The quote from this article is about the situation in New Zealand, but it’s the same everywhere. After 14 suicide attempts and a long battle with mental illness, 23-year-old film director Jazz Thornton co-founded advocacy group Voices of Hope to help others going through similar struggles. “The current system isn’t working because unless you are…
I know sexual abuse survivors don’t tend to be “huggers”, but we would do well to find safe people to hug when we’re having a bad day. Here’s even more research to back that up: “Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University say people who consider themselves huggers actually have better overall health and stronger relationships. Previous…
While I usually focus on children being abused, I’m not blind to the fact that many adults are as well, and I’m also informed enough to know that some of the same tactics that work to groom children and their families work on adults too. “People who recover from abusive relationships of any type, including…
We talk about things like this, but we also must face the fact that it’s easier to let this go even when we know it isn’t true: Sometimes we say we’re fine when we’re not. Everyone has done it. But, with 1 in 4 people experiencing a mental health problem this year alone, the truth…
Agreed: “Both in my work as a child psychotherapist and personally as a survivor of childhood abuse, I’ve seen what a difference these “ones” can make to a child who is living with domestic violence. Children are resilient. They can survive and even thrive after unthinkable trauma. But that resilience generally comes from having a…
This is a bit of an older article, but I found it interesting because I was actually having a similar conversation earlier this week. “The prevailing idea is that interventions are needed to prevent, reduce, or repair the damage done to children who have grown up in high-stress situations. Most interventions are aimed at countering…
