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supporting families in immediate crisis, endangered young people, street youth through our Blue Canoe Division
Blue Canoe was first established and is maintained for US indigent children & street youth, victims of bullying, threat, gender-based harassment ... who literally walked into our offices from the street. many of these found themselves suddenly homeless when their parents discovered they were gay, had exhausted sources for couch-surfing, car sleeping, were now part of the many youth wandering up the northern CA coast -- at risk of various forms of health and mental health illnesses, maltreatment at the hands of exploitive strangers, had been repeatedly robbed and beaten, injured, were confused, frightened, hungry, at times in some type of immediate danger . . . believed they were unable to return home; hopeless.
we have assisted children of incarcerated parents
middle school age children on the run due to gender based violence
refugee youth whose parents failed to meet them in the US as promised; & unaccompanied minor children, youth
families with children with stark or unusual emergency conditions, chronic, or life-limiting illnesses; or with no money and pending medical treatments or surgeries.
critical questions we consider -
we ask . . .
1. "how rapidly, and how best can we assess and intervene for isolated, hurting, traumatized, children and youth? " who can we connect them with who can provide safety and connection better?"
2. "who are the reliable point people in the family unit, at the school, after school, in social services, in the legal system?
3. "what has worked or not worked previously - what may work to prevent or reduce later problems?"
4. "what can we do to help them sort out what is happening to them, foster coping and resilience?"
5. "what is the effect on children's mental health when we do intervene after major disruptive events or abuse, hostile family separations, disasters, traumatic incidents, and the range of associated adjustment difficulties children display during and after "hard times" -- bereavement, fleeting distress symptoms, or the full range of posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression?"
6. "how do we determine degree of "risk" when there are differences in exposure in each instance, whether the loss or trauma involved a loved one, were there pre-existing difficulties, a trauma history, was there, is there, family/peer support?"
7. again, "what existing agencies would be a fit for these youth?"
These young people sometimes return years later, check in to see how other youth are doing . . . they are very grateful.
hearing the concerns of youth transitioning to college:
Dr. Ruebsamen (below) taking questions as the invited speaker for Congressman Mike Honda (back row, left) public Seminar on topics selected by Student Representatives of fourteen Bay Area High School Senior Classes regarding extreme stressors they anticipate facing as college freshmen in the Fall.
*Among questions collected, many students were worried about Depression and Suicide - such as exactly what to do - how to get help -- if a roommate confided they were suicidal.
Blue Canoe was first established and is maintained for US indigent children & street youth, victims of bullying, threat, gender-based harassment ... who literally walked into our offices from the street. many of these found themselves suddenly homeless when their parents discovered they were gay, had exhausted sources for couch-surfing, car sleeping, were now part of the many youth wandering up the northern CA coast -- at risk of various forms of health and mental health illnesses, maltreatment at the hands of exploitive strangers, had been repeatedly robbed and beaten, injured, were confused, frightened, hungry, at times in some type of immediate danger . . . believed they were unable to return home; hopeless.
we have assisted children of incarcerated parents
middle school age children on the run due to gender based violence
refugee youth whose parents failed to meet them in the US as promised; & unaccompanied minor children, youth
families with children with stark or unusual emergency conditions, chronic, or life-limiting illnesses; or with no money and pending medical treatments or surgeries.
critical questions we consider -
we ask . . .
1. "how rapidly, and how best can we assess and intervene for isolated, hurting, traumatized, children and youth? " who can we connect them with who can provide safety and connection better?"
2. "who are the reliable point people in the family unit, at the school, after school, in social services, in the legal system?
3. "what has worked or not worked previously - what may work to prevent or reduce later problems?"
4. "what can we do to help them sort out what is happening to them, foster coping and resilience?"
5. "what is the effect on children's mental health when we do intervene after major disruptive events or abuse, hostile family separations, disasters, traumatic incidents, and the range of associated adjustment difficulties children display during and after "hard times" -- bereavement, fleeting distress symptoms, or the full range of posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression?"
6. "how do we determine degree of "risk" when there are differences in exposure in each instance, whether the loss or trauma involved a loved one, were there pre-existing difficulties, a trauma history, was there, is there, family/peer support?"
7. again, "what existing agencies would be a fit for these youth?"
