A
- ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences): Experiences that can impact a person’s risk of negative physical and mental health outcomes later in life.
- Acceptance: A key healing attitude that involves embracing oneself, others, and circumstances without judgment or resistance, fostering inner peace.
- Activated Stress Response: A stressful situation can activate a flurry of stress hormones that produce physiological changes. Activation of the sympathetic nervous system in this way triggers an acute stress response known as the “fight or flight” response.
- Amygdala: The Amygdala is a major processing center in your brain for emotions, linking your emotions to many other brain abilities, especially memories, learning, and senses.
- Anxiety: A feeling of worry or fear that can be mild or severe, often accompanied by physical symptoms like increased heart rate.
- Affective Disorder: A category of mental health disorders characterized by disturbances in mood, such as depression and bipolar disorder.
- Antidepressant: A type of medication designed to alleviate symptoms of depression and, in some cases, anxiety disorders.
- Atopic Diseases: Diseases that are caused by a genetic predisposition to develop an allergic reaction.
- Attachment Theory: A psychological framework that explores the impact of early relationships and bonds on emotional and social development.
- Attuned Relationship: A relationship in which individuals are aware of and attentive or responsive to each other.
B
- Balance: A feeling of harmony between one’s emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual well-being, contributing to overall mental wellness.
- Bipolar Disorder: A mental health condition characterized by extreme mood swings, including emotional highs (mania or hypomania) and lows (depression).
C
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): A type of psychotherapy that helps individuals identify and change negative thought patterns and behaviors.
- Compassion: A key healing attitude where one experiences empathy and kindness towards oneself and others, fostering connection and emotional healing.
- Coping Mechanisms: Strategies or techniques that individuals use to manage stress, emotions, and challenging situations.
- Co-regulation (or Socio-Emotional Co-regulation): the process through which children develop the ability to soothe and manage distressing emotions and sensations from the beginning of life through connection with nurturing and reliable primary caregivers.
- Courage: A feeling or attitude involving strength in the face of fear, difficulty, or pain, often necessary for mental health growth and healing.
D
- Depleted Sense of Self-Efficacy: the depleted ability “to stay connected and grounded in a strong sense of self … when [your] inner resources are depleted.” (Care of the Clinician, Ellen Arledge and Rebecca Wolfson)
- Depression: A mood disorder that causes persistent feelings of sadness, loss of interest, and can affect daily functioning.
- Dissociation: A mental process used to cope with trauma or stress, characterized by a disconnection between thoughts, identity, consciousness, and memory.
E
- Ecological Grief: Ecological grief is the pain felt from losing one’s natural surroundings and way of life as a result of climate change. This comes about from witnessing environmental destruction, life-threatening events, and the loss of homes, jobs, and community support. This grief compounds as individuals face the tangible loss of their environment and the disruption of their livelihoods and social networks, leading to a sense of helplessness and existential anxiety about the future.
- Emotional Regulation: The ability to manage and respond to emotional experiences in a healthy way.
- Epigenetics: Epigenetics is the study of how a person’s environment can affect the way their genes work and, consequently, an individual’s response to stress.
- Eustress: Positive stress that can motivate and energize individuals, often associated with exciting challenges.
F
- Forgiveness: A key healing attitude involving letting go of resentment and the desire for retribution, which aids emotional healing and reduces psychological distress.
- Freudian Psychoanalysis: A therapeutic approach developed by Sigmund Freud that focuses on uncovering unconscious thoughts and feelings.
G
- Gene Expression: the process by which possession of a gene leads to the appearance of a corresponding characteristic or trait. Toxic stress can alter gene expression, turning genes on and off.
- Genetic Predisposition: The inherited tendency to develop certain mental health conditions based on genetic factors.
- Gratitude: A positive mental attitude characterized by thankfulness and appreciation, which can increase emotional well-being and satisfaction.
- Grief: A natural response to loss, encompassing a range of emotions, including sadness, anger, and confusion.
