Tagged With "Childhood"
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Parent with ACEs: Is it Time to Change Your Parenting Playbook [sfbayview.com]
By Diana Hembree, San Francisco Bay View, February 1, 2020 If you experienced severe hardship as a child, are you more likely to have children with behavior or mental health problems? The short answer is yes. A recent UCLA study shows that the children of parents with four or more Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), such as abuse or neglect, are twice as likely to develop ADHD, which makes it more likely children will become hyperactive and unable to pay attention or control their...
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Parentification: Growing Up Too Soon
“ We cannot tell what may happen to us in the strange medley of life. But we can decide what happens in us - how we can take it, what we do with it - and that is what really counts in the end. How to take the raw stuff of life and make it a thing of worth and beauty - that is the test of living.” Joseph Fort Newton This week in the childhood trauma education series, I will tackle parentification . I discovered so much while researching this topic that explains a lot for me. Have you heard...
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Parentification: Growing Up Too Soon
“ We cannot tell what may happen to us in the strange medley of life. But we can decide what happens in us - how we can take it, what we do with it - and that is what really counts in the end. How to take the raw stuff of life and make it a thing of worth and beauty - that is the test of living.” Joseph Fort Newton This week in the childhood trauma education series, I will tackle parentification . I discovered so much while researching this topic that explains a lot for me. Have you heard...
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Personal and Parental Reflections on Adverse Childhood Experiences
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUJHvbPrL0I
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Podcast Interview with Jane Stevens
Jane Stevens has worked for nearly 40 years as a journalist primarily covering science, health and technology. When she learned about Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, she saw unmet needs to disseminate the findings of ACEs science and to bring practitioners together. She created Acestoohigh.com and ACESconnection.com , a news site and social networking site which both serve as hubs for education about ACEs and resiliency as well as offering connection for communities striving to put...
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Positive Childhood Experiences and Adult Mental and Relational Health in a Statewide Sample: Associations Across Adverse Childhood Experiences Levels [jamanetwork.com]
By Christina Bethell, Jennifer Jones, Narangerel Gombojav, et al., JAMA Pediatrics, September 9, 2019 Question : Are positive childhood experiences (PCEs) associated with adult depression and/or poor mental health (D/PMH) and adult-reported social and emotional support (ARSES) independent from adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)? Findings : In this cross-sectional study, adults reporting higher PCEs had lower odds of D/PMH and greater ARSES after accounting for ACEs. The associations of...
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Positive Relationships Can Buffer Childhood Trauma and Toxic Stress, Researchers Say [bostonglobe.com]
By Kay Lazar, The Boston Globe, October 15, 2019 Traumatic events and toxic relationships during childhood can cast long shadows, often damaging mental health well into adulthood. But a growing body of research suggests sustained, positive relationships with caring adults can help mitigate the harmful effects of childhood trauma. And specialists say pediatricians, social workers, and others who work with kids should take steps to monitor and encourage those healthy relationships — just as...
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Re: It Makes Sense
Hi Jennifer, Mary Sharrow and I (Peace4Tarpon) and Dr. Greg Williams (author of "Shattered by the Darkness") were at the ACEs Connection table the first day of the conference and had an experience similar to yours. Mary and I couldn't believe that only one person we spoke with had heard of the ACE study and no one we talked with was familiar with ACEs Connection. We live and breathe ACEs day after day so its easy to assume that just about everyone working in the field of mental health would...
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Re: Dr. Felitti Explains on TV with Dr. Alman the Origins of the ACE Study -- July 19, 2019
Brian... This is wonderful, thank you for posting. I will share this. My expertise is in childhood sexual abuse. Early in my career working with child and adult survivors, I learned the connection with later emotional eating issues and obesity. A resourceful solution. This is a great interview. Thanks again.
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Association of Timing of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Caregiver Support With Regionally Specific Brain Development in Adolescents [jamanetwork.com]
By Joan L. Luby, Rebecca Tillman, Deanna M. Barch, JAMA Network Open, September 18, 2019 Question: Is there developmental timing and regional specificity to the associations among adverse childhood experiences, caregiver support, and structural brain development in childhood? Findings: This cohort study of 211 children and their caregivers during 4 waves of neuroimaging and behavioral assessments from preschool to adolescence found an association between the interaction of preschool adverse...