These young people sometimes return years later, check in to see how other youth are doing . . . they are very grateful.
hearing the concerns of youth transitioning to college:
Dr. Ruebsamen (below) taking questions as the invited speaker for Congressman Mike Honda (back row, left) public Seminar on topics selected by Student Representatives of fourteen Bay Area High School Senior Classes regarding extreme stressors they anticipate facing as college freshmen in the Fall.
*Among questions collected, many students were worried about Depression and Suicide - such as exactly what to do - how to get help -- if a roommate confided they were suicidal.
Part of "consulting" as a psychologist is simply making information clear, accurate, open and available by writing, public speaking, engaging with others in professional and advocacy organizations, and on websites such as this.
However, what we offer here is informational only, not personalized therapeutic advice. We encourage readers to bring specific questions directly to their health providers, physicians, health and mental health care professionals.
we connect people with other professionals in real-time, with strong theoretical grounding, excellent education and training, documented expertise -- individuals who are skilled listeners and create an atmosphere of emotional trust and safety, so clients feel encouraged to share further their authentic, direct experiences with those qualified and licensed to build helpful and trustworthy ongoing in-personl relationships with them.
so, while using this site for increasing understanding and thinking about therapeutic issues, keep in mind that reading what it contains is not "therapy". You will find Resources and Crisis pages near the end of the website which may be helpful for additional information and connection to services.
in our private practice, - abbey, we are pleased to offer effective, psychotherapeutic support for many different types of people - professionals, corporate leaders, individuals working in security positions, medical students and residents, physicians, nurses, psychology colleagues, doctoral students, high tech employees who find themselves in sensitive, complicated interpersonal situations which require high levels of sensitivity and confidentially, and are extremely anxiety-provoking given the potential for disrupting their careers, and they often have unusual scheduling complications.
We offer formal and informal consultation for individuals, attorneys, groups, agencies, schools, offering confidential psychological assessment, consult, and interventions for Silicon Valley, SF, and Monterey Bay area executives, medical, legal, and academic professionals, . . . leaders of local and regional nonprofits . . . and their family members and friends.
our services are open and flexible
clients primarily find themselves in need of mindful support, encouragement, and coping strategies for managing "everyday stress and trauma" . Some request support for family members who are under extraordinary pressure, experiencing medical distress or vocational burnout.
like the wide doorway, (pictured left0, our aim to be open and flexible enough to support individuals, couples, and families through a range of choices and changes over the years, in times of consolidating new relationships and family configurations, with career issues, demands and decisions, contribute by modeling and teaching improved listening and communication skills, being present with support through seasons of episodic situational stress, times of abundance, times of sorrow and sadness, and share in enriching seasons of renewal and promise by partnering in cultivating mindful awareness, presence, and gratitude.
longer term, some clients and families use our pulsed services
longterm, families have often used our services on a pulsed basis. In such instances, we have successfully assisted them from a lifespan perspective -- engaging with them repeatedly in short-term treatment at various critical developmental stages, supporting them with rearing very young and latency-aged children, adolescents, teens and young adults for specific periods of time in order to manage highly challenging transitions, such as from one parental home to another, including assisting with reunifications, reconnection therapies, transitions from high school to college or to employment settings, through temporary school removal or therapeutic schools, in and out of college, etc.
It is not uncommon for parents to bring their teens, even pre-teens in when they discover they have an unmanageable substance abuse problem - (hopefully they come before this becomes extremely unmanageable).
complicated family situations: multiple risk intertwined with adverse circumstances
we have substantial history working with fragile, vulnerable individuals and families who struggle with uniquely acute or poly-risk factors and multiple, chronic (cumulative) hardship. They may have additional temperamental, developmental, neuro- bio-developmental underlying issues.
These individuals may have distorted awareness and appraisal of both themselves and others (in terms of their internal representations) -- distortions of their intra-personal (self perception) and interpersonal/social worlds with resulting intolerably painful conclusions.
working more deeply - "what lies beneath?!"
