The world kids live in today – the internet, social media and teens

April 12, 2008

Eight teens from central Florida kidnapped and brutally beat another teenager from their town, filming the entire event for YouTube.
Was it the desire for attention? Was it desensitization to violence? What allows teens to become so polarized in their social circles that they can brutally victimize one of their own?
I find particularly interesting the [...]

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The role of environments

April 1, 2008

Here’s something to consider. In 1979, an angry, depressed gorilla was moved from it’s home of a barren, empty cage at the Seattle Zoo into a revolutionary new environment designed to mimic his natural environment, and was totally transformed. Monkeys in a Princeton University Laboratory are found to grow more or less neural networks (in [...]

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The boy who didn’t cry wolf

March 25, 2008

A boy the bullies love to beat up is the frustrating tale of Billy Wolfe, a high school student at Fayetteville High School in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Billy is one of those kids that looks fairly average to those of us long out of high school, but looks quite different to a certain other kind [...]

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Race and Oppression in American Politics

March 18, 2008

Some things just need to be said.

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone in American politics address race better than Barack Obama did today in Philadelphia.

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The aftermath of school violence – Repost

February 15, 2008

It saddens me a great deal to be reposting this less than a year from when I first wrote it, but as I’m sure people are searching for this information, here it is again. It is imperative that we all learn to spot early warning signs of trouble in young people so we can [...]

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How NOT to talk to kids

February 13, 2008

Kudos to the youngster who had the nerve to keep the camera rolling. Here’s an example of an officer who desperately needs a vacation, and the reason training in verbal judo or other communication skills is absolutely critical.

And by the way, for any of us who work in a position of power over another human [...]

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Who’s on your short list?

October 7, 2007

The Short List is something Robert Macy, renowned trauma researcher, practitioner and trainer refers to when he trains about self-care for trauma workers. It’s a self-care concept we all need to prioritize – and one I invite you to try out right now. It’s easy – just answer the following questions:

Who would you call if [...]

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How to talk to your teen–the five point listening guide

June 14, 2007

The family steps into my office, and usually, sooner or later, somebody says something like this:
“They won’t listen.”
If I asked you to guess who was logging that complaint, who would you guess? The parent? The surly teen?
The answer is, of course, “Yes.”
They both say it. And they’re both right.
We all know that for families, the [...]

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lunch break in the north

May 10, 2007

That photo above is where I sat and had my lunch on Monday. I was in Warren County, NJ, where I’d been training juvenile detention officers all morning in Creating Safe and Respectful Environments.

They asked, “Are you going to Hot Dog Johnny’s for lunch again?”
Ha, well the week before I was up there training and [...]

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The aftermath of school violence – helping youth cope

April 17, 2007

As a therapist who works with young people, the utterly devastating tragedy at Virginia Tech has me reeling personally and as a professional trying to understand how these things happen and how to help kids cope afterwards.
Events such as these slam our assumptions that the world is safe, that we can send our kids off [...]

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