Trauma

We know today that adverse child hood experiences and traumatic events influence brain development and brain regulation in a detrimental way.  We also know from a large Kaiser Permanente Study, called ACE – Adverse Childhood Experiences, that people who have suffered adversity as kids increasingly struggle with chronic illnesses, like asthma, cardio-vascular events, obesity, and tend to have more abusive experiences in their adult lives.  ACE also established that with increasing adverse events people’s ability to heal and bounce back from illness is compromised.

Trauma is specifically an event that overwhelms the central nervous system, altering the way we process and recall memories.  Trauma is not the story of something that happened back then.  It’s the current imprint of that pain, horror, and fear living inside people. (Bessel Van Der Kolk, 2014)