16/02/2022
I was due to visit Kojonup with John in late October last year, but had to pull out due to illness. One of the aims of the planned talks was to highlight the legacy of the Carrolup Story, in relation to how it speaks to today about trauma, […]
14/02/2022
John and I will be heading down to Kojonup on Thursday to have a variety of discussions about a new project we have been developing with children’s writer and illustrator Lisa Martello-Hart. This is a community-driven project that aims to use community members, the knowledge of world-leading experts, […]
17/01/2022
‘Dixon Chibanda is one of 12 psychiatrists in Zimbabwe—for a population of more than 16 million. Realizing that his country would never be able to scale traditional methods of treating those with mental health issues, Chibanda helped to develop a beautiful solution powered by a limitless resource: grandmothers. […]
10/01/2022
I’m reading a fascinating book by James Gordon on my Kindle at the moment, Transforming Trauma: Discovering Wholeness and Healing After Trauma. It’s a great read, highly recommended if you interested in the healing of trauma. Here is the publicity material for the book: ‘The definitive new guide […]
06/01/2022
I read a fascinating article in The Guardian by Johann Hari about an increasing and worrying problem that exists in much of society today. Our ability to concentrate and attend to matters is being eroded by certain facets of everyday life. This erosion of people’s attention will lead […]
05/12/2021
‘I’m constantly afraid. Even if I know I am doing the right things, I am still constantly afraid of the fear that someone could even take my kids.’ I really like the look of this film, directed by Matt Smiley, about the impact of colonisation on Indigenous peoples […]
09/11/2021
Some of you will will know that I believe that the biomedical approach to mental health—using drugs to treat what are considered to be biochemical disorders—causes more harm than good. I have previously recommended the book What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Bruce D. […]
02/11/2021
Here is what Bruce Perry has to say about ‘belonging’ and ‘being loved’ in What Happened To You: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience and Healing, the excellent book he wrote with Oprah Winfrey. ‘Belonging and being loved are core to the human experience. We are a social species. We […]
29/10/2021
This afternoon, John Stanton will be giving his and my talks about the Aboriginal child artists at The Kodja Place, Kojonup, {while I recuperate at home}. One of the aims of these talks is to highlight the legacy of the Carrolup Story, in relation to how it speaks […]
15/10/2021
‘I think of the most transformative people I have ever known, every single one of them had personal pain and traumatic experience that was a core element of who they became. And it didn’t crush them… Those people tend to have tremendous empathy for others who are struggling […]
12/10/2021
I believe strongly in Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) as a powerful way forward for communities. I’ve written about this invaluable approach in three blogs on this website: Community Building: ‘Mental health is not a product of pharmacology or a service that can be singularly provided by an institution: […]
07/10/2021
I have previously posted articles about Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) entitled Community Building and Sustainable Community Development: From What’s Wrong to What’s Strong – Cormac Russell. The ABCD approach focuses on a community’s assets, capacities and abilities. Historical evidence indicates that significant community development takes places only when local community […]
05/10/2021
‘Told to us through the voices of children, this unique animation teaches us that by putting together the seven-piece jigsaw puzzle of ‘Developmental Trauma’, we can understand how a child’s adverse childhood experiences have shaped their emotional world and outward behaviour. Once we understand this, we can then […]
30/09/2021
Some of you will know that I run two other websites, one of which, Recovery Stories, focuses on addiction and mental health recovery. Over the period from March to August I posted about 100 articles on my blog, but had to stop for a time while I was […]
27/09/2021
I continue the series of films made by Mike Liu and I when we spent a day with Professor Marion Kickett, Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Studies at Curtin University, in York in September 2103. Marion is a Noongar from the Balardong language group. The first six […]