Perspectives

The Roles We Inherit and the Freedom to Rewrite Them Families are very good at assigning roles. Sometimes nobody remembers holding the auditions. In my family, I accumulated a collection of descriptions over the years. I was the absent-minded professor. I was the professional student. I was the quirky dilettante. I was shy, maybe a little different, and generally more comfortable watching from the edges than marching into the middle of things. None of those descriptions was e

Shiva and Shakti I live with two Siamese cats who have established a highly functional system of household management. Shakti is in charge. Shiva is large. These are not the same thing. Shakti was the runt of the litter and still looks like a forever kitten: tiny, delicate, quick, and entirely convinced that size is a vulgar substitute for intelligence. Shiva is much taller, substantially broader, and about five pounds heavier. He is a handsome, long-limbed, blue-eyed gentle

Serial killers, childhood adversity, and the mystery of resilience I have a guilty pleasure. I watch serial-killer shows. A lot of them. I am especially drawn to the ones involving FBI profilers—the investigators who study crime scenes, victim patterns, language, behavior, and seemingly insignificant details until a picture of the unknown offender begins to emerge. Give me a Behavioral Analysis Unit gathered around a conference table, studying photographs and announcing that

by Janet Nash, MSW, LISW-S, Certified Yoga Therapist, CCTP Generational trauma is not always dramatic from the outside. Sometimes it does not look like police at the door, an explosive family rupture, or one clearly identifiable event everyone can point to and say, “That was when everything changed.” It may look like a family that functions, works hard, keeps going, pays the bills, celebrates holidays, and appears “fine” to everyone around them. But behind the façade of ordin