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Bill On Governor’s Desk Aims To Reduce Childhood Trauma By Diverting Parents Into Treatment, Instead Of Prison [witnessla.com]
By Taylor Walker, Witness LA, September 13, 2019 An estimated 10 million US children have parents who are currently locked up, or who have previously been incarcerated. A bill currently on Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk, SB 394, seeks to reduce the number of parents and children separated by incarceration by boosting diversion. Children arguably suffer the worst consequences of mass incarceration. In 2014, a UC Irvine study found that having a parent behind bars can be more damaging to a kid’s...
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California has Begun Screening for Early Childhood Trauma, But Critics Urge Caution [sciencemag.org]
By Emily Underwood, Science, January 29, 2020 On 1 January, California became the first U.S. state to screen for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)—early life hardships such as abuse, neglect, and poverty, which can have devastating health consequences in later life. The project is not just a public health initiative, but a vast experiment. State officials aim to cut the health impacts of early life adversity by as much as half within a generation. But critics say the health benefits of...
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Childhood Adversity, Telomeres and Love: The Crappy Childhood Fairy Interviews Susana DeLeón, MD
Today I interview interview psychiatrist Susana De Leon, MD, who explains how early trauma changes our DNA by damaging telomeres, with potentially serious consequences for our health and longevity. We talk about how she helps people build lives full of love and connection, which can measurably change the health of their cells (and the length of their telomeres) for the better. Click here to watch the video .
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Childhood PTSD and Avoidance: Learning to Be OK in Groups (Resilience Series)
It’s super common for those of us who grew up with abuse and neglect when we were small, to feel as adults that we are on the outside somehow. When we're in groups we feel as if we are only partly in it, and never really included . Or we start as a full participant but pull away over time. We un-include ourselves. But it feel like other people are keeping us out. The telltale sign that being on the outside could be a personal choice, even when it doesn’t feel like it, is that we’re almost...
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Childhood Trauma and Adult Pain: Is There a Connection? (NationalPainReport.com)
I found this article (from 2014) about women with chronic illness/pain and how many take offense at doctors stating that their pain is due to childhood trauma. I was surprised and not so surprised by this, since the offense they take is related to them feeling like their doctor thinks their pain is “all in their head” and they need a therapist and is therefore not a legitimate medical issue. Only 22% think their pain is linked to childhood trauma. Article: Seven out of 10 women with chronic...
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Children & Family COVID19 Resilience Brief 3: Overcoming Fear
Here is the latest infosheet on Resilience for Children & their Families. It takes cutting edge neurological PTSD and fear research, explaining it at a second-grade reading level. That was not easy! Please feel free to use and distribute as you see fit for professional or online resources. Stay Safe! Dr. Machelle
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'Children Live a Lifetime Before They Come to School' | Teachers Working to Ease Childhood Trauma [wbir.com]
By Gabrielle Hays, WBIR 10 News, February 10, 2020 Melissa Bucks spent 36 years of her life teaching kindergarteners and first graders in Knox County. She just retired in May but is still involved in the classroom and in the community. After almost four decades in education, she can recall how trauma in the classroom changed over time and how it impacts some of our youngest children who are trying to learn. “It was always different but there was always one child, two children or three...
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CPTSD and Social Awkwardness: Another Source of Isolation
For those of us who grew up with abuse and neglect at home, it can be hard to know how to ACT in social situations. Here's an example.... Have you ever been to a hotel where there is a person who is there to carry your bags, and even though you didn’t ask, they carry your bags to the room and it’s totally awkward, and you think “I’m supposed to give them a tip, right? I’ve, like seen this on TV. But you don’t have cash, and they’re just standing there ," and you think, "What do I do? What do...
