Posts Tagged ‘trauma’
Pawsitive Impact: How Pets Help Support Our Mental Health
Are you considering getting a pet? If not, well, you might want to! An American Psychiatric Association Healthy Minds Monthly poll found that 86% of pet owners said their pets have a mostly positive impact on their mental health. While owning a pet comes with great responsibility, like dedicating time for daily walks, grooming, and…
Read MoreCulture, Community & Connection: Minority Mental Health Month
[et_pb_section][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text] July is National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, and CHRIS 180 is focusing on raising awareness surrounding the struggles that underrepresented and minority communities face with mental illness. There are many factors that can prevent minority groups from seeking help including language barriers, cost and lack of mental health education. Minority groups include…
Read MoreVirtual Reality: The Future of Therapy
Virtual reality (VR) offers clients a three-dimensional environment, generating a sense of immersion in another world in which the client interacts. Although the environments are artificial, the human brain does amazing things with it – it experiences the environment as if it were the real thing. The boundary between artificial and real disappears. In other…
Read MoreACEs, Childhood Trauma And Healing
I have spent the majority of my career in mental health, working with youth and young adults, so I know that what happens to you as a child plays a significant role in the person you become. When we’re young, our brain is elastic and ready to adapt to our circumstances. Our surroundings teach us…
Read MoreBringing a Mother’s Love to Children in Foster Care
Valancia Abdullah considers it her calling to care for youth who some may think of as “challenged.” After working with special needs students at Atlanta Public Schools, in 2000, she joined CHRIS 180’s foster care program. She serves as a Resident Assistant. The kids affectionately refer to her as Ms. Val. “The RA to me…
Read MoreSteering Through Vicarious Trauma
“The expectation that we can be immersed in suffering and loss daily and not be touched by it, is as unrealistic as expecting to be able to walk through water without getting wet.” Rachel Naomi Remen Screeching tires. Smell of burnt rubber. Windows breaking and metal crunching. These are sensory triggers that may remind us…
Read MoreTo Connect or Disconnect: Steps to Connect and Change
My African American mother, aunts and uncle lived through the Jim Crow laws and experienced racial violence throughout much of their childhood. My Congolese father and aunts experienced the trauma of war in DRC. The recent killings have touched trauma wounds in some members of my family. I imagine that many survivors of intergenerational trauma…
Read MoreTo Connect or Disconnect: Part 1
“We’re hardwired for connection.” This is one of my favorite quotes from a shero in our field, Brené Brown. Through her work on shame and vulnerability, we are able to get a closer look at aspects of the human condition that are often overlooked. Her quote reminds me that an authentic connection with others is…
Read MoreA Small Word for a Big Experience
The month of April was difficult for me, both as a human living in the age of a global pandemic, and as a bereaved daughter. April 13, 2020 marked what would have been my mother’s 70th birthday. We lost her suddenly just over four years ago. This was the first year that I did not…
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