Can trauma haunt the body the same way it haunts memories? According to Stephen Porges, PhD, not only does the body remember a traumatic experience, but it can actually get stuck in the trauma response mode. So even when life becomes safe, the body still perceives danger and its defenses stay engaged. Why does this happen and what can we do about it? Stephen shares a little background along with his own personal experience with this phenomenon – check it out, it’s just 4 minutes. Click here to sign up. Stephen will tell us more about how the polyvagal theory…

When kids have trouble paying attention in school, when they’re too emotional, or reactionary, or downright aggressive, what can we do to help them turn it around? Perhaps too often, these behaviors are addressed with medication for ADHD or bipolar disorder. But according to Bessel van der Kolk, MD, the problem (and the solution) may lie in knowing how to recognize the signs and symptoms of childhood trauma. Bessel walks us through the major markers of this kind of trauma in this short video – check it out, it’s just 4 minutes. Click here to sign up. Bessel will tell…

Can trauma pass from parent to child? It’s an interesting question. Some leading-edge research suggests that it’s possible – trauma felt by survivors might even affect their children’s gene expression. But we don’t need epigenetics to study how trauma strikes across generations. For example, researchers at Auburn University studied a more mundane form of intergenerational trauma transmission. Led by Mona El-Sheikh, PhD, a research team looked at whether household stress harms children’s stress response systems. They proposed that children who experience marital conflict will experience stress that results in poorer cognitive performance. To test this hypothesis, researchers observed 251 children…

We’ve all heard about the chicken or egg dilemma, but let me ask you this – when talking about depression and stroke together … what comes first? Depression or stroke? In a study published in the October 2011 volume of Stroke, depression is correlated with increased risk of stroke in females. Researchers led by Kathryn Rexrode, MD followed 80,574 women who were part of the Nurses’ Health Study. These women were 54 to 79 years old and without a prior history of stroke. They assessed depressive symptoms multiple times with a Mental Health Index. Anti-depressant use was reported every two…

What activates the pleasure and reward centers of the brain, calms parts of the brain associated with fear and anxiety, and is available to anyone without a prescription? Long-term relationships. Researchers Bianca Acevedo, PhD and Arthur Aron, PhD took ten women and seven men who had been married an average of 21.4 years and did fMRIs to look at their brains. They wanted to see what was happening in their brains while participants looked at photos of their partners. For a comparison, they also saw photos of a highly familiar acquaintance, a very close, long-time friend, and a less familiar…

Just for a minute, imagine your brain as two characters from Star Trek. There’s Captain Kirk who is very emotional, the other is Spock who is very analytical. Now combine them (for you Star Trek fans, this may be difficult, but try). Marsha Lucas, PhD, author of Rewire Your Brain for Love, and a neuropsychologist with a special interest in interpersonal neurobiology, uses this Star Trek example to talk about the importance of brain integration for improving relationships. Click here to sign up. Brain integration is important for relationships but it can be tricky, especially because our society has a…