Publications - Trauma and Resiliency

Broken Spirits: The Treatment of Traumatized Asylum Seekers, Refugees and War and Torture Victims, by John P. Wilson, 2015.

Practicing Self-Care After Traumatic Events, by Riverside Community Care Trauma Center, 2015.

“Exposure to traumatic events can have a major impact on our emotions, behaviors, cognitive functioning, and physical well-being. To speed our recovery, we need to remember self-care is important and find ways to take care of ourselves on a daily basis. ”

Building Resilience to Trauma: The Trauma and Community Resiliency Models, by Elaine Miller-Karas, 2015.

How Childhood Trauma Could Be Mistaken for ADHD, by Rebecca Ruiz, The Atlantic , Jul 7 2014.

“Considered a heritable brain disorder, one in nine U.S. children-or 6.4 million youth-currently have a diagnosis of ADHD. In recent years, parents and experts have questioned whether the growing prevalence of ADHD has to do with hasty medical evaluations, a flood of advertising for ADHD drugs, and increased pressure on teachers to cultivate high-performing students. Now Brown and other researchers are drawing attention to a compelling possibility: Inattentive, hyperactive, and impulsive behavior may in fact mirror the effects of adversity, and many pediatricians, psychiatrists, and psychologists don’t know how-or don’t have the time-to tell the difference. ”

'I’m a Survivor of Rape and Intimate Partner Violence--And I’m a Man', by John Kelly, Time, Jul 2 2014.

“The crisis of campus sexual violence can't be solved without addressing other populations that are at surprisingly high risk. The topic of campus rape has been making its way to Congress and the White House, and coverage of this issue has increasingly been making headlines. But conspicuously absent from the conversation is the narrative of male and queer survivors. ”

Unexpected death of a loved one linked to onset of psychiatric disorders, by Columbia University, ScienceDaily, May 29 2014.

“The sudden loss of a loved one can trigger a variety of psychiatric disorders in people with no history of mental illness, according to researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and colleagues at Columbia's School of Social Work and Harvard Medical School. While previous studies have suggested there is a link between sudden bereavement and an onset of common psychiatric disorders, this is the first study to show the association of acute bereavement and mania in a large population sample. ”

A Revolutionary Approach to Treating PTSD, by Jeneen Interlandi, New York Times , May 22 2014.

“Bessel van der Kolk wants to change the way we heal a traumatized mind - by starting with the body. He suggests, 'if we can help our patients tolerate their own bodily sensations, they’ll be able to process the trauma themselves.’ ”

In Texting Era, Crisis Hotlines Put Help at Youths’ Fingertips, by Leslie Kaufman, New York Times, Feb 4 2014.

“While counseling by phone remains far more prevalent, texting has become such a fundamental way to communicate, particularly among people under 20, that crisis groups have begun to adopt it as an alternative way of providing emergency services and counseling. Texting provides privacy that can be crucial if a person feels threatened by someone near them, counselors say. It also looks more natural if the teenager is in public. ”

Exposure therapy aids teens with PTSD, study finds, by Geoffrey Mohan, Los Angeles Times , Dec 24 2013.

“Teens who have been sexually traumatized benefit more from therapy that includes recounting the assault than from supportive counseling, a study suggests. Such exposure treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder has had some success among adults. But it has not found favor for treatment of teens because of fear that it could exacerbate symptoms for young adults who have not developed robust coping skills. ”

Study: Watching Wall-to-Wall Coverage of the Marathon Attack Was More Stressful than Being There, by Eric Randall, Boston Magazine, Dec 10 2013.

“People who watched wall-to-wall news coverage after the Boston Marathon bombing were actually more likely to exhibit signs of acute stress than those who were directly impacted by the event, according to a new study released in the journal PNAS. Their findings followed earlier research showing that exposure to coverage of the 9/11 attacks was unhealthy. What’s new, and scary obviously, is the conclusion that one doesn’t even need to be personally impacted by a horrible event to be impacted by TV coverage of it.”

Childhood Maltreatment Can Leave Scars In The Brain, by Jon Hamilton, NPR , Nov 4 2013.

“Maltreatment during childhood can lead to long-term changes in brain circuits that process fear, researchers say. This could help explain why children who suffer abuse are much more likely than others to develop problems like anxiety and depression later on ”

First responders still in grip of Marathon’s horror, by David Abel, Boston Globe, Oct 15 2013.

“Public health officials and trauma therapists warn that first responders who took part in the rescue of the more than 260 people hit by the shrapnel or otherwise injured should remain vigilant about symptoms such as heightened anxiety, inability to relax, increased irritability, and feeling detached. Small fissures that, over time, could widen into deep, psychological cracks. First responders are especially vulnerable to post-traumatic stress disorder, mental health specialists say, because they often work in professions that value stoicism and they can be chided or castigated for revealing signs of distress. Ignoring their symptoms can compound their misery, allowing problems to fester, especially when added to the cumulative strain of responding to other tragedies. ”

Body Responses to Trauma Images Can Predict PTSD Risk, by Rick Nauert, Psych Central , Oct 10 2013.

“Researchers from several universities and health institutes have discovered a new biological method to help predict if an adult may be at risk for a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis. ”

Viewpoint: The invisible plague of concussion, by Anand Veeravagu, BBC , Sep 5 2013.

“Traumatic brain injury is a hidden epidemic in the US, reaching beyond American football to wounded military veterans and girls' soccer players. Neurosurgeon Dr Anand Veeravagu outlines concussion's potentially devastating side effects. It is all too common for patients to tell me that they have been knocked out while playing sports or in an accident. But the consequences of concussion, or "getting your bell rung" as the disarmingly quaint expression goes, can prove disastrous. As Chief Neurosurgery Resident at the Palo Alto Veterans Hospital, I've treated many of our nation's service members, some of whom came home with injuries that changed their lives forever. ”

Trauma Update: On The 'Tipping Point For Tapping' Therapy, by Rachel Zimmerman, WBUR, Jul 23 2013.

“Called "Energy Psychology," "Emotional Freedom Technique" or simply "tapping," the practice uses exposure and desensitization to "defuse" painful emotions associated with trauma. By tapping a series of acupuncture points on the body, and repeating certain phrases related to the negative event in an accepting way, the emotional intensity of the bad memory deflates, the theory goes, and the grip of trauma melts away. Harvard Medical School psychiatrist Rick Leskowitz, director of the Integrative Medicine Project at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and a longtime practitioner of the technique, called it "the most impressive intervention I've encountered in 25 years of work." ”