Holding Compassion

Blog manager’s note: Carol sent me these thoughts on compassion a little while back, in the height of “shelter-in-place.” I find it speaks to me now, as we all wonder and work toward whatever’s next in a world forever changed by the coronavirus. Learning Compassion One day recently, I was reminded of an exercise from […]

It’s a Pandemic…So Why is My Child So Calm?

lonely girl wearing dress and mask holding dandelions

Seriously…I don’t get it In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, some parents have asked ATN, “Why is my child so well-behaved?” They are parenting a child impacted by early trauma, and their experience has been that change often heightens the child’s reactive behaviors (more anger, acting-out, raging, withdrawal, etc.) Yet some parents report that […]

Wisdom from a Virtual Schooling Mom

Blog Manager’s Note: I don’t know about you, but I know that I have lost count of how many days we’ve been under orders to “shelter in place.” Although absolutely necessary, this isn’t easy, especially as more and more states make the decision to close school doors for the rest of this academic year. Thankfully, […]

Managing Coronavirus Chaos at Home

How it all got started It wasn’t exactly what we planned for the spring of 2020. Already, life wasn’t very typical, given that we were living in a multi-generational home. Isolating with an eleven- and fifteen-year-old while their mother continued working took atypical to a whole new level. And when our governor (Washington State) took […]

Home School in a Stay-Home World

Blog Manager’s Note: Today’s post is about this strange new world in which we all find ourselves learning how to home school. If you’re like me, the possibility had never even crossed your mind in the days and years leading up to COVID-19! As part of our series on coping with the pandemic, ATN Trauma […]

Activities for the Social Distancing Era

Blog manager’s note: Welcome to the third installment of our Coping with Coronavirus series! This comes to us from long-time ATN Angel Jane Samuel, who shares some activities we can do with and for our kids…and ourselves. I said to my husband the other day, “Life is too much to grasp now. The reality of this […]

Making a Difference in a Time of Dis-Ease

Making a Difference in a Time of Dis-Ease

The rise of dis-ease Over the last weeks, we have awakened daily to the rising of dis-ease. The blurry edge between fact and fabrication has brought us to question our questions. It has activated the sort of fear that causes toilet paper to be prized ahead of reason and parity. It has let us feel […]

My Son’s Brain in School

A brain, a globe, a clock - My Son's Brain in School

A neuropsychologist said of my oldest son: “His brain is not organized the way the world wants it to be, so he has problems functioning. But he doesn’t have behavior problems. His brain doesn’t do those.” My youngest son also has a brain that doesn’t fit the world he lives in, but his brain does […]

AAA Students – A Paradigm Shift + Love

broken plate with a broken heart image covered with a whole heart image

Recap In last week’s post, I introduced the idea of the AAA student: Amygdala Always in Action. I referred to Dan Siegel and Bruce Perry, among others, for their work on the effects trauma can have on the brain. And I talked about the need for a massive paradigm shift, the kind that involves putting […]

AAA Students–A Paradigm Shift

man holding playing cards

Don’t you mean an A student? Nope. My child is not an A student. My child is an AAA student: Amygdala Always in Action. If you are a parent reading this, I bet you have an AAA child too. And if you happen to be a teacher, you almost certainly have AAA students in your […]