Trauma Responses Explained: Fight, Flight, Freeze, Appease
Trauma is pervasive and often overlooked. By understanding how our survival instincts (also known as trauma brain or fight, flight,...
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The Art of Trauma-Informed Care
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Shenandoah Chefalo
Jun 46 min read
Structural Violence in Medicine: “Doctors Have a New Plan for Fat Kids”
The institutions that hope to repair the damage of structural violence are often the same ones that cause it. I began listening to the...
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Shenandoah Chefalo
May 144 min read
Beyond Awareness: Understanding the Interconnections of Foster Care and Societal Challenges
May is foster care awareness month, and this year, I'd like to increase awareness about the foster care system and how it ties into other...
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Shenandoah Chefalo
Apr 93 min read
5 Ways to Mindfully Develop Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is a superpower in today's workforce. And, leaders need to prioritize their social-emotional skills if they hope...
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Shenandoah Chefalo
Apr 25 min read
Healing Through Mindfulness: Slowing Down & Asking for Help
What does healing look like? We often think the answer will be sold to us in pretty packaging, but the truth is that healing requires...
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Shenandoah Chefalo
Mar 125 min read
Re-Writing History: 10 Female Foster Care Survivors Who Thrived
In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re highlighting women who have made—and are making—history. Foster care is associated with many...
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Shenandoah Chefalo
Feb 273 min read
Discover the Power of Trauma-Informed Change: Transforming Lives & Organizations
Trauma-informed change is a revolutionary approach that acknowledges the far-reaching impact of trauma on individuals, communities,...
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Shenandoah Chefalo
Feb 134 min read
Trauma-Informed Attachment Theory: How Childhood Experiences Impact Adult Relationships and Attachment Styles
Attachment styles can help us understand how our trauma impacts our relationships—and what we can do about it. I work with many...
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Shenandoah Chefalo
Jan 234 min read
5 Secrets to Personal Growth No One Tells You
People are always asking me: what do I do to heal my trauma? And people are always disappointed when I tell them the answer. Why? Because...
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Shenandoah Chefalo
Dec 5, 20237 min read
7 Subtle Self-Harm Strategies You Might Do
This blog discusses self-harm and suicide, which can be sensitive topics to many readers. Please establish your safety before reading,...
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Shenandoah Chefalo
Apr 25, 20228 min read
Teen Suicide Prevention: How to Care for Depressed Teens and Children
If you need access to a crisis helpline right now, call 800-273-8255, the 24-hour National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Trigger Warning:...
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Shenandoah Chefalo
Oct 1, 20174 min read
Burning Coals of Emotional Abuse: Minimizing, Invalidating & Gas Lighting
Since the release of Garbage Bag Suitcase, I have had some interesting human encounters. I have traveled around the country and even into...
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Shenandoah Chefalo
Sep 26, 20163 min read
Can Living Alone Heal Trauma? A Year to Find out
I have never really been good at relationships. Intimacy scares me, and trust is something that is earned. When I travel now, speaking...
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Shenandoah Chefalo
Aug 30, 20164 min read
Comfort in Chaos: Understanding Trauma Brain
I make no bones about it, as a foster child, I don’t think I was an easy person to get along with and I certainly wasn’t trying to make...
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Shenandoah Chefalo
Apr 7, 20161 min read
The Mimi Georges Show-The Broken Foster Care System
Shenandoah Chefalo was abused and neglected as a child by her mother and step-father. At the age of 13, she was abandoned so she...
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Shenandoah Chefalo
Jan 26, 20162 min read
How Grief Goes Unnoticed in Foster Children and the Underlying Trauma it Can Cause
I have attended several funerals during my lifetime. At one, when I was still in high school, I remember watching the mother of a friend...
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Shenandoah Chefalo
Jul 21, 20154 min read
Have you Asked? A Simple Request for Social Workers, Counselors and Those Working with Kids
For over twenty years, I said nothing. I hid my status as a foster care survivor from almost everyone I knew. The label “foster kid” had...
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Shenandoah Chefalo
Jul 10, 20152 min read
Understanding the Outcomes of Foster Care
Did you know that we have over 400,000 children in the foster care system each day in the United States? It's appalling and most States...
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Shenandoah Chefalo
Jul 9, 20152 min read
Introducing Garbage Bag Suitcase
LESSONS FROM THE ROAD, A FOSTER CARE MEMOIR Garbage Bag Suitcase is my forthcoming memoir of my wholly dysfunctional journey through a...
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