Tag Archives: support
The Importance of Connection and Practical Help After an Emergency
After a disaster, people need clear updates, human connection, and practical support. Having someone familiar nearby to listen, guide next steps, or just offer a presence provides stability during crisis and loss. Essentials like food, clean water, medication, shelter, transportation, … Continue reading
Community Resilience
Community resilience comes from preparation that supports the ability to adapt to changing conditions and recover rapidly from disruptions. Key Characteristics Social Connectedness: Neighbors trust and support each other during normal times and crises. Robust Infrastructure: Physical and digital systems … Continue reading
Caring for Yourself When Helping During or After an Emergency
A guide for volunteers and neighbors exposed to other people’s suffering When an emergency affects a community, people step forward to help. You may listen to someone’s story, witness injuries or destruction, provide food or transportation, search for belongings, or … Continue reading
How to Help Someone Right After an Emergency
People react to emergencies in all kinds of ways. Someone might break down crying, shut down completely, get restless or angry, or even seem surprisingly fine. Some of these reactions hit right away, while others show up hours or days … Continue reading
Grief Moves When the Body Is Allowed: Trauma Integration and the Power of Witnessing
I went into my craniosacral appointment without an agenda, not trying to make anything happen. I laid on the treatment table and my doctor cradled my head with his hands. Before long, I felt a huge wave of deep grief rise … Continue reading
Where Psychiatric Labels Fall Apart
Psychiatry puts forth the idea that a person is one thing, then something happens inside them, a kind of switch, and they become something else. As if so-called “mental illness” appears without context, history, or conditions that accumulate over time. … Continue reading
“Isn’t That How It Works?”
One of my doctors was telling me about his path into medicine. He attended a highly prestigious private school. He went on to say that there, he met a mentor who connected him with someone at Georgetown University. That relationship … Continue reading
Noticing Safety in the Small Moments We Overlook
Walking home from the community garden, I saw a young man coming toward me on my street. It was Independence Day weekend and there was a local event happening nearby, so there were more people around than usual, including people … Continue reading
Resilience Isn’t Solo: The Neurobiology of Support
A recent visit with a new healthcare practitioner had a significantly negative impact. She was so out of sorts that she could not appropriately connect. That meant she could not take in what I said or understand what I needed. … Continue reading
Why One Safe Connection Affects Everything
In the past few months, I have enjoyed a noticeably improved quality of life. I don’t have to spend so much focus desperately trying to build connections. I have more energy for other things, like working in the garden and … Continue reading