Do you ever despair when once again revisited by old ghosts? When parts of you that you thought you had worked through long ago, rear up again, as powerfully as ever?

Although I hate and avoid the word "triggering," it can in fact feel like being shot again, by an age old "enemy."

Does it make you wonder "what is wrong with me?" Or, is all this therapy "not working?"

Well, even those of us who have worked on our trauma for years and decades (or what seems like millennia!) have these episodes.

This video was shot in my hotel room in Boston on my last day, so housekeeping would not be coming. The bed was unmade, and I wondered if I should actually film this with an unmade bed in the background. Not too professional, right? Well I decided to tell it like it is, to be real, as this video is in fact about "dirty laundry," showing the unsavory, disheveled parts to reassure you, even we old-timers have our moments!

Thanks for your interest in Nothing!

In his masterwork, The Archaeology of Mind, neuroscience luminary, researcher and animal lover Jaak Panksepp wrote that a brief interlude of tickling of his lab rats, and a single bout of rat "laughter", activated a neurochemical and affective change in the little creatures, and even sprouted new neurons in their little hippocampi! And as we know, their brains are a lot like ours.

In this video, we make a brief visit to the world of play, so elusive or missing in the world of neglect, and discover that there is actually even a brain region designed by nature to mediate what is in fact a vital function.

And of course the redundant discovery, that if you, like me, thought you were "missing that gene”, it is not your fault. Again, something was missing.

Thanks for joining us for episode 14!

Hope to see you in Boston!

In this episode we discuss the neglected topic of aging: the aging body, the aging brain, sexuality as we age.

Another of those seemingly taboo subjects that it seems there is no one to ask, or no one reliable, and one might be too shame or afraid to tell. Perhaps you can be slightly more aware of what to expect, and what is quite normal and expectable than I was!

In Episode 12 I invite you to join me in talking about sex, a topic so important to so many, and all too often neglected and unaddressed.

On one hand we are constantly titillated and teased by it, yet most of us live with a poverty of real and reliable information.

We are only scratching the surface of what I hope will become a long conversation! I invite you to become fluent and forthcoming conduits of that missing information, as well as taboo busting. We also review what constitutes "healthy" sexual relating.

Can we talk?

As we see our parents age, many of us are seized with a nameless clash of often intense emotions, especially if we have traumatic memories of these parents from childhood, or mixed feelings about them at best. And especially if, as what is so often the case, our parents have their own tragic trauma stories.

I have come to call this confusing and often overwhelming cacophony The Bermuda Triangle: a mish-mash feeling of shipwreck, mystery and invisible or vanishing wreckage or remains.

We revisit the Bermuda Triangle in this week's video. Perhaps it will speak to you.

On another note, I am unambiguously inspired and very busy getting ready for the upcoming 36th Annual Boston International Trauma Conference. I hope to see you there!

In this episode we diverge a bit from the more somber topics of trauma and neglect, to celebrate International Women's Month and specifically women's sexual health, with an emphasis on women's sexual pleasure! Enjoy!

Andy Marra, a Korean American trans adoptee told the moving story of searching for and traveling to Korea to meet her biological mother. Uncertain about how she will be received, and terrified about the complicated decision to come out to her mother, who thought she had given up a male child, she is terrified. It is a story of attachment, loss, repair and love.

Recently, I was introduced to a new-to-me clinical term: "Climate Anxiety."

It is a mix of overwhelm, fear, anxiety, and hopeless despair about what is, at least for most of us, the undeniably dire state of our planet – riddled with almost daily frightening news of fires, floods, earthquakes, and volcanic activity.

In this week's video we revisit the power of connection as a way to combat desolation and sense of defeat, or any pull toward resignation or paralysis. As ever with trauma, neglect and with every kind of healing, engagement and relationship provide our most powerful path forward.