We are often able to accurately assess and describe these processes, and, to some degree, help them understand their inner processes, their self representations, their interpersonal processes, and help them make therapeutic changes, with clinical support.
addressing situations where family members have complex cognitive issues:
we support those with complex cognitive issues - those on the autism spectrum, elders and frail elders who may be experiencing cognitive changes such as mental confusion, fluctuation in thinking, confabulation and memory loss, and/or subtle behavioral changes not present earlier. We support others whose chronic, complicated, or fluctuating medical conditions and the limitations accompanying them, gravely limit their social worlds.
victimization and risk
we work with those victimized by severe stress, victimization, loss, conflict, crime, maltreatment, domestic violence.
This necessitates addressing sibling and peer harassment and intimidation, evaluating youth injured by gender-based harassment and violence (GBV) in the US and in other countries, frequently the case in the course of conducting asylum evaluations for the never-ending influx of unaccompanied minors into the US.
impoverishment and risk
every attempt is made to understand the rates and the fluctuating conditions of homelessness and statelessness in our counties and and what that means for families and children in terms of vulnerability, victimization potential, hopelessness, abandonment, and shame; many youth who could benefit from educational and therapeutic programs offered to them, but refuse to engage in order to remain the caregiver and protector of their homeless parent.
child/youth poverty in the US
Pediatric Suicide
young children and suicidality (experiencing suicidal thoughts/thinking and/or expressing suicidal behaviors)
addressing suicidality in young children and youth
We have accumulated expertise and specialized experience with the nature, assessment and treatment of the effects of exposure to high inter parental conflict (which remains unresolve) on children - and with the unique precursors to and maintaining issues related to young children and adolescent suicidality, its assessment and treatment.
we are especially alert to accrued loss, abrupt "entrance" and "exit" events in the lives of children and teens . .
and have become aware of their strong relationship to silent, chronic, mental states of child "suicidality", which entails suicidal ideation (thinking), behaviors, or both.
Further, we are sensitive to instances in which children or youth may suddenly appear to be relieved, suddenly happy, and those who are in their first week or so post-hospitalization who exhibit sudden elevations in mood, especially those on antidepressants which may be propelling an initial elevated mood and with it, the energy to carry out latent suicidal plans. In such situations, we conduct assessment, provide clinical management within the family constellation and school environment and provide up-managed (daily check-ins, additional eyes on) treatment for the child or teen and family as warranted.
We have identified and worked with a usually near- invisible population of children and adolescents who require explicit support, each of them have had un-acknowledged "exit and entrance" events in family/living constellations --
the coming and going of friends siblings, grandparents, pets, parents, perhaps teachers or mentors or coaches with home they had developed strong relationships . . . by death, move-away, marriage/remarriage, divorce, at times by vigorous use of parent-alienating behaviors toward the other parent, leaving children deeply wounded, feeling isolated, and grieving silently, alone, increasingly hopeless, anxious, depressed but "silent" or "perceived silent" . . . "speaking no evil" as a consequence of their perceived role in family, developmental status, complicating psychiatric issues, other, undetected victimization, or as a consequence of being parentalized - having assumed a parental role that is to burdensome - or simply by reason of being kids, who tend, instinctively, not to bring their worries and concerns forward to parents . . . and especially so when they perceive their parents are hurting --thus over-protecting their parents which sometimes leaves children/youth absolutely bereft of emotional support and sometimes shelter for themselves.
These children who may be as young as three or four, are often latency-aged, and may be high-schoolers who "for no reason" appear "suddenly" to no longer care to function (or continue feeling invisible, expendable, or otherwise "non-functional") in the background of a divorce or reconstituted family scenario . . . this may look like a fourth grader who simply stops eating, or a seventh grader who uncharacteristically runs into the street in front of traffic.
children and teens with underlying mood disorder over several years are at particular risk
Research and our experience suggests we will often find unidentified, untreated, underlying pediatric mood disorders across a year or two which have eventually been triggered, contributing to heightened, excessive psychic pain.
At times, for some children and youth, the chronicity and rawness of that pain becomes a potent contributor to chronic child suicidality (ideation and behaviors). Sometimes this looks like that combination of dysthymia ("persistent depressive disorder" in DSM V (a low grade, persisting depression) sometimes with attentional issues with distractibility which contributes to their bottoming out in academics before parents notice (this is a condition is frequently minimized and dismissed, but which some diagnosticians argue is a disorder separate unto itself, and, rather than an attentional disorder, is primarily a mood disorder, requires different approaches to treatment and medication, is seen more frequently in females.
recent research - ADHD, OD, cognitive immaturity, impulsivity are contributors to child suicidality
However, 2016 research suggests that ADHD/OD are like contributors to child suicidality - perhaps due to cognitive immaturity, and impulsivity.
