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© 2021 Will Bledsoe, Ph.D.

I couldn’t wait to teach my first college class. I knew in the depth of my being that I was born to teach. My brother was a teacher. My sister was a teacher. My sister-in-law was a teacher. Both my grandparents were teachers. My uncle and aunt were teachers and so were my cousins. Everyone in my family was a teacher. Deciding to become a teacher in my late 30’s was like coming home.  

I was so smug. I was sure my students would be enthralled with the intricacies of ancient cultural traditions and ritual ceremonies of healing. Who...

By: Will Bledsoe, Ph.D. (2021)

While the fight over the pandemic, vaccines, and mandates rages on (and I use both terms deliberately), there is one nonnegotiable issue that needs to be addressed – regardless of which 'side of the mask' we're on. 

That issue is the diminishing mental and emotional health that people are experiencing right now as a result of the pandemic.

The mental and emotional traumatic stress the pandemic has caused for many is real. And now, with the looming threat of the latest variant emerging (Omicron), the existential fears are being compounded. ...

The Case for Trauma-Informed

By: Will Bledsoe, Ph.D. (2018)

Given the massive shifts and new knowledge generated in the fields of trauma, the brain, and neuroscience, there is an expanding recognition in a variety of contexts that a trauma-informed approach to working with people is an essential part of effective policy, practice, and institutional organization.

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There is something deeper, existing underneath the impulse to retaliate. There is a deeper instinct of justice that is at once ancient, yet more evolved. I believe that restoration, the restorative instinct, is part of our DNA. Restoration, perhaps, is our species’ original justice sensibility. It has to be or we wouldn’t have survived as a species. 

This deeper instinct comes not only from a place of compassion, but from pragmatism. Perhaps this is what Mahatmas Gandhi meant when he uttered his famous quote “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”...

In the previous blog I mentioned that I have two friends (“Jack” and “Cheryl”) who are married to each other and have radically different opinions on COVID-19; on immigration; on climate change; on the election; on the future of this country. They’ve been married for over 15 years.

Cheryl explained “Our different views have never been a problem because we adopted a kind of ‘live and let live’ attitude. But ever since the pandemic and the election, the silence has become bitter. If something doesn’t change, we’re headed for divorce....

How in the world are we ever going to work through the polarization and extreme divisiveness that is ripping our nation, communities and families apart? Radically different perspectives about the elections, the pandemic, racial injustice, immigration, the environment, the economy, and health care continue to fuel a type of social civil war rife with animosity, hatred, and violence. The echo chambers of social media only amplify what we think we know to be true.

How are we ever going to reconcile our differences and unite as a country? Is there a way to understand what is really going on...