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Winter 2014-15 newsletter

ATOP Meaningfulworld Humanitarian Outreach Certificate Project to Romania: Ancestral Healing and Meaning-Making Utilizing the Biopsychosocial and Eco-Spiritual Model Training Pre-press release, Sept 2011 Written by Georgiana Sofletea While Romania has a long history of oppressive rule by unjust empires, the massive traumatic impact felt by the people currently living in Romania began in the 20th century. Both World Wars took an immense toll on the Romanian population, with the number of combined deaths and collateral victims reaching almost 2 million losses. After the World Wars Romania was dismembered, and it underwent a territorial restructuring that forced the deportation and relocation of many people. What followed was the oppressive and unforgiving Communist regime, decapitating the country’s political, military, religious, spiritual, business, and intellectual elite. This was a veritable genocide, with many people killed, taken to prison and tortured, pushed into forced labor, and brainwashed and turned against one another. While official reports state there were 350,000 victims of the communist regime in Romania, other sources are claiming that there were 2–3 million victims. Currently generational trauma is evident in the high rate of imprisonment, widespread alcoholism, high rate of domestic violence, and high rate of chronic medical, and possibly mental, illnesses. Our organization, the Association for Trauma Outreach & Prevention (ATOP) of Meaningfulworld, a New York–based international humanitarian charitable organization (501 (c)(3)) affiliated with the Department of Public Information of the United Nations, is devoted to fostering a just, peaceful, and meaningful world. It has collaborated with many organizations to bring rehabilitation programs to more than 29 humanitarian empowerment, educational, and rehabilitation programs around the world, in locations such as Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. Our mission in Bucharest, Romania, will focus on Ancestral Healing and Meaning-Making. We are collaborating with Mr. Aurel Mocanu, the Chemarea Sufletului Center, the Spiru Haret University, the Catedra de Psihologie Universitate Lucian Blaga din Sibiu, as well as the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Armenian community in Romania. We will be working with a wide variety of professionals who are passionate about self-healing before healing others, who wish to learn the Biopsychosocial and Eco-Spiritual Modeland heal the many Romanians who are suffering from generational trauma. We have the experience, expertise, the passion, and the commitment to make a difference. The ATOP team members who will travel to Romania are: Dr. Ani Kalayjian, Founder and President of ATOP, who has devoted her life to bringing healing to those who have survived the devastation of disasters; and Georgiana Sofletea, Meaningfulworld Intern, Counseling Psychology Masters student at Teachers College of Columbia University in New York City, who has a strong interest in trauma prevention and disaster rehabilitation and is originally from Romania. Our goals are to teach professionals ancestral healing, peace-building, meaning-making, and forgiveness so that together we can help the Romanian people heal their emotional and psychospiritual wounds, which have resulted from years of communist oppression, conflict, poverty, discrimination, and displacement. This process will be based on Dr. Kalayjian’s CD From War to Peace: Transforming Generational Trauma into Healing. We aim to help people understand the impact of the past on our present through psycho-education, healing groups, and mind-body-eco-spirit integrative modalities. We will train psychologists, social workers, nurses, and legal and spiritual practitioners. This helps create empowered, centered, and healthy communities that are able to transform generationally transmitted trauma by cultivating a new worldview. Furthermore, we wish to foster dialogue for conflict transformation and peace-building through practicing forgiveness. We need your passion and volunteer spirit! Come spend two weeks to make a difference in your life as well as in the lives of hundreds of people. Your generous tax-deductible donations are vital to make this ATOP of Meaningfulworld humanitarian outreach project a success. Our first team will depart September 27, 2011. Tax-deductible donations can be made via check made out to ATOP, or PayPal (visit www.meaningfulworld.com for more details). Kindly mail your check out to ATOP, 135 Cedar St, Cliffside Park, NJ, 07010. Those in Romania kindly visit: http://www.chemareasufletului.ro, http://www.salutbucuresti.ro/planoras/swf_map.htm?-8531&-7960