AGAIN, noting unresolved inter-parental high conflict (longtime research of E.Mark Cummings)
treating young, latency age children and adolescents who have lived for some time with a low grade depression/dysthymia, increasing apathy, withdrawal, unnoticed and untreated, mood/anxiety issues rendering them acutely vulnerable to unresolved inter-parental conflict, family changes and losses of many kinds, peer harassment, bullying, shame, and exclusion.
This may result in cognitive distortions (of awareness and appraisal) and disorganizing mood disruption which can be measure by performance testing . . . in turn, this distortion and disruption of mood can result in behavioral changes -- increasing, uncharacteristic interpersonal avoidance and withdrawal, anhedonia (lack of interest in things that previously gave them pleasure), sudden, intense, anxiety, sometimes obsessive behaviors and compulsions, secretiveness, paranoid ideation, disorders of eating or substance use/abuse, overt suicidality (suicidal ideation and/or behaviors) - and near-lethal acts often interpreted as "sudden" and "impulsive".
However, what we offer here is informational only, not personalized therapeutic advice. We encourage readers to bring specific questions directly to their health providers, physicians, health and mental health care professionals.
we connect people with other professionals in real-time, with strong theoretical grounding, excellent education and training, documented expertise -- individuals who are skilled listeners and create an atmosphere of emotional trust and safety, so clients feel encouraged to share further their authentic, direct experiences with those qualified and licensed to build helpful and trustworthy ongoing in-personl relationships with them.
so, while using this site for increasing understanding and thinking about therapeutic issues, keep in mind that reading what it contains is not "therapy". You will find Resources and Crisis pages near the end of the website which may be helpful for additional information and connection to services.
in our private practice, - abbey, we are pleased to offer effective, psychotherapeutic support for many different types of people - professionals, corporate leaders, individuals working in security positions, medical students and residents, physicians, nurses, psychology colleagues, doctoral students, high tech employees who find themselves in sensitive, complicated interpersonal situations which require high levels of sensitivity and confidentially, and are extremely anxiety-provoking given the potential for disrupting their careers, and they often have unusual scheduling complications.
We offer formal and informal consultation for individuals, attorneys, groups, agencies, schools, offering confidential psychological assessment, consult, and interventions for Silicon Valley, SF, and Monterey Bay area executives, medical, legal, and academic professionals, . . . leaders of local and regional nonprofits . . . and their family members and friends.
our services are open and flexible
clients primarily find themselves in need of mindful support, encouragement, and coping strategies for managing "everyday stress and trauma" . Some request support for family members who are under extraordinary pressure, experiencing medical distress or vocational burnout.
like the wide doorway, (pictured left0, our aim to be open and flexible enough to support individuals, couples, and families through a range of choices and changes over the years, in times of consolidating new relationships and family configurations, with career issues, demands and decisions, contribute by modeling and teaching improved listening and communication skills, being present with support through seasons of episodic situational stress, times of abundance, times of sorrow and sadness, and share in enriching seasons of renewal and promise by partnering in cultivating mindful awareness, presence, and gratitude.
longer term, some clients and families use our pulsed services
longterm, families have often used our services on a pulsed basis. In such instances, we have successfully assisted them from a lifespan perspective -- engaging with them repeatedly in short-term treatment at various critical developmental stages, supporting them with rearing very young and latency-aged children, adolescents, teens and young adults for specific periods of time in order to manage highly challenging transitions, such as from one parental home to another, including assisting with reunifications, reconnection therapies, transitions from high school to college or to employment settings, through temporary school removal or therapeutic schools, in and out of college, etc.
It is not uncommon for parents to bring their teens, even pre-teens in when they discover they have an unmanageable substance abuse problem - (hopefully they come before this becomes extremely unmanageable).
complicated family situations: multiple risk intertwined with adverse circumstances
we have substantial history working with fragile, vulnerable individuals and families who struggle with uniquely acute or poly-risk factors and multiple, chronic (cumulative) hardship. They may have additional temperamental, developmental, neuro- bio-developmental underlying issues.
