by Leah Waltrip (2nd Year TSS Group Member, Clinical/DCN Graduate Student) This past June, I found myself frantically packing an absurdly large, 75-pound suitcase with just about everything you could need for a 6-week trip. I have always gone through life being overprepared. I am the person whose car is stocked with hand lotion andContinue reading “Humbled…In All the Right Ways”
Tag Archives: trauma
Looking for Change in All the Wrong Places
A lifetime or so ago, I sat around a conference table with folks from the Rocky Mountain Victim Law Center (RMvlc) and several community- and system-based agencies who worked with crime victims and survivors in Denver. The group was interested in responding to a solicitation from the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) to makeContinue reading “Looking for Change in All the Wrong Places”
Hearing My Words in Someone Else’s Voice
One day, shortly after hard copies of Every 90 Seconds arrived with their periwinkle covers to my doorstep, I rounded the corner into the office I share with my spouse and stopped short. I heard familiar words — words that sounded a lot like my words — in someone else’s voice. The voice was SusanContinue reading “Hearing My Words in Someone Else’s Voice”
#SAAM Remix
Last week wrapped up Sexual Assault Awareness Month (#SAAM) for 2024. During SAAM, I shared images on social media that amplified themes from Every 90 Seconds about moving from individual awareness of the problem of sexual assault to collaborative action. With this remix, the images now appear together in the gallery below. Behind the scenes,Continue reading “#SAAM Remix”
Leveraging March Themes to Inspire Action
A lot gets packed into the 31 days of March — and I’m talking about more than just March Madness and the wild spring-to-winter-and-back-again weather in Denver. After all, March plays host to both Brain Injury Awareness Month and Women’s History Month. Both offer us terrific opportunities to invite new people into conversations about ourContinue reading “Leveraging March Themes to Inspire Action”
When Institutions Betray: A New Research Review
by Kim-Chi Pham, Maria-Ernestina, Adi Rosenthal, & Anne DePrince “One of the few people that I told that I was being sexually harassed was one of the most vocal and prominent advocates for Asian Americans. And I sort of told him, as a testing ground, to see if he would believe me. And he justContinue reading “When Institutions Betray: A New Research Review”
Welcoming New TSS Group Members
This fall, the TSS Group continues our tradition of welcoming new graduate student team members! We invite you to get to know Amber Fredrick and Leah Waltrip through the following brief Q&A. Q: Welcome to the TSS Group, Amber! Tell us about yourself, please! Hi all, I’m Amber Fredrick, and I use she/her pronouns. I’mContinue reading “Welcoming New TSS Group Members”
Why Acceptance is Necessary for Change
Practice radical acceptance. This advice shows up in memes, self-help columns, and the pages of books on mindfulness. It’s good advice, in line with an ever-growing literature that documents the benefits of mindfulness– and acceptance-based therapies. At first pass, though, calls to acceptance can be misunderstood. I’ve found, for example, that the advice can sometimes be heard as asking people to resignContinue reading “Why Acceptance is Necessary for Change”
PTSD Awareness
June 27 is PTSD Awareness Day. In a world where traumas are all too common — from natural disasters to combat and mass shootings as well as sexual assault and intimate partner violence — here are a few things to know about PTSD. What Is PTSD? PTSD is short for posttraumatic stress disorder, a diagnosis that appears in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical ManualContinue reading “PTSD Awareness”
Is There an Antidote to Alienation after Trauma?
A sexual assault survivor mentions feeling disconnected from people with whom she once felt close. Another explains that he feels like a stranger to himself. In interview after interview with my research team, survivors of interpersonal trauma have shared descriptions such as these. Some survived child abuse or adolescent dating violence; others, intimate partner abuse or sexual assault. Regardless of the type ofContinue reading “Is There an Antidote to Alienation after Trauma?”
Trauma Research Notes 