Episodes

Ned Bachus’s novel is about Sarah Goins, a college professor with a thriving career and close-knit academic community who is eager to draw her boyfriend, Mike Flannagan, deeper into her world. But Mike, a groundskeeper at a local seminary, resists, instead keeping her at arm’s length as he struggles to come to terms with a past haunted by loss. Late one night, Mike crosses paths with Domenic Gallo, a neighborhood barber who has been injured in a mugging. As Mike helps the elderly man, Domenic te...

Implementing trauma- and resilience-informed systems in rural communities offers its own set of challenges and awards. Many rural communities lack the resources of their urban cousins, yet connection to available resources can be more easily obtained. This is what makes the Community Resiliency Model (CRM) such a good fit for rural areas. It provides a resource that costs very little and can be obtained by a next door neighbor, a church clergyperson, or a coach’s assistant. First 5 Mendocino int...

My guests, Audrey Stillerman, MD, and Bridget Gavaghan will discuss the Illinois ACEs Response Collaborative (the Collaborative) and the Center for Collaborative Study of Trauma, Health Equity, and Neurobiology (THEN). The organizations have been working for over a decade to transform organizations and systems through trauma-informed, resilience-building, and healing-centered policies and practices. A cross-sector movement to prevent trauma and promote thriving across the lifespan, the Collabora...

On March 20th and May 22nd, 2023, Elaine Miller-Karas interviewed Dr. Brooke Ellison. Brooke died on February 4, 2024. We are rebroadcasting this episode in tribute to her life, her wisdom, and her brilliance.

Elaine Miller-Karas and Michael Sapp will discuss Elaine's new book, Building Resilience to Trauma, the Trauma and Community Resiliency Models, 2nd Edition, published by Routledge on March 13, 2023. Dr. Sapp will talk about the neuroscience of the Community and Trauma Resiliency Models. This is Part 2 of 2 Parts. Part 1 aired on March 6, 2023. Part 2 will focus on the neuroscience of the Trauma and Community Resiliency Models. Elaine Miller-Karas, LCSW, will discuss the second edition of her boo...

Elaine Miller-Karas, LCSW, will discuss the second edition of her book, Building Resiliency to Trauma, with Dr. Michael Sapp, the CEO of the Trauma Resource Institute. During and after a traumatic experience, survivors experience a cascade of physical, emotional, cognitive, behavioral, relational, and spiritual responses that can make them feel unbalanced and threatened. The second edition of Building Resilience to Trauma explains common responses from a biological perspective, reframing the hum...

The Center on Child Wellbeing and Trauma (CCWT) is a partnership between Massachusetts’ Office of the Child Advocate and ForHealth Consulting™ at UMass Chan Medical School. CCWT supports child-serving organizations and systems in becoming trauma-informed and responsive through trainings, technical assistance, communities of practice, and coaching. Audrey Smolkin, MPP, Executive Director, and Alison Cebulla, MPH, Associate Director of Curriculum Development and Training, will describe their innov...

As a Deafblind woman with partial vision in one eye and bilateral hearing aids, Elsa Sjunneson lives at the crossroads of blindness and sight, hearing and deafness—much to the confusion of the world around her. While she cannot see well enough to operate without a guide dog or cane, she can see enough to know when someone is reacting to the visible signs of her blindness and can hear when they’re whispering behind her back. And she certainly knows how wrong our one-size-fits-all definitions of d...

Brooke Conway is a mental health and wellness counselor at Kapi‘olani Community College in Honolulu, O‘ahu, Hawai‘i. In this episode we will discuss Brooke’s experiences implementing the Community Resiliency Model (CRM) on her campus as a strategy to support student mental health & wellbeing, particularly while navigating through COVID-19 pandemic and students returning to campus. Hawai‘i’s unique culture, history and place provide a rich landscape to reflect upon the value of accessible wellnes...

Nearly everyone will experience thoughts of suicide at some point in their lives. The problem isn’t that we sometimes feel this way. The problem is that we suffer in silence when what we need most is to connect with non-judgmental and caring others. Neuroscientific findings suggest that humans are hard-wired to connect and that healing takes place in the context of human relationships. What this means is that supportive bonds can help us cultivate resiliency during difficult times. Stigma about ...

J’vanete (Jay-vuh-nay) Skiba will share her perspectives from her role as the Assistant Director for Equity, Education, and Engagement for the New Hanover County Resiliency Task Force in Wilmington, North Carolina. The vision of the task force is a more resilient and compassionate New Hanover County. J’vanete serves the community through the idea of “functional compassion.” “Functional compassion” is the act of engaging in public and personal practices that spur change on a systemic level out of...

Sami Aaron, the founder of the nonprofit, The Resilient Activist, will discuss how people everywhere are experiencing severe emotional distress caused by climate change and environmental devastation. And what makes it even more unbearable for some is when family, friends, employers, and governments don’t understand and often don’t care. She will share how the vision of The Resilient Activist was first ignited in 2003 as Sami struggled to find some meaning from the suicide of her older son, Kevin...