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Dr. Felitti Explains on TV with Dr. Alman the Origins of the ACE Study -- July 19, 2019
Meet the Doctor! ACE Study explained so clearly that you will likely understand 1 important fact of life much better: How your parents upbringing impacted them and the ways they parented you. Listen to Dr. Vincent Felitti the Co-Principal Investigator of the ACE Study (Adverse Childhood Experiences) with Dr. Brian Alman on TV. They are discussing how it all began and how it is relevant to you: https://vimeo.com/349164603/b152fa1e61 For resources, training programs, groups and referrals -- in...
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Re: France's Early Learning / Positive Parenting Train set to launch tomorrow
Helena: THANK you for posting about this amazing and ambitious and important work! I hope you'll report in about how it goes and what the results are and share lots of photos! Cis
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Re: The Problem with ACEs Implementation
Hi Joyelle, I've read your blog with interest, as my husband and I committed ourselves to the "Primary Prevention of ACES" on retirement in 2004. It didn't take long to discover how complex this is - so our 2nd commitment was to avoid further harm to parents and all the while recognizing deep and pervasive roots of ACES in homes, and public and private spheres of our culture. We still don't have answers. In the meantime, we've been visionary, and like a family wanting to build a new home,...
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Re: The Problem with ACEs Implementation
I recently attended "A Pair of ACES" workshop in Sacramento in which the universality of ACES, both personal and socially determined, was addressed as was the importance of organizing one's own community for action. As a Family Therapist, it is important to treat (or at least educate) the whole family including grandparents and other significant people in a child's life. That is why I am focusing on prevention during the Prenatal to Five stage of Child and Family development because...
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Re: The Problem with ACEs Implementation
Hi Gladys, Your work sounds fascinating, I would love to hear more about it! You can reach me at parentingwithptsd@gmail.com
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Re: The Problem with ACEs Implementation
Hi Barbara, I am so encouraged to here that the pair of ACEs framework is being used to identify the larger scale issues at play. Thanks for sharing!
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Re: The Problem with ACEs Implementation
Yes and Strategies 2.0 offers this workshop, in California, at no cost to organizations with an interest in prevention and there are many more plus consultations. Where are you located?
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Re: The Problem with ACEs Implementation
Gladys: Please share what you and you husband are doing towards to the Primary Prevention of ACEs! It's SO GOOD to hear you are also focusing on how not to further harm parents. Part of the reason so many of us trauma survivor parents have become advocates is because that can happen. Or, sometimes parents are treated as a total afterthought. Please share what you are doing, learning, creating! Cissy
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Re: When Your Child Is Your PTSD Trigger
Dawn: I'm do glad you shared this piece. It's so important!!! There's little for parents in all phases of parenting to deal with this even though it's predictable. Thanks for sharing and for all you do!!! Cissy
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Re: Personal and Parental Reflections on Adverse Childhood Experiences
excellent short video on ACES
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Screening for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in Primary Care [jamanetwork.com]
By Thomas L. Campbell, JAMA, May 28, 2020 Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), such as experiencing or witnessing violence or abuse or living with a parent with mental illness or substance use disorder, have been shown to have a powerful influence on subsequent mental and physical health and life expectancy. Exposure to ACEs has been linked to more than 40 negative health conditions, including poor mental health, substance use disorder, adverse health behaviors, chronic physical disease,...
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I learned the impact of prolonged exposure to stress from my foster child [washingtonpost.com]
By Jenn O'Connor, The Washington Post, June 6, 2020 You know what stress is, right? You’re late for work, your car won’t start, gas costs more than you expected. We’ve all been there, and it’s not pleasant, that palm-sweating, heart-racing anxiety. Luckily, it’s not long-lasting — not toxic. What is toxic stress? It’s prolonged adversity and/or abuse — not having enough to eat or being exposed to violence. It’s the kind of stress that puts you on edge and keeps you there, day after day after...