These individuals may have distorted awareness and appraisal of both themselves and others (in terms of their internal representations) -- distortions of their intra-personal (self perception) and interpersonal/social worlds with resulting intolerably painful conclusions.
working more deeply - "what lies beneath?!"
We are often able to accurately assess and describe these processes, and, to some degree, help them understand their inner processes, their self representations, their interpersonal processes, and help them make therapeutic changes, with clinical support.
addressing situations where family members have complex cognitive issues:
we support those with complex cognitive issues - those on the autism spectrum, elders and frail elders who may be experiencing cognitive changes such as mental confusion, fluctuation in thinking, confabulation and memory loss, and/or subtle behavioral changes not present earlier. We support others whose chronic, complicated, or fluctuating medical conditions and the limitations accompanying them, gravely limit their social worlds.
victimization and risk
we work with those victimized by severe stress, victimization, loss, conflict, crime, maltreatment, domestic violence.
This necessitates addressing sibling and peer harassment and intimidation, evaluating youth injured by gender-based harassment and violence (GBV) in the US and in other countries, frequently the case in the course of conducting asylum evaluations for the never-ending influx of unaccompanied minors into the US.
impoverishment and risk
every attempt is made to understand the rates and the fluctuating conditions of homelessness and statelessness in our counties and and what that means for families and children in terms of vulnerability, victimization potential, hopelessness, abandonment, and shame; many youth who could benefit from educational and therapeutic programs offered to them, but refuse to engage in order to remain the caregiver and protector of their homeless parent.
child/youth poverty in the US
- child poverty in America? Children & youth homeless? Current statistics: 1.8 million youth are homeless on the streets.
- Among developed countries, only Romania has a higher rate of child poverty than the US. That is because the US has embraced a policy agenda in recent decades that has caused its economy to become wildly unequal. Though an average American childhood may not be the worst in the world, the disparity between the country’s wealth and the condition of its children is unparalleled. About 14.5 percent of Americans as a whole are poor, but 19.9 percent of children
- child poverty in santa clara county? in monterey county
- We carefully track poverty statistics and indicators of disparities in health and mental health benefits in Santa Clara and Monterey Counties, including stats regarding children and families at risk of homelessness, school absences, food insecurity due to undocumented status, parents not being able to read instructions, inability of parents homeless women.ee
- As of the end of 2018, there are approximately 3,000 homeless women in Monterey County, many living in abandoned vehicles.
- in Salinas, over 67% of homeless women were sleeping in parks in 2017.
- A huge current concern is removing the criminal element from this population to enhance their safety.
Pediatric Suicide
young children and suicidality (experiencing suicidal thoughts/thinking and/or expressing suicidal behaviors)
addressing suicidality in young children and youth
We have accumulated expertise and specialized experience with the nature, assessment and treatment of the effects of exposure to high inter parental conflict (which remains unresolve) on children - and with the unique precursors to and maintaining issues related to young children and adolescent suicidality, its assessment and treatment.
we are especially alert to accrued loss, abrupt "entrance" and "exit" events in the lives of children and teens . .
and have become aware of their strong relationship to silent, chronic, mental states of child "suicidality", which entails suicidal ideation (thinking), behaviors, or both.
Further, we are sensitive to instances in which children or youth may suddenly appear to be relieved, suddenly happy, and those who are in their first week or so post-hospitalization who exhibit sudden elevations in mood, especially those on antidepressants which may be propelling an initial elevated mood and with it, the energy to carry out latent suicidal plans. In such situations, we conduct assessment, provide clinical management within the family constellation and school environment and provide up-managed (daily check-ins, additional eyes on) treatment for the child or teen and family as warranted.
We have identified and worked with a usually near- invisible population of children and adolescents who require explicit support, each of them have had un-acknowledged "exit and entrance" events in family/living constellations --
the coming and going of friends siblings, grandparents, pets, parents, perhaps teachers or mentors or coaches with home they had developed strong relationships . . . by death, move-away, marriage/remarriage, divorce, at times by vigorous use of parent-alienating behaviors toward the other parent, leaving children deeply wounded, feeling isolated, and grieving silently, alone, increasingly hopeless, anxious, depressed but "silent" or "perceived silent" . . . "speaking no evil" as a consequence of their perceived role in family, developmental status, complicating psychiatric issues, other, undetected victimization, or as a consequence of being parentalized - having assumed a parental role that is to burdensome - or simply by reason of being kids, who tend, instinctively, not to bring their worries and concerns forward to parents . . . and especially so when they perceive their parents are hurting --thus over-protecting their parents which sometimes leaves children/youth absolutely bereft of emotional support and sometimes shelter for themselves.
