ve went wrong in her life, did go wrong. One of the adverse impacts of all of her traumas was on her ability to trust …
3 Reasons Why Authenticity is a Trauma-Informed Practice Read More »
Jeanette*, a 17 year-old high school student, found herself in my office trying to describe the shock of losing her father: “I just can’t….” and she trailed off. “I mean I don’t know, I just, I don’t, I can’t…” and she stopped again. She couldn’t speak because her brain was down regulating. The outer most …
9 Guidelines for Teaching Trauma-Informed Mindfulness To Teens Read More »
I dreaded my weekly staring contest with the man who was supposed to be treating my depression. He’d start each session by asking me a probing question, then silently wait for my response. Since I felt too intimidated to talk about my recent suicide attempt, we just sat there awkwardly looking at each other until …
An INCRAmental Approach to Building Rapport with Youth Read More »
Teaching mindfulness to teenagers is one of my favorite professional pastimes. I usually teach mindfulness to young people in educational, medical, and even correctional settings. To say the least, the teens themselves aren’t always that excited about closing their eyes and meditating in front of their peers, especially if they have a negative connotation toward …
Teaching meditation to teens who have the giggles Read More »
While you were growing up: Were your parents or caregivers unloving, unsupportive, or neglectful? Were you threatened or abused? Did you witness the abuse of one of your caregivers? Did you live with anyone who had a mental illness or a problem with alcohol or drugs? These are all examples of ACEs, or Adverse Childhood …
It was one of those moments when someone’s trying to be helpful but says exactly the wrong thing. A student walked into the office while I was chatting with another teacher. In response to our cheerful “Good morning. How are you today?” he looked at us sadly and said, “Bad day.” “You shouldn’t say that,” …
When my colleague Steven Saul and I were developing the Mindfulness-Based Substance Abuse Treatment (MBSAT) 12-Session Curriculum at a juvenile detention camp, we had a number of conversations about the pros and cons of using cognitive acronyms as strategies to promote mindfulness and general self-awareness. He was more open to cognitive techniques given some of …
10 Acronyms That Promote Self-Awareness and Decision-Making in Youth Read More »
In retrospect, it wasn’t such a great idea to tell my devout Christian mother I thought I was a pantheist. I don’t blame her for freaking out. The poor woman must have imagined me performing Dionysian rituals in the backyard, assisted by our ever-accommodating golden retriever. But I do fault her for this: after the …
Four Ways to Improve Difficult Relationships With Youth Read More »
Mindfulness is the practice of observing your own experience in the present moment with an attitude of non-reactivity and/or non-judgement. That’s it. It’s not necessarily about being calm, going to a “happy place” or even controlling your breathing. Mindfulness is about being with “what is” in regard to your experience. Check out this infographic on …
One year on February 14th, my husband did something utterly baffling. He bought me flowers. As everybody knows, women are supposed to buy men chocolate on Valentine’s Day, and men reciprocate a month later on White Day. At least, everyone knows this in Osaka, which is where we were living at the time. I sometimes …
Add a Culturally-Aware Lens to Your Trauma-Informed Toolkit Read More »
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