Does Weather Really Affect Our Mood? How to protect your brain from the winter blahs By Rich Maloof for MSN Health & Fitness January 22, 2009 Ask a child to draw two pictures—one on a rainy day and a second in the sunshine—and you pretty much know what to expect. In the first, as blue raindrops fall from the top of the page, the stick figure behind the window is frowning. When a yellow sun beams from the corner, the stick man is smiling, with his scrawny arms in the air and colorful flowers at his feet. Even his stick dog wears a grin.That rain is gloom and sunshine happiness is metaphorical rather than scientific, though it rings true because we humans are inherently sympathetic to our environment. But we are not its victims. Barring a mood disorder, our emotions are not casualties of the weather. The rain can be guilty by association, but not causation.Why? Because we are free to make choices that either better our disposition or worsen it. Temperament vs. temperature Since the early 1970s, around the time B. J. Thomas sang “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” researchers have sought to confirm a relationship between weather and temperament. Predictably, the lion’s share of studies correlate a low mood—episodic depression, lack of vigor—with high humidity and limited exposure to sunshine. Spirits tend to rise with increased time in the sun and higher barometric pressure. More recently, in October of 2008, a group of European researchers examinedthe impact of six different daily weather factors—temperature, wind, sunlight, precipitation, air pressure, and length of day—on more than 1,200 participants from Germany, most of them women. Contrary to most prior research, the study’s central conclusion was that the average effect of “good” weather on positive mood was minimal. Windy, cool, and darker days seemed to have just a slight negative effect on mood, with many subjects reporting that they felt tired or sluggish.Though the study is ambitious and offers a new perspective on research on weather’s relationship to mood, it strains to draw a consensus. From the range of responses the study’s subjects recorded in their journaling, the researchers determined in the end that “people differ in their sensitivity to daily weather changes.” Sunny day, dreaming the clouds away Some people’s emotions are simply more vulnerable to weather changes than others. Someone prone to a low mood on dark, cold days will likely experience a depressive winter when there’s a prolonged string of like-weathered days. This propensity is the basis of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). However, most people are no more emotionally powerless against the weather than they are unable to put on a hat. Ani Kalayjian, Ed.D., R.N., professor of psychology at Fordham University in New York, advises that we “can and should take proactive steps to strengthen the [brain’s] system” against weather-driven mood changes. “We encourage people to take charge of their feelings,” says Dr. Kalayjian. Her self-help recommendations for SAD sufferers are applicable to anyone who wants to put a little sunshine in his or her step. “Do things that make you feel good, like listening to uplifting music or reading a good novel. Look at pictures from a vacation—and if you can, take a vacation to a warm place.” All of the tried-and-true methods of mood improvement and stress management apply as well, including getting regular exercise, moderating alcohol intake, and meditating.”Feelings are transient; we can change them, transform them into positive,” concludes Dr. Kalayjian. You may not be able to will the sun to break through overcast skies, but you can empower yourself to break through an emotional cloud. A prescription for seasonal moodiness In terms of psychology, grey skies fall into a grey area. Physiologically, though, we do reckon with weather conditions—sunlight, in particular—in direct and measurable ways.Research on SAD has been focused on the brain’s response to darkness and light, as the condition has been linked to the shortened daylight hours of winter. When our eyes detect darkness, a small gland in the brain called the pineal releases melatonin, which establishes sleep cycles. When we detect light, melatonin production subsides and its cheerier hormonal sibling, serotonin, takes over to promote wakefulness and help elevate mood. (The word serotonin is rooted in serum + tonic, so it’s like an elixir for happiness. Melatonin is the mel or “black” tonic, for darkness.)For most of us who aren’t suffering from SAD, the prescription for moodiness is straightforward.“We tell people to take advantage of the sunny days,” says Kalayjian. “Leave the computers and the indoor games and get out there in the sun. That’s when they can recharge their batteries—recharge their serotonin—and maintain higher mood.” A day of rain can potentially soak your plans and temporarily dampen your mood. But don’t forget what B. J. sang: That doesn’t mean my eyes will soon be turning red / Cryin’s not for me….Because I’m free.  Does Weather really Affect Our Mood?  by Rich Maloof January 22, 2009

Dr. Kalayjian was interviewed on ABCnews.go.com regarding the recent financial disaster impacting us all directly or indirectly.  The article is entitled: Facing Loss in Financial or Natural Disasters. Here is a link to the story: ABC News Story.

Dr. Ani Kalayjian tells us some factors to be aware of when trying to reconcile with a family member after years of family trauma.

Dr. Ani Kalayjian spoke to HealthDay about the differences in trauma between men and women. Dr. Kalayjian states that rate of trauma in men and women is about the same but is expressed differently.

Dr. Ani Kalayjian describes on HealthDay on how important it is to your body to relieve everyday stress.

The Associated Press quotes Dr. Ani Kalayjian in article that describes a study that found that British veterans had a lower risk of war-related illness than American soldies. Dr. Kalayjian stated that less trauma may be seen because traumatic reactions can take years to develop.