Latest news with #RuthFreeman
Associated Press
14-07-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
Peace At Home Celebrates 10 Years of Transforming Parents and Strengthening Families
07/14/2025, Storrs, Connecticut // PRODIGY: Feature Story // Peace At Home, a leading provider of expert-led parenting support, proudly marks over a decade of transformative impact. What began in 2016 as the passionate vision of founder Ruth Freeman, LCSW, has evolved into a far-reaching organization dedicated to helping families and working parents thrive in an increasingly complex world. Ruth Freeman, a seasoned professional in parenting education, first gained recognition for her compassionate, practical guidance at local organizations and major insurance firms in Connecticut. As word of her expertise spread, Ruth's live presentations drew packed rooms and waitlists. Recognizing the limitations of in-person events, she eventually embraced the digital shift. This allowed Peace At Home to grow from a one-woman initiative into a global platform accessible to parents wherever they are. Ruth Freeman 'Our work started with one mission: providing science-based tools that reduce dysfunction in families and ensure all children thrive,' said Freeman. 'That mission has only become more urgent as society has changed.' Peace At Home's approach centers on a simple yet powerful philosophy: help parents and caregivers so they can help their children. By equipping caregivers with tools to stay emotionally grounded, putting on their own oxygen mask first, the organization supports long-term mental wellness for the whole family. This philosophy has proven especially vital in the wake of rising parental burnout and the youth mental health crisis exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization offers a three-tiered support system: live interactive online workshops, on-demand self-paced content, and one-on-one consultations. Each level is designed for real-world accessibility, whether parents want to participate anonymously, self-study on their own schedule, or seek personalized guidance for their unique challenges. 'These are not just parenting tips,' Kathleen Harkins Weissenberger, CEO of Peace At Home, emphasized. 'They are life skills, tools for resilience, emotional regulation, and communication that benefit families and communities.' What sets Peace At Home apart is the caliber of its team. Their experts hold advanced degrees, many holding clinical licenses. Some of their experts conduct ongoing research in child development and mental health at some of the nation's most respected academic institutions. They meet parents with empathy, not judgment, and bring science-based insights to every workshop and consultation. Peace At Home The organization serves all families from birth through young adulthood. Currently, Peace At Home is intentionally filling a gap where resources are often scarce: supporting parents of tweens, teens, and young adults. In a social climate shaped by uncertainty, technology, and cultural stressors, many families find themselves unprepared to navigate these years. Peace At Home responds with targeted, timely guidance that's both effective and deeply relatable. Peace At Home's partners with corporate clients, universities, K-12 schools, and family service organizations. Their work with parenting employee resource groups has allowed the organization to deliver practical tools to thousands of families at scale, while still offering the boutique-level customization their partners need. 'For many of our clients, it's not just about parenting, it's about helping their employees thrive and, in turn, their organization's bottom line,' said Weissenberger. 'We have grown because our mission has never changed. What's changed is the scope. The challenges families face today are more intense, and the need for our work has never been greater.' As Peace At Home looks to the future, it remains committed to helping families worldwide breathe a little easier, one conversation, one workshop, and one breakthrough at a time. 'We believe peace on earth begins with peace at home,' said Weissenberger. 'And we are just getting started.' Media Contact Name: Peace At Home Team Email: [email protected] Source published by Submit Press Release >> Peace At Home Celebrates 10 Years of Transforming Parents and Strengthening Families
RTÉ News
17-05-2025
- Health
- RTÉ News
What does sunshine do to our brains?
We're certainly making up for the lousy weather we've seen so far this year with days of endless sunshine and blue skies. While it's a boost to morale and puts more of a pep in our step, what does sunshine do to our brains? Dr Ruth Freeman from Science Foundation Ireland joined The Business on RTÉ Radio 1 to discuss this matter. (This piece includes excerpts from the conversation which have been edited for length and clarity - you can hear the discussion in full above). "Sunshine produces a hormone called serotonin", explains Freeman. "It makes us feel good, it makes us feel calm and focused and of course it helps us to produce vitamin D and nitric oxide to keep our body working well but, yes, it does have an impact on our brain and we don't fully understand what it does. Generally, it does make us feel more optimistic because things look good and we probably make decisions then because we think things are going to go well so that can influence how we behave." Of course, it's not all good behaviourial changes. "One of the things that happens with sunshine is we all get out and interact so higher temperatures can cause arousal. In a study in Phoenix, Arizona, a researcher sat in a car at traffic lights. When the traffic light changed, they counted how many times people honked depending on the temperature from April to August in the same year. There's a linear relationship between the frequency and number of honks as the temperature gets up so people do get more aroused." We also tend to spend a little more when the sun shines. "There is evidence that we spend a little bit more and we're probably not concentrating that well either", explains Freeman. "A study in Australia put funny objects around a shop and then asked people when they came out if they remember seeing them. People remembered three times more on cloudy days than on sunny days. When people are exposed to artificial sunlight and then tested to see what would they buy from a list, they tend to choose to buy more things and buy more unusual things." Another area which sees a change when the sun shines is recruitment and, according to Freeman, clouds suit nerds. "There was a very interesting study about hiring people in different kinds of weather and the phrase from the researchers here was that clouds suit nerds. When interviewers in American colleges were looking at students on cloudy days, they were more likely to rate better students who had really strong records of academic performance. You might think 'oh we want to eat less in the summer, it's hot', but in fact that's not true if you're a man "On sunny days, they took into account people who had good athletic ability and good extracurricular activity. That's because our brain is so good at imagining how things fit in so we can see someone who's good at athletic performance on a sunny day." Sunshine also affects our appetites and an important difference between men and women. "You might think 'oh we want to eat less in the summer, it's hot', but in fact that's not true if you're a man. Researchers looked at 3,000 participants and mapped their food over the whole year and saw that men were eating approximately 300 calories extra per day. That's quite a bit and it's enough to cause weight gain if you're doing it all the time. "They then investigated what was going on behind this by exposing people to 25 minutes of sunlight and what they found was that this increased a hormone called ghrelin, a hormone that's boosts your appetite but only in men and this is fascinating. So if you're heading out in the sun to that BBQ, the sun might be causing you to eat a little bit more than you should. It's just a biological response to the sun."
