Gina Ryder is a freelance writer and teacher based in New York City. Her reporting and personal narrative has appeared in a myriad of publications including The Guardian, Religion News Service and Marie Claire. Gina has taught college courses ranging from journalism to narrative medicine at John Jay College and City College/CUNY School of Medicine. Gina has also facilitated storytelling programs for vulnerable populations including communities affiliated with Covenant House, Breaking Ground and The Bridge. A former editor with The Huffington Post, she is a Philadelphia native and the first in her family to go to college. Gina holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Temple University and master's degree in creative nonfiction writing from Columbia University. Say hello at ginaryderswriting@gmail.com.
Trauma-informed care is important in areas we don't typically associate with it in everyday life - doing our taxes, going to a yoga class, or even going to the dentist. In a dentist's office, you're asking people to lay down in very vulnerable positions, Bryant explains.
When Rachel Ziegler was 22, her doctor prescribed 0.5 mg of Xanax once a day to treat generalized anxiety and panic attacks. "I don't recall ever discussing a potential stopping point," says Ziegler, who works as a chemistry-lab technician at the University of Illinois, "but I do remember asking her if I would become addicted."
A Google image result for Reverend Neichelle Guidry brings up an image of a young black woman in a magenta dress standing in a pulpit, with a microphone placed in front of a statement necklace. Another shows a cold shoulder cutout top paired with clerical stole.
Last summer, Ted Henken, a 47-year-old sociology professor at Baruch College, New York, was searching for somewhere to get some work done when he passed a sign advertising a co-working space. Although there is no shortage of these in Manhattan, this one was different: the sign was outside a 90-year-old Lutheran church.
NEW YORK (RNS) - Even in an expensive city that breeds unusual living arrangements, this is not your average New York roommate situation.
When Megan Treby, 41, an art teacher who lives near Washington, D.C., first started seeing her therapist, Jen Udler of Positive Strides Therapy for her anxiety, Udler suggested that the two of them might conduct their sessions while taking walks to help release excess energy.
In a photo on his Tinder profile, John Prioli is standing on a pier in Greenpoint, the Manhattan skyline in the distance, holding a live striped bass slightly larger than the size of a standard pillow.
"I love you" translates intimacy between ourselves and others, but the expression is so common that it can lack the meaning it's intended. When saying and hearing it becomes automatic and expected, its power becomes dulled in our brain's limbic system, where we process love.
We live in a time when "resting bitch face" is a joke, selfies are constant, and activist art implores us to stop telling women to smile: We're as aware of our faces as ever. But the conversation still largely excludes people who don't always have control of theirs: people with a flattened affect.
Last year, I attended an author Q&A at Housing Works Bookstore that I thought would inspire me to write more. At some point during the event, someone in the audience asked the author about work ethic; in response, she told the crowd that when she sees a deadline, she turns her work in a month before it.
If you're single and yearn for romantic connection, seeing your social media blow up with #relationshipgoals can stir a variety of emotional experiences depending on the images you see. On one hand, watching couples online can be fun: the posts are often light hearted, mushy (in a good way) and even spark hopeful feelings about love.
If someone between the ages of 18 and 29 is registered to vote, they are very likely to actually head to the polls instead of skipping their civic duty. In 2016, according to the Center for American Progress, 79% of 18- to 29-year-olds turned out to vote in the presidential election.
There are no guarantees that watching the sunrise will take away your seasonal sadness. The sun doesn't have an ad budget or marketing campaign to make promises. However, sunlight is free and extremely reliable: Every day, it rises without fail, and its light brings a lot of impressive benefits.
If you are looking for it, the Serenity Prayer is everywhere. The words to the familiar prayer are: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference."
Born in a Catholic family in Northeast Philadelphia, I learned the prayer to St. Anthony like I learned the Pledge of Allegiance. I was notorious for losing things. And, though I had the help of the patron saint of lost things, being prone to losing things doesn't always make for a peaceful home life.
My mom cooked certain things that I'll always remember. It was tri-color pasta salad for summer cookouts, banana bread (baked with overripe bananas for moisture's sake) as a go-to dessert, pineapple stuffing for Christmas, and Irish potatoes for St. Patrick's Day.
When I think about the Monday nights in the summer of 2014, my insides soar. Each Monday was spent doing a different random act of kindness around New York City. On two of the evenings, a group from my church and I gave out free balloons to about a hundred people we encountered.
Does anyone love me? Is there a point to all this? We all tend to ask ourselves these questions time and time again. For a person coming out of jail, these questions seem to have even more weight. Does anyone love me after what I've done?
For me, the secret to consistent healthy eating comes down to one routine I've built into my life. Every Sunday, I spend a few hours preparing fresh, healthy meals for the week ahead. This habit saves me time and money overall.
A Trenton NJ company is redefining mainstream America's perception of waste and graffiti art
In the past six months I've spent more time with a 61-year-old formerly homeless man than I've spent with many of my friends and family. His name is Carlos Daniels, and he spent over 20 years living in New York City subway stations.
Uber Images/Shutterstock Your feelings can be undermined by the belief that you shouldn't feel anxious, that your feelings aren't valid-and this can be reinforced by well-meaning family members and friends. Their intentions may be good, but that sentiment is useless during an anxious spell; you can end up feeling guilty on top of anxious.
golubovystock/Shutterstock Friends are crucial, and every woman should have these eight types of friends in her life. Jan Yager, PhD, friendship coach, sociologist, and author of When Friendship Hurts and Friendshifts often hears from people who've been hurt by a friend's broken promise: someone canceled plans at the last minute or declined to attend an important party.