Todd Wilcher, MA, CTRS, will share his work with Covenant House, Georgia. Covenant House provides services to unhoused youth. Their Crisis Shelter, the P.J. Garcia Youth Shelter, serves as a home for up to 60 youths ages 18-24. Youth can find a safe place to stay and wraparound support for 30-90 days. Youth who stay in the shelter work with a case manager to create a plan for their future. At Covenant House Georgia, youth have access to hot meals and showers, medical and mental health care, job ...

Carmen Turner-Schott will share her book, Sun Signs, Houses & Healing: Build Resilience & Transform Your Life Through Astrology. Carmen will share the themes in her book that can help you transform your life in 2023 through transformation, healing, and resiliency. This beginner-friendly book provides insights on all twelve signs and reveals how your birth chart can help you overcome challenges and improve your well-being. Once you have your chart—which you can easily acquire online using your ti...

Dr. Michael Sapp will discuss the importance of looking at mental health as a public health emergency with our host, Elaine Miller-Karas, a world-reknown trauma therapist. The impact of traumatic experiences on individual and community health is widespread. According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2021), “Traumatic events and loss are common in people’s lives.” There is a need to quickly establish programs that provide timely psychological counseling and intervention to alleviate anxiety...

Natalia Valevska will share her insights from living within their beloved country, Ukraine, during the Russian invasion of February 2022. She will discuss her experiences and work with EdCamp Ukraine, an association of over 40,000 teachers, including her association with the Trauma Resource Institute. She will describe how, out of her despair over the war; she began helping with the resiliency support meetings co-sponsored by EdCamp Ukraine and the Trauma Resource Institute. She will express her...

Curious about something? Google it. But is curiosity simply information seeking? According to Perry Zurn and Dani S. Bassett, what gets left out in the conventional understanding of curiosity are the relations between ideas and between people. Curiosity, say Zurn and Bassett, is a practice of connection. It connects ideas into networks of knowledge and it connects the knowers themselves, both to the knowledge they seek and to each other. Zurn and Bassett—identical twins who write that their book...

What do you say to the parents of a recent high school graduate who was just killed when the car she was riding in collided with a truck? Or to a son who asks you to do everything possible to save his cancer-ridden mother even though she has opted for hospice? Or to a patient when she informs you, with complete sincerity, that she can’t change into a hospital gown…because she’s a zebra? While finding the right words is a crucial part of every doctor’s job, according to Dr. Jay Baruch it’s often ...

Even before Covid, parenting was hard. According to physician, writer, and father of three young children, Andrew Bomback, “From day one, parenting can feel like a version of ‘we are flying the plane as we build it.’” Bomback investigates the emergence of an immersive, all-in approach to raising children that has made parenting a competitive (and often not very enjoyable) sport. He considers the high costs of commercialized parenting (from the babymoon on), the pressure on mothers to have it all...

With a practical approach that weaves together Eastern medicine, western psychology, and African ancestral principles of spirituality, author Lindsay Fauntleroy teaches you how to use the elements to improve physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Experiences such as heartache, anxiety, and procrastination are signs that one of the elements is out of balance within you. Discover how to regain your footing, tap into your latent potential, and find your flow with journal prompts, flower...

Many of us suffer from nightmares, and those generated by trauma are among the most insidious and frightening. Whether it is Big T trauma such as abuse, violence, or oppression, or a small trauma such as microaggression, a fender-bender, or minor surgery, these events can stretch their sticky fingers into our night dreams and haunt our daylight hours. Some Traumas are acute, and others are chronic, some we have experienced personally, and other traumatic legacies reverberate down through the gen...

Bob Doppelt, the coordinator of the International Transformational Resilience Coalition (ITRC) will discuss why community-based initiatives that use a public health approach to build population-level mental wellness and transformational resilience are important approaches to combat widespread harmful mental health and psychosocial problems generated by the climate emergency. In September 2023 alone, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Florida experienced devastation to their communities from hurricanes. Extr...

A $702 billion global diet/nutrition and weight loss industry shows that people worldwide are devoted to achieving maximum health and their desired bodies. Yet mainstream approaches are failing these individuals, and sadly, science supports this. Intent on gaining the “health,” “confidence,” and “happiness” that diets promise, consumers keep trying. Along the way, they often become sad and frustrated, believing they’re failing when they’re not. They need a legitimate, alternative path. In this e...

We are more similar than we are different! There is more beyond our own beliefs, we all have blind spots. Presenting a groundbreaking new paradigm for understanding a variety of perspectives, Granddaughter Crow will share with listeners her ideas outside the dogma you may have previously been taught. By exploring your own pre-existing beliefs and the themes various spiritual and cultural traditions all share, you can heal thoughts that may be hurting you and others. She will share her ideas in h...