Happy autumn, everyone!
I haven't vanished, but have been attending to all sort of things: writing, seeing clients, Halloween with a spirited 8-year-old, and all the other stuff that usually makes up my blog posts here.
I've also been participating in a very interesting and helpful certificate program in Trauma Informed Therapy through the Trauma Insitute in Northampton (they're doing some excellent work; check them out at www.childtrauma.com), and am excited to share that I will be doing some work for them this month, as well. This feels like both an honor and a joy, as it entails the possibility to help significantly with post-trauma effects in a short period of time. (Read about memory re-consolidation and trauma resolution therapy on the above-mentioned site, if you're interested).
I have also been doing a lot of research recently, especially about the addiction-trauma connection, drug use and recovery among pregnant and parenting women, and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS). While there is still a lot of very scary stuff in the news all the time about drug addiction, overdose deaths, and NAS, there is also a growing national movement putting the emphasis on treatment, recovery, and non-incarceration solutions to addiction.
Since I know not everyone who reads this blog is especially interested in the topics above, I will be funneling the majority of this writing to a second blog, Having Hope and Helping Better, which is in the planning stages at this time. If you are interested in it, please let me know so I can send it your way when it's launched.
Ah, the holidays-- I am doing some extra thinking this year about what they mean to me and how to potentially gear them more toward my household/family as they currently exist. Would love to hear about any ways in which you have or plan to reinvent the holidays for yourself, too.
Last but not least, I have to say I have been really enjoying the vibrant autumn colors this year. My daughter routinely collects leaves she finds especially beautiful and then gives them to me for "safe keeping". I am not sure I am remotely qualified for the job of autumn leaf-keeping, but I do love to see the ones she finds for us.
Wishing you well,
Susan
