Pursuing Post-Traumatic Growth

By Melissa Riddle Chalos There’s nothing like a full-on, worldwide pandemic to bring life as we know it to a crashing, hard stop. We were moving along at a nice clip, working our jobs, going to school, raising our families and then, boom! The entire world stopped on a dime. Read More

What Is Racialized Trauma?: Resmaa Menakem and the Work of Racial Healing

By Wesley Gallagher As a young child, Resmaa Menakem used to sit with his grandmother on the couch and rub her hands. One day as he studied them, he asked her why they were so thick and rough compared to the rest of her tiny, delicate body. What she told… Read More

Will COVID Cause a Mental Health Crisis?

By now we all know the drill: Wash your hands, wear a mask, keep your distance, stay home. Has our country ever been more health-conscious? The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to focus on our physical health in order to avoid getting sick or passing on the virus unsuspectingly. But now health experts are warning about a new crisis heading our way. 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

Attachment, Emotion Regulation, and Resiliency

Often, during the first week of treatment at The Meadows, people will skeptically inquire, “Do experiences in childhood really continue to affect my life as an adult?” While social scientists and mental health clinicians have been exploring this question for decades, other fields of science and medicine have been… 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

Men’s Trauma Affects Their Recovery and Relationships

Mental health professionals can improve treatment through trauma-centered and gender-responsive approaches. When men seek treatment for addiction, depression, and mental health disorders the outcomes are often quite positive. However, there is still room for improvement, since the risk for relapse after treatment is still somewhat high. Dan Griffin, an American sociologist who has studied gender and recovery and trained at Hazelden as a chemical dependency counselor, thinks that the men would be more likely to maintain recovery if treatment programs take a more trauma-centered and gender-specific approach. Read More

The Connection Between Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and PTSD

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a significant public health problem in individuals deployed to war. PTSD is a mental health condition linked to many other issues, including anger, insomnia, substance abuse, and chronic depression. Particularly, PTSD is linked to people who are deployed to war. Research shows that… Read More

Experiential Therapy for Trauma Treatment

By Tian Dayton, Ph.D. Understanding trauma requires us to feel the stories of our lives to heal them. Traumatic recovery is all about not feeling. Even asking someone about their trauma can be befuddling, if not disturbing, for the client who has learned to put their head down, turn off… Read More