These children who may be as young as three or four, are often latency-aged, and may be high-schoolers who "for no reason" appear "suddenly" to no longer care to function (or continue feeling invisible, expendable, or otherwise "non-functional") in the background of a divorce or reconstituted family scenario . . . this may look like a fourth grader who simply stops eating, or a seventh grader who uncharacteristically runs into the street in front of traffic.
children and teens with underlying mood disorder over several years are at particular risk
Research and our experience suggests we will often find unidentified, untreated, underlying pediatric mood disorders across a year or two which have eventually been triggered, contributing to heightened, excessive psychic pain.
At times, for some children and youth, the chronicity and rawness of that pain becomes a potent contributor to chronic child suicidality (ideation and behaviors). Sometimes this looks like that combination of dysthymia ("persistent depressive disorder" in DSM V (a low grade, persisting depression) sometimes with attentional issues with distractibility which contributes to their bottoming out in academics before parents notice (this is a condition is frequently minimized and dismissed, but which some diagnosticians argue is a disorder separate unto itself, and, rather than an attentional disorder, is primarily a mood disorder, requires different approaches to treatment and medication, is seen more frequently in females.
recent research - ADHD, OD, cognitive immaturity, impulsivity are contributors to child suicidality
However, 2016 research suggests that ADHD/OD are like contributors to child suicidality - perhaps due to cognitive immaturity, and impulsivity.
AGAIN, noting unresolved inter-parental high conflict (longtime research of E.Mark Cummings)
treating young, latency age children and adolescents who have lived for some time with a low grade depression/dysthymia, increasing apathy, withdrawal, unnoticed and untreated, mood/anxiety issues rendering them acutely vulnerable to unresolved inter-parental conflict, family changes and losses of many kinds, peer harassment, bullying, shame, and exclusion.
This may result in cognitive distortions (of awareness and appraisal) and disorganizing mood disruption which can be measure by performance testing . . . in turn, this distortion and disruption of mood can result in behavioral changes -- increasing, uncharacteristic interpersonal avoidance and withdrawal, anhedonia (lack of interest in things that previously gave them pleasure), sudden, intense, anxiety, sometimes obsessive behaviors and compulsions, secretiveness, paranoid ideation, disorders of eating or substance use/abuse, overt suicidality (suicidal ideation and/or behaviors) - and near-lethal acts often interpreted as "sudden" and "impulsive".
in order to better understand their worlds, in order to walk closely with some of the most vulnerable children over time,
we have always included low/fee no/fee or grant-supported work with children and youth experiencing severe stress and trauma, the stressors which accompany severe and chronic poverty, child and parent illness and mental illness, accidents and catastrophes, lack of and disparities in consistencies and quality of health and mental health care, safety, assistance and protection, lack of food security and quality education and vocational education - and, currently, lack of emotional security given the fears of discovery and deportation facing many children and families.
As an example, we have always included undocumented children and parents in our thinking, conceptualizing, planning and services without questioning, and always advocated for and treated Refugees and Asylum Seekers.
Dr. Ruebsamen has spoken publicly addressing the impact of deportation on children in Santa Clara County by invitation of FACT-R, and other organizations - elaborating on the experience of children of different ages and developmental stages who are living with the perpetual terror of anticipating the day when their parents will be "disappeared" by ICE so-called "Police" and deported without warning and for no clear specified time, leaving them terrified, abandoned and uncertain of everything that currently contributes to their wellbeing.
outcome research
we are actively involved with methodology, outcome research, trauma and refugee psychology, migration policy, recent neuroscience findings, mindfulness theory and practice, and we collaborate with multidisciplinary colleagues regarding ongoing research projects.
consulting and collaborating, globally
We work globally with experts around the world treating children and youth who are forcibly displaced by war/armed conflict through our non-profit, Always Be Listening Global Initiative, alwaysbelisteningglobal.com.)
