Nora is 4 years old. She and her family have traveled to the United States seeking asylum. It has been a long and difficult journey, but with her mother keeping her close she trusts that she will be safe. When she arrives at the border with her family she is taken from her mother and other relatives. Suddenly she is scared, helpless, alone, confused and most traumatic she is no longer with the one person who can make her feel safe in mind, body and spirit—her mother. Her lit

In recent news, the Dominican author Junot Diaz wrote a deeply resonant account of his childhood rape and the lifelong effect the trauma had on his thoughts, actions, behaviors, world view, and sense of identity. Not surprisingly, an immediate reaction from many women whom he has hurt came forth. And I presume that many more who have felt hurt by him are remaining silent. Following that, a Facebook friend and internationally known yoga therapist suggested that, the fact that

Several years back I was sitting around a kitchen table chatting with two friends with whom I am very close. One of them was Paula (name changed for privacy). We were reminiscing about our college days and we got to talking about various regrets, mostly involving alcohol. Paula began telling us of an experience she had that involved excessive drinking and a boat. Through a bit of uncomfortable laughter she described an evening during which she got more intoxicated than she

Can we feel empathy in our bodies? What exactly does it feel like? How will we know when we feel it? Try this little test. Click on the video below and expand to full screen. Turn up your volume and watch the video. Notice the sensations you feel in your body when you watch. Notice how they shift and change with the changing events in the video. That's empathy! Empathy is to feel with, not to feel sorry for. It is an embodied experience of compassion with no attachment to out