Breaking Down the Model: Part I – History of the Model and the Nature of the Child

By: Joyce Willis, MC, LPC The Model of Developmental Immaturity can be traced back to its creator, Pia Mellody. In the 1970s, while working at The Meadows, she was encountering an increasing number of patients who identified less-than-nurturing or abusive family systems in their childhood — leading to… Read More

Teen Treatment’s Troubled History

Teen treatment has been in the news recently, and not for good reasons. Celebrities like Paris Hilton, Jenny Pentland, and Paris Jackson are among those who have come forward with stories from their time in treatment facilities and reform schools that were supposed to help troubled teens. They're stories not of hope and healing, but of trauma and abuse. Read More

Trauma Goes Mainstream

No longer a cultural taboo, there have been a number of celebrity mental health advocates who have opened up about their struggles so that others can feel less alone. Read More

When Hidden Grief Gets Triggered During COVID-19 Confinement

How to Use These Days to Heal Old Wounds Rather than Reenact Them Our sense of loss during the current COVID-19 crisis can trigger hidden emotions from when we experienced a sense of loss before. Whatever early losses you have had in your life — whether they be your… Read More

Why Loving What You Have Can Feel Scary for Those Who’ve Had Adverse Childhood Experiences

To ring in the New Year, I could quote statistics of how certain feelings benefit your cholesterol levels and pump up your immune system and extend your life by 2.3 years. We could discuss that science has proven that appreciation begets happiness and happiness is healthy. But you’ve already heard… Read More

Trauma’s Rising Public Profile

By Wesley Gallagher Trauma—it’s a big word with many connotations. Terms like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have entered the American lexicon, tied to news of terrorist attacks or stories of combat soldiers. But trauma is something that is experienced in big and small ways by people in all… Read More

How Psychodrama Heals Trauma

The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study, touted by Oprah Winfrey as one of the most important studies of our time, has successfully made the connection between emotional and psychological childhood trauma and physical health problems later in life. In other words, what begins in the mind alters the body’s… Read More

The Anxiety of Living with Unresolved Grief

By Tian Dayton, Ph.D., Psychologist, Author, Psychodramatist, Senior Fellow at The Meadows Grief that’s out in the open, part of the natural cycle of life, or part of one of life’s tragic circumstances has a dignity to it. The person experiencing a loss feels that they have a right to… Read More

ACoA’s and Children of Trauma: 7 Things to Be Grateful For

By Tian Dayton Ph.D. How many times have I heard people share that they “do not regret the past”? “Whatever brought me into recovery,” says Sharon M., “has helped me to make such positive life changes that I truly feel appreciated more than resentful, much more in fact. I even… Read More

The Hollower: Childhood Emotional Neglect and Its Effects

Here’s an irony for you: neglect is neglected. In discussions of childhood maltreatment, neglect hovers in the background, included categorically (“abuse and neglect”) but rarely the main focus despite being more prevalent than abuse and just as damaging.[1] The reasons aren’t hard to spot. First, abuse and neglect often occur together,… Read More