After 146 episodes, we have reached the final chapter of the Trauma-Informed Lens Podcast. In this final episode, Matt reflects on the journey and future. Thank you so much for being part of this journey!

In this episode of the Trauma-Informed Lens Podcast Dr. Judith Rabinor joins the show to share her expertise on eating disorders, developmental trauma, and share the insights in her recent book.

In this episode of the Trauma-Informed Len Podcast, Karen Gross and Matt discuss trauma-sensitive and responsive schools and the impact of Covid on students and educators.

Karen Gross is an educator and an author of adult and children’s books.  She also serves as Senior Counsel at Finn Partners, where she consults on higher education crisis management.  She specializes in student success across the educational pipeline and focuses her attention on students who are traumatized or otherwise at risk based on socio-economic status, race or ethnicity.   She is regularly quoted in the media or participated in broadcasts and podcasts about issues involving education, including PBS, NPR Cross Currents, The New York Times, The Week, Readers Digest, Thrive Global and Insider, all as detailed on her website.

She has worked all along the educational pipeline — with early childhood educators and professors and academic leaders as well as students at all ages and stages.  She currently serves as a continuing education instructor at Rutgers Graduate School of Social Work (teaching courses in trauma) and as a visiting professor at College Unbound (also a course in trauma).  She has been the author in residence at a 100% free and reduced lunch elementary school in Bennington, VT.

Her newest adult book, Trauma Does Not Stop at the School Door (released by Teachers College Press June 2020), focuses on how to create trauma responsive educational institutions from PreK — College.  It was named one of top five education book releases in June 2020.  It extends the arguments from her earlier award-winning adult book Breakaway Learners (also published by Teachers College Press 2017).   She is also the author of 10 children’s books, including the Lady Lucy series. Several of her children’s books have been translated into Spanish and one is bilingual (as is the author).

Her most children’s recent book is titled Tongue Twisters and Beyond: Words at Play, useful for schools reopening after COVID closures.  This book, along with her just released The Feeling Alphabet Activity Set (with Dr. Ed Wang of Harvard Medical School), are focused on the mental health needs of students in this complex world of COVID and racial and ethnic tensions. Her next book will launch in London in October 2020 and is titled Lady Lucy’s Dinosaur Quest.

In this episode, Nathan Gerbrandt joins Matt to discuss the importance of trauma-informed workplaces and organizations.

Nathan Gerbrandt is co-author of “A Little Book About Trauma-Informed Workplaces” and the Managing Director of the Crisis & Trauma Resource Institute (CTRI). In this role, he is passionate about promoting trauma-informed practices that support individuals, organizations, and communities. Prior to working with CTRI, Nathan coordinated service delivery and rehabilitation planning for people with co-occurring disorders and complex trauma in conflict with the law. He has refined skills in violence prevention, risk management, and collaborative treatment planning for vulnerable people. In addition, Nathan specializes in the areas of disability services, case management, and working with people with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. He holds a Master of Social Work degree and is a Registered Social Worker. Nathan believes that the key to improving people’s lives through training is to find the right fit. When this connection is made, it inspires a ripple effect that can extend to everyone we meet.

Get your copy of A Little Book About Trauma-Informed Workplaces.
Access the FREE Trauma-Informed Workplace Assessment.
Find out more about the Crisis & Trauma Resource Institute.

In this final episode of the transition back to normal series, Jeff and Matt examine the importance of health and wellness during a transition into the new normal and a post-covid reality.

One of my goals in creating Optimal HRV was to bring heart rate variability to everyday folks and not just elite athletes. In this episode, Jeff and Matt discuss their HRV through the good times and tough ones. Plus, we look at Matt’s data during burnout and after his vaccination.

In this episode, Melissa Vine joins the show to discuss the link between trauma, entitlement, and domestic/intimate partner violence.

Melissa Vine, MA, LMHC, a licensed mental health counselor with 13 years of experience in business ownership, is the current Executive Director of Beacon of Life, a trauma-informed, equity-centered transitional home and programming for women recovering from domestic violence, incarceration, and substance use.  As a professional speaker, leader, and domestic violence survivor, she passionately empowers others to act with courage in the face of life and work challenges.  She received a bachelor’s in Communication Studies in 2002 and graduated summa cum laude with a master’s in Professional Counseling in 2016.  Melissa was in the 2021 class of the Des Moines Business Record’s Forty Under 40, 2018 recipient of One to Watch, and the 2014 recipient of Service Business of the Year by the Grinnell Chamber of Commerce.  She has spoken for the Business Record’s Fearless launch, Iowa Board of Regents Campus Safety and Security Summit, Arts Midwest, Banker’s Trust, UnityPoint Clinic, the UNI Center for Violence Prevention, and the Iowa Small Business Summit.  Melissa lives in Des Moines, Iowa with her four teenage boys and volunteers with the Downtown Chamber of Commerce, ACES Steering Committee, and Des Moines Public Schools.

