With warmer spring weather and the promise of summer yet to come, May is the perfect month to renew our focus on mental health. Mental Health America (MHA) joins the celebration this year with a new theme (Look Around, Look Within) encouraging us to consider the effects our unique environment—the places we live, work, play,…
National Crime Victims’ Rights Week began in 1981 and a lot has happened in communities across the nation to elevate the voices of crime survivors since then. The 2023 theme—Survivor Voices: Elevate. Engage. Effect Change.—challenges communities to examine whether or not their crime survivors are heard, believed, and supported when they come forward. If we…
Starting at the Beginning From the moment we are born, our brains store and acquire memories, knowledge, sounds, and more to ensure that they will keep us safe. Once something terrible, painful, or scary happens to us, our brains use a lot of energy to help us escape that situation. Once we aren’t in danger…
As the sun was rising the morning of October 2, 2017, I knew deep down that I needed to do something to help myself and others heal from the horror we had just experienced. I wasn’t exactly sure what that looked like, but knew I wasn’t equipped to do it on my own and I…
Among the many traditions, New Year’s is the time when many people decide to remember the good things that happened in the past year and get ready to create goals or resolutions for the coming year. Although this is one of the most common traditions when someone has experienced a traumatic event, it’s hard to…
“Happy Holidays” seems innocuous enough, a simple greeting we frequently use beginning in early December through the new year to greet loved ones and strangers alike. Even with all of our cultural and religious differences, it seems everyone celebrates something during this time. Schools provide a large winter break, employers often throw holiday parties for…
gratitude n. the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness This month, we would like to focus on the feeling of gratitude. We are heading into the holiday season, which can be very positive for some and very difficult for others. At the Vegas Strong Resiliency Center, we hope…
If someone were to ask you, “Are you living or existing?”, finding that answer can be complicated. Even though both terms mean to be alive, their context is very different. To exist means to stay alive; however, living means to enjoy life and every moment with admiration and happiness. This difference is the key between…
Long-term healing from a major trauma can take many forms and the specific treatments or services that lead to healing are unique to each individual. Everyone heals in their own time, as experts from the National Mass Violence Victimization Resource Center (NMVVRC) remind us, “Recovery from a Mass Violence Incident (MVI) is an often lengthy…
I know for many of us, it is hard to believe that we are almost upon the fifth anniversary of the mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival. I was not at the concert; however, I have been a crisis responder, mental health provider, and now program consultant, helping others to heal, grow, and…