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Transforming Trauma Podcast: Post-Traumatic Growth in Communities of Color and NARM in the Classroom
Transforming Trauma Episode 015: Post-Traumatic Growth in Communities of Color and NARM in the Classroom with Giancarlo Simpson Transforming Trauma host Sarah Buino and guest Giancarlo A. Simpson, MS, reconnect in the wake of George Floyd’s death and the nationwide protests against racial violence and systemic oppression, providing real-time context to their previously-recorded conversation about NARM’s ability to address complex trauma and support post-traumatic growth in communities of...
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Connecting the Brain to the Rest of the Body: Early Childhood Development and Lifelong Health Are Deeply Intertwined [developingchild.harvard.edu]
By National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University, June 10, 2020 We know that responsive relationships and language-rich experiences for young children help build a strong foundation for later success in school. The rapidly advancing frontiers of 21st-century biological sciences now provide compelling evidence that the foundations of lifelong health are also built early, with increasing evidence of the importance of the prenatal period...
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Opinion: We Need a Safety Net for Children Experiencing Toxic Stress [calhealthreport.org]
By Jim Hickman, California Health Report, June 8, 2020 We need to invest in the safety-net institutions that serve and support our most vulnerable now and during times of crisis. COVID-19 is decimating our fragile, unfunded and outdated safety net, and the vital links between families and their local economic, health and social supports. The pandemic has made “underlying conditions” the new code phrase for the social and health inequities disproportionately impacting black and brown...
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Just Released: New App To Support Families During the Coronavirus Outbreak and Beyond
Families with young children are currently facing unprecedented challenges and need support now more than ever. To help parents and caregivers access much-needed resources, our friends/partners at the Early Learning Lab just released Stay Play Grow , a free app that provides a one-stop source of trusted resources curated by their team of child development experts, women, and working moms. Parents and caregivers can find tips, tools, and information across four key areas in English and...
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Transforming Trauma Podcast: Strange Situation - A Journey into Understanding Attachment, Motherhood and Developmental Trauma
Transforming Trauma Episode 016: Strange Situation: A Journey into Understanding Attachment, Motherhood and Developmental Trauma with Bethany Saltman In this episode of Transforming Trauma, author Bethany Saltman shares the lessons she learned while writing Strange Situation: A Mother’s Journey Into The Science Of Attachment . Bethany and host Sarah Buino explore the different roles that curiosity, delight, anxiety, shame, and acceptance play when looking at parent-child attachment, and...
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Invite: Community of Practice, Early Childhood (online)
For anyone who has access to the internet and a computer. Please share the invite widely! Details Community of Practice ∞ Invite Commitment Form Commitment Due by July 15th I'm thrilled to invite you and yours to join a six month pilot to imagine and actuate Early Childhood Learning & Wellness that more fully benefits all children, families, and communities. I cannot think of better people than you all to help shape this group. Also, I hope it's a helpful option for schools, programs,...
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Reassessing our Priorities and Healing during the Pandemic: A Resource
Recently a friend reached out to say they finally got to read through the "Healing Program" on Wrestling Ghosts' Website and how helpful it was. It made me reflect on how the pandemic, like most crises in our lives, can open up the opportunity to reassess our priorities and refocus on our and our families' wellbeing. Healing childhood trauma starts with understanding the impact of toxic stress in childhood. That understanding lifts our shame and self-blame. Then comes visualizing what...
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Column: How parents can help a child with post-traumatic stress disorder [milforddailynews.com]
By Lauren Barry, The Milford Daily News, June 27, 2020 When most people think of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) they likely picture an adult who has been in combat, a serious accident or experienced violence. Children can also have PTSD either from experiencing trauma directly or witnessing it. Childhood trauma can be from a specific event like a car accident or dog bite, but it can also include witnessing domestic violence or enduring neglect or abuse. Children diagnosed with PTSD...
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Tea for Two, Trauma for Three
Perhaps, that is the true miracle of resilience. The option to start fresh, even while I am still in pain. To build my life upwards, though triggers keep me scurrying back to shore up and re-lay crumbling foundations.
