essays on trauma, healing & human development
— Linda Landum
“Shrewd Wit made learning personal again. It connected education to our lives and helped us see ourselves in the lessons.”
— Joyce Law
In brief
The Journal explains how childhood needs, relationships, stress, family history, schools, and social conditions shape development. Essays begin with a specific question and connect readers to definitions, related guides, practical services, and primary sources.
Trauma-informed essays on unmet childhood needs, developmental psychology, African American family healing, and the science of becoming whole. Written by Linda Kamal, RN, MSN-Ed, MA — author of What We Didn't Get.
Popular topics:
Linda Kamal, RN, MSN-Ed, MA • June 30, 2026 • 12 min read
The eight steps of self-publishing, what each one realistically costs, and where a first-time author should spend first — written from the experience of publishing What We Didn't Get.
Linda Kamal, RN, MSN-Ed, MA • June 16, 2026 • 12 min read
How the grant proposal actually works — funder research, a persuasive narrative, a budget funders trust, and a real evaluation plan — plus how grant writers charge and how to decide whether to hire one.
Linda Kamal, RN, MSN-Ed, MA • May 12, 2026 • 9 min read
Why so many adults carry an ache they cannot name. A trauma-informed look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, developmental trauma, and the wounds that childhood neglect leaves behind — especially within African American families shaped by poverty and systemic racism.
Linda Kamal, RN, MSN-Ed, MA • April 28, 2026 • 8 min read
Childhood emotional neglect leaves no visible scars — but it leaves a shape. Here is how emotional neglect quietly reshapes adult relationships, identity, and self-worth, and what trauma-informed healing looks like.
Linda Kamal, RN, MSN-Ed, MA • April 14, 2026 • 11 min read
Erik Erikson believed every life moves through eight psychosocial stages, each with a crisis to resolve. What happens when systemic racism, poverty, and intergenerational trauma interrupt those stages? A look at Black child development through Erikson's framework.
Linda Kamal, RN, MSN-Ed, MA • March 30, 2026 • 10 min read
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are one of the most important public-health discoveries of the past thirty years. Here is what ACEs are, what toxic stress does to the developing brain, and why trauma-informed care matters — especially in Black communities.
Linda Kamal, RN, MSN-Ed, MA • March 16, 2026 • 9 min read
Trauma is not just personal — it is inherited. A trauma-informed look at how intergenerational pain travels through Black families, what epigenetics has taught us, and the practices that begin to break the cycle.
Linda Kamal, RN, MSN-Ed, MA • March 2, 2026 • 8 min read
No child develops in a vacuum. Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory shows that everything from a parent's job to a federal policy reaches into the nursery. Here is the framework — and why it matters for understanding trauma, race, and healing.
Linda Kamal, RN, MSN-Ed, MA • February 16, 2026 • 8 min read
Bowlby and Ainsworth showed that the first bonds we form shape every later relationship we attempt. Here is what attachment theory teaches — and how anxious, avoidant, and disorganized adults can move toward earned security.
Linda Kamal, RN, MSN-Ed, MA • February 2, 2026 • 9 min read
Schools see children five days a week. When schools are trauma-informed, they become some of the most powerful sites of healing in a community. Here is what trauma-informed education looks like — and why it matters most for the children who have been failed the most.
Linda Kamal, RN, MSN-Ed, MA • July 21, 2026 • 9 min read
Recognising emotional neglect is the first step; this is the second. Seven practices that rebuild what was missing — emotional vocabulary, self-trust, receiving care, and the kind of support that actually helps.
New essays on developmental trauma, attachment, ACEs, and African American family healing — written for educators, parents, healers, and anyone doing the work of becoming whole.