Website: www.melissavine.com

Email: [email protected]

Phone: (515) 402-1463

Established in 1980, the nonprofit organization Beacon of Life is a trauma-informed, equity-centered, evidence-based 34-bed home in Sherman Hill that provides community, healing, and growth for women who have faced trauma, abuse, substance use, incarceration, and homelessness.  Clients live in this sober, 24-hour-staffed environment as they work through a structured program for 6 – 24 months with a Case Manager. Programming addresses mental health, substance use recovery, career development, financial literacy, trauma recovery, healthy relationships, and physical health.

Beacon of Life website: www.beaconoflifedm.org

Beacon of Life email: [email protected]

Phone: (515) 244-4713

Denis Thompson joins the show to talk about the relationship between trauma and pain. Trauma and stress are the often overlooked aspects of the opioid epidemic and addiction in general. Denis shares his expertise in pain management and provides a new way to think about and treat a common struggle of people with trauma.

Denis Thompson

For the past 25-years, Denis has helped more than 500,000 patients worldwide eliminate their pain without drugs and speed up the process of healing and recovery.

Denis is an Exercise Physiologist by education, so he also has been the man behind the curtain in most national championships and world championships and has taken hundreds of athletes and nonathletes out of wheelchairs.

One of the other things he is known for is patenting therapy called Neuro Therapy which treats why you have symptoms not where you have symptoms.

Those who want to try a treatment for a chronic condition here is link:arpwave.com/fst

Those who want to try a technology for 30 days FREE to control pain at home instantly here is link: arpwave.com/f30

Our website is www.arpwave.com

In this episode, Pat and Tammy McLeod join the show to discuss ambiguous loss, trauma, and their book Hit Hard: One Family’s Journey of Letting Go of What Was and Learning to Live Well with What Is.

Pat and Tammy McLeod serve as Harvard Chaplains for Cru, an interdenominational Christian ministry. Tammy is also the Director of College Ministry at Park Street Church in Boston. She received her MA in Spiritual Formation from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Pat holds an MA in Theological Studies from the International School of Theology and an MA in Science & Religion and a PhD in Practical Theology from Boston University. They are founding members of the Mamelodi Initiative in the township of Mamelodi, South Africa—a project that connects Harvard students with at-risk youth in a mentoring and educational program to prepare them for college. Pat and Tammy, certified instructors for Interpersonal Communication Programs, Inc., have been married for more than three decades and are parents to four grown children. They coauthored the book Hit Hard: One Family’s Journey of Letting Go of What Was and Learning to Live Well with What Is in which they share their journey into the world of ambiguous loss that began after their son suffered a traumatic brain injury playing football. Zach’s story received media coverage by ABC, NBC, CBS, and NPR. Recently they started COVID-19 Conversations on their website hoping to help others be resilient in ambiguous loss.

In this episode, Shelley McKittrick joins Matt to discuss the concept of theory of mind and how it relates to homelessness and other challenges many face after trauma.

Shelley McKittrick has spent most of her life advocating and fighting for social, racial, and economic justice. From anti-apartheid activism to treatment education and advocacy in the HIV/AIDS community — fighting for treatment access and equity for all people living with HIV — to working to prevent and end homelessness in the communities with which she works. For the past decade, Shelley has been focused on homelessness, housing stability, and building trauma-informed and racially equitable services in our nation’s work to end homelessness. Most recently, Shelley served as the first Homelessness Program Director at the City of Aurora, Colorado.

Currently, Shelley is providing consulting services for organizations that are in periods of growth and change. She is also the new Director of Housing and Project Development at Solid Earth Communities, Inc.

Shelley holds master’s degrees in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Virginia and Nonprofit Management from Regis University. Shelley has served on several local and national boards of directors and advisory committees, including: AIDS, Medicine and Miracles, Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections Community Advisory Board, Women Alive Coalition, Metro Denver Homeless Initiative and Access Housing. She has worked in leadership roles at Project Angel Heart, The Mayors HIV Planning Council, the People with AIDS Coalition Colorado, Gilead Sciences, Homeless Services Center and the City of Aurora.

In her personal life Shelley is entirely focused on her family that consists of 2 beautiful girls, her husband, 5 cats, 2 dogs and 4 chickens.

Contact Information:

Shelley McKittrick, Solid Earth Communities

Solidearthcommunities.org

shelley@solidearthcommunities