Links Page
Social Links
Organizations
Springlake Solutions
Training, technical assistance, program and policy support for behavioral health, criminal justice, and other organizations. We specialize in reentry, addiction, trauma, and resilience.
Trauma Informed
Training and technical assistance in trauma-informed care with a focus not only on avoiding harm but also on catalyzing growth and understanding and managing one’s own responses to high-stress work.
Weavers WELL
Supporting a flourishing, fulfilled, and effective behavioral health workforce with research-backed strategies to increase employee engagement and retention among addiction and mental health professionals.
Penn Positive Psychology Center
Supporting students to apply Dr. Martin Seligman’s groundbreaking social science revolutionizing how individuals and teams experience wellbeing, connection, meaning, growth, and resilience.
Mark L. O’Brien
Coaching, speaking, and programs for youth and adults to build resilience before adversity strikes, find meaning and purpose in hardship, and cultivate growth in the aftermath of trauma, grief, and major setbacks.
ConnectWell
Leveraging science to transform workplaces into environments where people feel valued, teams collaborate seamlessly, and organizations achieve their highest potential by fostering strong, positive connections at work. Coming soon!
What I’m Working On
- Support for Behavioral Health Professionals: I’m working with partners on a national initiative to improve wellbeing and professional development in addiction and mental health professions.
- GROWTH Coaching: I launched an updated version of my coaching program for people seeking meaning and growth after advertisy and hardship. Now I’m turning it into an asynchronous online course for greater accessibility.
- Youth Resilience Program: I piloted the Bounce Back Book last year, and now I’m refining this six-module resilience program for young people and tailoring it for additional audiences.
- Medicaid and Criminal Justice Reentry: I’m working with a group of consultants and nonprofit partners to leverage changes in Medicaid policy to improve health and public safety outcomes for people leaving prisons and jails.
- Growth-Oriented Trauma Responsiveness Training: We’ve updated Trauma Informed’s training programs to amplify discussions of the potential for trauma and adversity to catalyze powerful positive changes in people and we’re now systematizing delivery of our training for behavioral health, human services, and other other sectors.
- Advising Positive Psychology Master’s Students: I’m advising students in Penn’s master of applied positive psychology program as they complete service learning projects. Last spring, the teams I coached were working with a community wellbeing coalition to broadly improve wellbeing in a suburban county and with a state’s parole board to address vicarious trauma and burnout in front line staff.
Book
Crashing: I Love You. Forgive Me.
Media
Red Table Talk with Jada Pinkett Smith (segment starting at 26:32)
Publications
My criminal record somehow vanished. The Atlantic.
How do you tell your child about the worst thing you’ve ever done? The Washington Post.
In the midst of pandemic, don’t neglect mental health. Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
A blueprint for stemming overdose deaths in Maryland. The Baltimore Sun.
IU joins fight against opioid addiction in Indiana. The Indianapolis Star.
Key to overcoming opioid crisis is collaboration on the state level. The Hill.
Treating overdose like a health epidemic. The Baltimore Sun.
Addiction is a disease, and treatment works. The Baltimore Sun.
Improving access to substance use disorder treatment in Baltimore City. National Institute on Drug Abuse Blog.
Like grief after a car accident, employment consequences of a criminal record can last a lifetime. Huffington Post.
Myth vs. facts: The truth about medication assisted treatment for opioid addiction. Addiction Blog.