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Trauma and the 12 Steps

The video below is a discussion with Dr. Jamie Marich, the author of a recently revised version of her book, Trauma and the 12 Steps: An Inclusive Guide to Enhancing Recovery. Dr. Jamie Marich (she/they) describes herself as a facilitator of transformative experiences. A clinical trauma specialist, expressive artist, writer, yogini, performer, short filmmaker, Reiki master, and recovery advocate, she unites all of these elements in her mission to inspire healing in others. She began her career as a humanitarian aid worker in Bosnia-Hercegovina from 2000-2003, primarily teaching English and music while freelancing with other projects. Jamie travels internationally teaching on topics related t

It Won't Happen To Me: Optimistic Bias About School Violence

Post-Columbine, children and adolescents’ knowledge about school violence has increased. But they believe it won’t happen at their school, and not to them personally. This demonstrates a health psychology theory called optimistic bias. In lay terms, optimistic bias translates to “bad things happen to other people.” People who believe they won’t get cancer, continue to smoke and don’t use sun screen. Only poor students with loose morals get STDs, so, “I don’t have to worry about safe sex.” My findings show this also holds true for school violence. Adolescents exhibit optimistic bias and fail to take precautions or notice red flags. Zero tolerance policies make this worse: If my friend is upse

Human Resilience: George Bonanno

George A. Bonanno, Ph.D. is a professor of Clinical Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. He is known as a pioneering researcher in the field of bereavement and trauma. The New York Times on February 15, 2011, stated that the current science of bereavement has been "driven primarily" by Bonanno. Scientific American summarized a main finding of his work, "The ability to rebound remains the norm throughout adult life." Bonanno's research found psychological resilience to be at the core of human grief and trauma reactions. Below are two presentations by Dr. Bonanno that review the findings of his research on human resilience. To learn more about the work of Dr. Bonanno, please vi

Substance Use and Traumatic Stress

Decades of research have shown a strong link between traumatic stress exposure and substance use. We used to think that we had to wait to treat PTSD until people stopped using substances. Research now suggests that this is not the case. Co-occurring PTSD and Substance Use Disorders We used to think that we had to wait to treat PTSD until people stopped using substances. See the Clinician Fact Sheet Decades of research have shown that there is a strong link between trauma exposure and substance use disorders (SUDs). Many people who have experienced trauma and who use substances have had early childhood traumatic stress exposures, such as childhood physical or sexual abuse. They also tend to

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