Understanding Self-Harm

Self-harm is intentional, non-suicidal injury to one’s body. It is common—as many as 1 in 3 adolescents report they have self-harmed at some point. Self-harm can be scary and difficult to understand. I hope to contribute to greater understanding of self-harm and provide a starting point for intervention. Like most of my blogs, this is … Continue reading Understanding Self-Harm

Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness exercise abbreviated and adapted from Dan Siegel's wheel of awareness exercise. Mindfulness is the art of being aware of our internal and external experience. Mindfulness allows us to recognize and stay curious about each part of our experience--our thoughts, our emotions, our sensations--without being swept away by them. After all, each of these is … Continue reading Mindfulness Meditation

Understanding Secondary Trauma

We live in a broken world. If we exist long enough, we will be exposed to hard things—trauma, grief, injustice, physical illness, and human tragedy. We are designed to live in community, and we are designed to care about people. Our existence depends on it. From our earliest moments our survival is highly impacted by … Continue reading Understanding Secondary Trauma