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Why the dean of early childhood experts wants to get beyond the brain [centerforhealthjournalism.org]
By Ryan White, Center for Health Journalism, July 23, 2020 Harvard’s Jack Shonkoff, a luminary in the field of early childhood, has spent years showing that events in the earliest years of life have profound implications for how budding brains develop, and in turn, shape a child’s later potential at school and work. Now, Shonkoff says it’s time to connect the brain to the rest of the body. “The message now is to say that there is a revolution going on in molecular biology and genomics and in...
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This wasn't the first time
Going out to buy groceries, going out for a walk, driving your kid back home from school. For most people these activities are normal, everyday things with little to no excitement, as they should be. Unfortunately, getting food, exercising, and supporting my son’s education have been a little more out of the ordinary for me. You see, I am a Mexican Indigenous man, brown skin, shaved head. My ethnicity and physical appearance are by no means unusual, especially in the part of the country...
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Childhood trauma can speed biological aging [news.harvard.edu]
By Manisha Aggarwal-Schiefellite, The Harvard Gazette, August 3, 2020 Experiencing adversity early in life has a direct effect on a person’s mental and physical health as they grow, and certain kinds of trauma can affect the pace of aging, according to new Harvard research. In addition to being risk factors for anxiety, depression, and stress, early life experiences like poverty, neglect, and violence are powerful predictors of physical health outcomes like cardiovascular disease, diabetes,...
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Parents Need Help with Trauma Too: A Bottom-Up Approach
Psych Central published my latest article on trauma and it's one you don't want to miss! Through my work with children coping with Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) the historical trajectory became very clear to me. Often childhood trauma doesn't start with the child who was traumatized, but it starts with the parents and grandparents of that child who were overwhelmed by adversity and never had help. Unprocessed emotional trauma is likely to be passed on in some capacity to at least the...
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Maternal Depression in Early Childhood and Developmental Vulnerability at School Entry [pediatircs.aappublications.org]
By Elizabeth Wall-Wieler, Leslie L. Roos, and Ian H. Gotlib, Pediatrics, August 2020 OBJECTIVES: To assess the relation between exposure to maternal depression before age 5 and 5 domains of developmental vulnerability at school entry, overall, and by age at exposure. METHODS: This cohort study included all children born in Manitoba, Canada, who completed the Early Development Instrument between 2005 and 2016 (N = 52 103). Maternal depression was defined by using physician visits,...
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Seven Steps to Calm an Explosive Child
Are you exhausted by the explosive behaviors of the children you love? First, I want to say I am so proud of you. I know the fatigue and frustration that comes with parenting a child who feels out of control. The fact that you are reading this article means you are looking for support and guidance, and that means you are on your way to helping the children in your life. And believe me, you are probably already doing a better job than you think! Kids need you to show up more than anything!
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Trauma 101 Workshops for Massachusetts Early Education and Care
STRIVE (Supportive Trauma Interventions for Educators) FALL 2020 TRAININGS Trauma 101 Workshops for Massachusetts Early Education and Care Saturdays from 9:30-12:30pm September 26th - REGISTER HERE October 3rd - REGISTER HERE October 17th - REGISTER HERE November 7th - REGISTER HERE STRIVE is a collaborative project between Boston Medical Center’s Child Witness to Violence Project and Vital Village Network that aims to help schools and early education systems of care increase their capacity...
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For Survivors of Childhood Trauma: How To Find REAL LOVE
For people who were abused and neglected in childhood, one of the cruelest ways the damage shows up is in romantic relationships. Too many of us go through life either alone, or in relationships where we’re not loved, not safe, and not happy. It doesn’t have to be that way. If you have Childhood PTSD and you’re wondering why you keep attracting people who are either dysfunctional, unavailable or abusive -- you’re going to want to read this... READ FULL BLOG POST or.. WATCH THE VIDEO ON...
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Family Visits: Ten Self-Care Tips
Lately, a lot of people who grew up with childhood trauma are going “no contact” with their families and loved ones. I hear people talking about it with relief and sometimes a sense of accomplishment. For many people, the abuse was egregious and may be ongoing; in these cases, walking away for good may be necessary and courageous. For others, going no-contact is an emergency form of self-protection that, over time, may not need to be permanent. So I want to share with you ten tips to protect...