I recently finished my fall seminar series speaking to K-12 teachers across the United States, and I was so impressed by their dedication and commitment to understanding their students. They expressed that up to 50 per cent of their classrooms are filled by students who are disengaged, shut down, and checked out of the learning process. Their receptivity to my message of understanding these students within the context of neural development was more than exciting, it was inspiring. I am motivated, more like super-charged, to keep informing educators at every level about the effects of stress and trauma on the children who are placed in our care. Only when we understand how the brain is changed by the very real experiences of children’s lives can we intervene with them in ways that work in the long term. Read more

Continuing my formal education until I was 30 years of age definitely hard-wired my brain to take summers off. But alas, it is time to get back to work. Although I’ve been seeing my clients in private practice – and enjoying that part of my work immensely – I must admit, I have been taking a break from everything else other than parenting my beautiful dream of a son. He is starting school shortly and reminding me that parents and educators need plenty of resources as we face another school year that will be filled with both the joys and sorrows of being alive. My newest book, You Can Heal Your Child: A Guide for Parents of Misdiagnosed, Stressed, Traumatized, and Otherwise Misunderstood Children never got a proper launching so that will happen shortly. Stay tuned…but please know that it is currently available at amazon.com as are my first book, Why Students Underachieve, and my activities book for adults working with children, Hope and Healing. Additionally, I have submitted more articles to ezinearticles.com so check those out for a free resource. I hope you will all join me in learning more about how we can stop the misdiagnoses and overmedication of our children, and in the process realize how we can all live a less stressful, more joyful life.

Hi everyone. I didn’t know how best to do this so I am trying with my blog. Many of you have attempted to purchase my new book, You Can Heal Your Child: A Guide for Parents of Misdiagnosed, Stressed, Traumatized, and Otherwise Misunderstood Children, but amazon says it is “out of stock.” Here’s the deal: Unless you order it, amazon will not ask me to send them more books in order to re-stock. So please, I know it requires patience and can be frustrating…but order the book and I promise, you will get it. I know you will find the information worth waiting for. Take good care, and thank you for your support. Reggie (www.DrMelrose.com)

Brief periods of predictable, moderate stress are not problematic to us or our children. In fact, stressful experiences – when brief, predictable or moderate – prepare us all to cope with the world. Neuroscientific studies – those that look at the effects of stress on the brain – reveal that our survival depends upon the ability to mount a response to stress (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). When stress is unpredictable, severe, or prolonged, however, that is when problems arise for us as adults, as well as children. Read more

Too many of us are guilty of intervening with our children too late. Whether they are struggling socially, emotionally, or with their academics, we want to believe our children’s behaviors are part of a normal transition from one stage of development to the next. As educators, we don’t want to over-identify problems. We want to believe, as parents do, that children catch up, they’re resilient, and they don’t need us making a bigger deal out of something than it has to be. Unfortunately, not wanting to overreact has meant we “under-respond.” Our children need us to be paying close attention, recognizing a genuine struggle when we see it, and doing something about it as early as possible. With reading, for example, statistics from the Canadian National Institute of Child Health and Human Development tell the tale: Read more

I often hear parents, educators, and many concerned others ask the important question (in so many words): “Why has there been an increase in the incidence of various kinds of childhood problems?” We all want to understand why bullying is so rampant in schools today; why 1 in 150 births results in a child with Autism when just two decades ago it was closer to 1 in 10,000; why so many more children today appear to have ADHD, Bipolar, or depression. When I listen to panels of professionals answering these questions, I do not hear a discussion about the very real and profound impact of stress on the brain and nervous system, and ultimately on the conditions of our children’s lives. The sources of stress and daily pressure are innumerable, as are their consequences on babies developing in the womb, infants trying to bond, toddlers forming attachments, as well as children’s physiological states. Read more

In his “vision of a compassionate future,” the Dalai Lama stated that “many people today agree that we need to reduce violence in our society. If we are truly serious about this, we must deal with the roots of violence, particularly those that exist within each of us. We need to embrace ‘inner disarmament,’ reducing our own emotions of suspicion, hatred, and hostility toward our brothers and sisters.”  But how do we do that? The most powerful way I have seen this happen over and over again has been through the healing of trauma. Read more

I am getting frustrated with parents who I know love their children dearly, and teachers who I know want to see their students succeed, who operate as though the ideal is real. They have a dream for their children, a wish for how they had turned out or would turn out. So much so that they cannot see who is standing right in front of them. A child who tragically lost his mother to heart failure. A child who is in the middle of an acrimonious divorce between the two people he or she loves the most. A child being viciously bullied at school. A child who has experienced medical trauma or who lives in a dangerous neighborhood. The less than ideal events and circumstances of our children’s lives are numerous and diverse. Yet we continue to expect that they are going to be a number one student, a star athlete, and perfectly behaved. Read more

The last two decades of neuroscientific research have led to new understandings of how the brain and body are affected by crises. In response to this new research, I propose an alternative approach to crisis intervention in schools. The approach engages the oldest, wisest part of our brain, the brain stem, through the language of sensations for two reasons: first, because the core of the crisis experience is processed by the brain stem, and second, because the language of this more primitive brain is the language of sensations. Please continue reading First Do No Harm – A Proposal For Crisis Intervention in Schools

Today is the 10th anniversary of Columbine: April 20, 2009. I hope we will remember Littleton, Colorado and that tragic day when 15 lives were taken so violently, and dozens of others who survived were changed forever by the experience. Since then we have learned a great deal more about what can lead to such disturbing acts of terror. Read more