we treat post conflict children, adults, families - refugees, torture survivors, and asylum seekers in the US, and actively participate in key international humanitarian organizations, International Society of Professionals in Humanitarian Assistance and Protection (PHAP), Brussels, HealthRight International, Doctors Without Borders. Physicians for Human Rights; Doctors of the World; Centre on Migration, Policy & Society. UN Committee Against Children in Armed Conflict, Human Health Aid Burundi, Save the Children South Sudan (SUTCO), and others.
addressing severe stress, trauma: we promote safety, stability; enhanced coping,
while "enhancing environmental (contextual) supports) around children.
we have worked our entire careers with children and adults struggling with severe stress, trauma, and often cumulative stress and poly-traumatic events, assisting them to enhance their coping, expanding the range of their coping strategies, practicing them and becoming proficient at using them.
we assess and treat post-migration families who have been forcibly migrated from their countries of origin, often after being left to wander for some time within their home countries before being able to relocate to a receiving country, -- having lived with uncertainties, sustained multiple losses, confusion, impoverishment, ravaged by hunger, food insecurity, fear, sadness, untreated medical conditions and other horrific circumstances and the enduring effects of war/armed conflict, and post-conflict conditions.
post-migration, post-settlement stress
asylum seekers are further victimized by immense amounts of post-migration stress upon arrival, which may then be unwittingly transferred to their children as a function of the high stress being expressed as anxiety within the family. This often takes the form of severe withdrawal or its opposite, desperate acting out behavior in the children.
we have always included low/fee no/fee or grant-supported work with children and youth experiencing severe stress and trauma, the stressors which accompany severe and chronic poverty, child and parent illness and mental illness, accidents and catastrophes, lack of and disparities in consistencies and quality of health and mental health care, safety, assistance and protection, lack of food security and quality education and vocational education - and, currently, lack of emotional security given the fears of discovery and deportation facing many children and families.
As an example, we have always included undocumented children and parents in our thinking, conceptualizing, planning and services without questioning, and always advocated for and treated Refugees and Asylum Seekers.
Dr. Ruebsamen has spoken publicly addressing the impact of deportation on children in Santa Clara County by invitation of FACT-R, and other organizations - elaborating on the experience of children of different ages and developmental stages who are living with the perpetual terror of anticipating the day when their parents will be "disappeared" by ICE so-called "Police" and deported without warning and for no clear specified time, leaving them terrified, abandoned and uncertain of everything that currently contributes to their wellbeing.
outcome research
we are actively involved with methodology, outcome research, trauma and refugee psychology, migration policy, recent neuroscience findings, mindfulness theory and practice, and we collaborate with multidisciplinary colleagues regarding ongoing research projects.
consulting and collaborating, globally
We work globally with experts around the world treating children and youth who are forcibly displaced by war/armed conflict through our non-profit, Always Be Listening Global Initiative, alwaysbelisteningglobal.com.)
we treat post conflict children, adults, families - refugees, torture survivors, and asylum seekers in the US, and actively participate in key international humanitarian organizations, International Society of Professionals in Humanitarian Assistance and Protection (PHAP), Brussels, HealthRight International, Doctors Without Borders. Physicians for Human Rights; Doctors of the World; Centre on Migration, Policy & Society. UN Committee Against Children in Armed Conflict, Human Health Aid Burundi, Save the Children South Sudan (SUTCO), and others.
addressing severe stress, trauma: we promote safety, stability; enhanced coping,
while "enhancing environmental (contextual) supports) around children.
we have worked our entire careers with children and adults struggling with severe stress, trauma, and often cumulative stress and poly-traumatic events, assisting them to enhance their coping, expanding the range of their coping strategies, practicing them and becoming proficient at using them.
we assess and treat post-migration families who have been forcibly migrated from their countries of origin, often after being left to wander for some time within their home countries before being able to relocate to a receiving country, -- having lived with uncertainties, sustained multiple losses, confusion, impoverishment, ravaged by hunger, food insecurity, fear, sadness, untreated medical conditions and other horrific circumstances and the enduring effects of war/armed conflict, and post-conflict conditions.
post-migration, post-settlement stress
asylum seekers are further victimized by immense amounts of post-migration stress upon arrival, which may then be unwittingly transferred to their children as a function of the high stress being expressed as anxiety within the family. This often takes the form of severe withdrawal or its opposite, desperate acting out behavior in the children.