H
- Healing Organization: Organizations where staff policies, procedures, services, and treatment models apply an understanding of trauma embedded within them. Their approaches to providing services are trauma-shielding or trauma-reducing.
- Hippocampus: The Hippocampus is involved in memory, learning, and emotion. Its largest job is to hold short-term memories and transfer them to long-term storage in our brains. It also plays a role in emotional processing, including anxiety and avoidance behaviors.
- Hope: A feeling or attitude of expectation and desire for a positive outcome, crucial for resilience in mental health recovery.
- Hyperactivity: Increased levels of activity, often associated with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
I
- Implicit Bias: the bias in judgment and/or behavior that results from subtle cognitive processes that often operate at a level below conscious awareness and without intentional control.
- Imposter Syndrome: A psychological pattern where individuals doubt their accomplishments and have a persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud.”
- Intergenerational Trauma: Intergenerational trauma highlights how traumatic experiences affect not only those who directly experience them but also their descendants.
- Intersectionality: the cumulative way in which the effects of multiple forms of discrimination (such as racism, sexism, and classism) combine, overlap, or intersect especially in the experiences of marginalized individuals or groups.
- Intervention: A coordinated effort to help someone who is struggling with mental health issues, often involving family and friends.
M
- Microaggressions: These are the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their race.
- Mind-Body Connection: The link between mental and emotional health and physical well-being, emphasizing how psychological factors can affect bodily health.
- Mindfulness: The practice of being present and fully engaged in the moment, often used as a technique in stress reduction.
N
- Neuroplasticity: The brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life, influenced by experiences and learning.
O
- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): A mental health disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and behaviors (compulsions).
P
- Patience: A key healing attitude that involves calmly enduring difficult situations, delays, or setbacks without frustration, which aids emotional resilience.
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): A mental health condition triggered by experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event, leading to flashbacks, nightmares, and severe anxiety.
- Positive Stress: Positive Stress includes brief increases in heart rate and mild elevations in stress hormone levels. and might be experienced during an athletic performance or public speaking
- Prefrontal Cortex: Understood as the “personality center” of the brain, the Prefrontal Cortex is where we process moment-to-moment input from our surroundings, compare that input to past experiences, and then react to them.
- Psychoeducation: Providing information and education about mental health conditions to help individuals and families understand and manage symptoms.
R
- Resilience: the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties. It includes the employment of healthy coping skills and self-care strategies.
S
- Schizophrenia: A severe mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves, often leading to distorted perceptions of reality.
- Service Rationing: a tendency to ration services to manage workload and regain a sense of efficacy.
- Self-Care: Practices and activities that individuals engage in to maintain and enhance their mental, emotional, and physical well-being.
- Social Capital: Social capital refers to the networks and relationships that facilitate collective action and community support.
- Stigma: Negative attitudes or beliefs about mental health conditions that can lead to discrimination and social isolation.
- Structural Discrimination: Structural discrimination is discrimination that is embedded within the systems and institutions of society, creating barriers to resources and opportunities for certain groups.
T
- Therapy: A broad term for various treatment methods aimed at improving mental health, including talk therapy, cognitive therapy, and more.
- Toxic Stress: Toxic stress refers to the prolonged exposure to stress, where your mind is continuously on high alert.
- Transference: A phenomenon in therapy where clients project feelings or emotions about significant people in their lives onto the therapist.
- Trigger: An event, situation, or cue that provokes a strong emotional response or exacerbates symptoms of a mental health condition.
- Trust: A key healing attitude involving confidence in oneself, others, and the process of healing, fostering a sense of safety and openness.
V
- Vicarious Trauma: Vicarious trauma occurs when you start to experience trauma symptoms yourself as a result of being exposed to someone else’s stories of traumatic experiences and/or their related symptoms. Also known as the “cost of caring.”
W
- Wellness: A holistic approach to health that includes physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
