Hi. This website is mainly a place for me to share what I’m learning about therapy, trauma, and the practice of presence. Some of what I write is for therapists and some is for the people who sit across from us, though we’re all walking the same path and working on the same stuff. I hope you find something of value…
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Today's Touching Training
I led a training for a group of dedicated people who work with the most difficult adolescents in the city--the teens who run, cut, spit, and fight.
Training Video Redux: Motivating Others with Compassion
This is a redo of a training video on using compassion to motivate others.
Loss and Love
I work with a group of advocates who champion the cause of encouraging adoption of transition age youth. They go around the city talking to youth about holding on to the hope for unconditional family love and commitment, and they recruit parents to fulfill those dreams.
They hurt today when one young man in the audience despaired, “fuck family!”
Cardozo Lecture Video Remastered
Ok, I wasted the weekend editing the Cardozo lecture so people can actually see the video and my talk at the same time. And I shrank it down to 35 minutes! I hope you enjoy it. I think it's kinda funny yet educational. After this talk, the NYC Dept of Education asked me to helped them improve youth development and school safety.
Two weeks in my life working in the world of juvenile detention
This post describes some heart warming events that happened when I visited a juvenile detention center last week.
The difference between standard care and trauma-informed care
This post is about how a trauma-informed approach, at least the way I view it, might differ from standard clinical practice.
DRAFT statement about race and trauma
While my colleagues do the smart thing of carefully crafting a response to the rising media attention on racial violence in our society, I thought I'd take the opposite approach and just blurt the first thing that erupts from my heart, in the spirit of hoping to engender discourse and not to be right but to strive for "right" together.
