Trauma has become a household word used in everyday vocabulary.  The real deal is anything but an everyday experience, however.  The word trauma usually evokes images of threatening or devastating events such as near-death accidents, assaults, wars, or natural disasters. More common, and sometimes overlooked, are the experiences that involve persistent doses of fear and helplessness within the daily relationships … Read More

For Those Who Work with Youth in Conflict with the Law Consider the following three vignettes: A middle-aged man overdoses on crack cocaine and is found dead in a rooming house by the landlord (…after his parole officer phones with regard to his whereabouts). A teenager is caught breaking into a house in a suburban part of a city by … Read More

Leaving Home “I still remember the smell of the cold metal inside the float plane. It took me far away from home and I was never the same after that . . . They took my culture, they took my language, they took me from my family, my people, the animals, my land, everything I knew and loved.” In a … Read More