PACEs

Boys experience emotions deeply, often with limited skills to manage them. Parents who understand the struggles facing boys today can prepare them to cope well emotionally.

Three systems. Three sets of data. Three versions of the same person. Daniel’s HIV care tracked every viral load. Mental health services logged anxiety scores. Housing support recorded tenancy details. But no one saw the whole person. Not because clinicians didn’t care, but because the system was never built to see people with intersecting identities. This is what I call "Intersectional invisibility" : when individuals at the margins, like the migrants, LGBTQ+ group, ethnic minorities,...

Francis Emmanuel Adabenege, founder of HealthBridge Nexus, shares a powerful piece on epistemic erasure, the Intersectional Epistemic Equity Framework (IEEF), and what it means to co-design with marginalized communities. You are welcome to join the HealthBridge Nexus Community Page . Read the full article on the the link below: https://www.pacesconnection.com/g/healthbridge-nexus/blog/the-silence-after-the-diagnosis-why-lived-experience-must-shape-health-systems #TraumaInformed #Co-Design...

One of my pet peeves is that I didn't receive a proper education in emotions until I was almost 40 years old. Until I saw the Change Triangle, I judged myself for what I felt and had no tools to help myself move through emotions like anger, anxiety, depression, and shame. Every educator, counselor, psychologist, social worker, or coach working with young people knows this truth: beneath every behavior is an emotion, and beneath every emotion is a human being longing to feel safe, seen, and...

Ninety-four percent of children sentenced to adult time experienced multiple traumas in their early years. Eighty percent of girls survived sexual abuse, a large percentage overall are commercially trafficked. Yet in all but 10% of cases, this childhood trauma was not even considered in court when minors were tried for crimes. These are the findings in a new report detailing the “childhood-trauma-to-prison pipeline .” The report by the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Human Rights for Kids —...

Dr. Susan (Sue) Johnson’s book, Hold Me Tight, helps couples, at least one of whom who has survived childhood trauma, develop safe, loving relationships, even without therapy. The answer lies not in learning how to argue, but in addressing the need to attach to a dependable, loving partner.

If not long ago someone had asked me when my ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) “aha” moment occurred, I’d have said it was on a bleak day in 2009, sky as dull as the flat white paint on the bare walls of the squat box of a house my husband and I were renting at the time. I don’t remember what I was desperately Googling when there in the search results appeared a link to a site about something called Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). To be sure, whatever I was searching for pertained...

Survivors of childhood trauma have crucial needs for emotional closeness. Emotionally focused therapy helps couples find it by changing the way they see themselves and their relationship.

Following the strong interest in my article on diagnosing the "DEI Plateau," I have just launched the practical tool designed to bridge that gap. The IEEF Organizational Equity Audit Toolkit is a complete, self-guided system born from my doctoral research. It provides leaders with a structured methodology to: Conduct a simultaneous Structural & Identity Lens Move from demographic tracking to diagnosing systemic root causes. Build a credible, 90-Day Action Roadmap from your insights. It...

You’ve run the training sessions. You’ve issued the statements. You’re tracking the demographics. Yet, a stubborn reality persists: employee surveys reveal a gap between policy and experience, turnover remains uneven, and the promised surge in innovation feels elusive. For many leaders, DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) has hit a perplexing plateau. The common instinct is to double down on existing efforts such as more training, clearer communication, better hiring goals. However,...

Many couples feel stuck in a cycle of escalation and shutdown—one partner gets urgent, the other goes silent, and both end up hurt and confused. But beneath these moments are nervous-system patterns shaped by early relational environments, not character flaws. This post unpacks the pursuit–withdraw dynamic through a trauma-informed, polyvagal lens while the second part of the series offers gentle, practical ways to reconnect even when old protective wiring gets activated.

The echoes of childhood trauma often contaminate adult intimate relationships. Emotionally Focused Therapy addresses unfulfilled attachment needs and turns a conflicted relationship into a safe haven.