Blog
Holding On When Things Get Tough
Very few of us get through life without something bad happening to us. Maybe it’s a “regular” bad thing, the kind of event we expect to experience at some point in our lives. Like the deaths of loved ones, getting our heart broken by someone we cared for, being fired...
read more
In Honor of Gratitude
It’s that time of year – to express gratitude for what you have in your life. No matter the date on the calendar, I work on being grateful and really do pay attention to the things that are going right in my life. Yet, like so many expected feelings we tie...
read more
Mental Health is Just Health
If you’ve ever experienced issues with your mental health, then you know how differently it’s treated than our physical health. By doctors and health insurance companies, by employers and managers, by the press and the general public. Yet, they’re not...
read more
What Harold Knows About Resiliency
Recently I had occasion to reread Harold and the Purple Crayon, Crockett Johnson’s 1955 book about the tiny, pajama-clad Harold. This young boy goes on an adventure one evening, leaving behind the comfort of his bed to walk in the moonlight. I remember...
read more
Communicating in a Crisis: Talking Trauma (Part 2)
Crisis communications is complex - there are many steps to the process. Here we are talking about how to craft the message once you’ve identified the layers of audiences to communicate with. A crisis, like a bombing or a bridge collapse, is filled with...
read more
Communicating in a Crisis: Talking Trauma (Part 1)
It was an honor to work closely with crisis communications professionals at a Crisis Communications conference in Chicago this week. The theme: Navigating a crisis to protect your brand through storytelling. My task was to help these industry and government...
read more
World Mental Health Day: Mental Health Wounds Are Real
Four years ago, in honor of World Mental Health Day, I wrote a piece for Action on Armed Violence with Jane Hunter. She and I discussed my thoughts and feelings about the mental health response to the Boston Marathon bombing. As someone who thankfully...
read more
What Trauma Taught Me
What I learned as a survivor of a crime Like a lot of us, I was just going about my regular life. Before the trauma, I thought I was doing a pretty good job. I would have told you at the time that I was reasonably aware of what I wanted out of life, how to...
read more
Ode to Mindfulness
Before my trauma, if you’d asked I would’ve told you that I was pretty aware of my own sense of self and how I interacted with the world. After my trauma, I look back on my naïve self and smile. I was doing the best I could with the information I had at the time and I...
read more
Working Mindfully
The concept of mindfulness seems to be everywhere these days, even if you aren’t looking for it. Jon Kabat-Zinn, the man who coined the concept of mindful-based stress reduction, defines mindfulness as: “awareness that arises through paying attention, on...
read more