Ancestral Selfies and Historical Traumas: Who Do You Feel You Are?

The potential for ‘historical trauma’ is deeply rooted within the evolved human mind, which constructs its reality through narrative in the shape of personally and culturally relevant stories. From its roots within psychoanalytic theory and practice and through its clear links with infant attachment, historical trauma can be theoretically linked with stress biology and the concept of Adverse Childhood Experiences. Via this trajectory, it has the potential to become more commonly drawn upon in the field of public health, despite inconclusive attempts to link it to social epigenetics. It is proposed that when the historical trauma narrative invades family histories via negative experiences that have deeply impacted upon the lives of ancestors, descendants may be drawn to ‘traumatic reenactment’ through fantasy. This is explored with reference to my own recently published novel, examining its content through the perspective of the ‘psychic work’ it represents with respect to reconciling the self to the traumatic experiences of ancestors.

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Adverse Childhood Experiences and Traumatic Stress Disorders

The Oxford Handbook of Traumatic Stress Disorders, Second Edition ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190088224.013.11 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Damion J. Grasso

Keyword(s):

Adverse Childhood Experiences ◽

Research Priorities ◽

Stress Disorders ◽

Traumatic Experiences ◽

School Age Children ◽

Future Research ◽

Risk And Resilience ◽

Childhood Experiences ◽

Adverse Childhood ◽

Adolescents And Adults

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) refer to a broad range of events that can reflect physical or psychological threats to safety, as well as deprivation of basic needs, essential resources, or caregiving necessary for children to thrive and attain healthy development. ACEs can constitute potentially traumatic experiences or nontraumatic adversities with the potential to exacerbate trauma-related impairment or compromise trauma recovery and resilience. This chapter explores ACEs in the context of trauma and trauma-related impairment across the life span. It covers research employing variable- and person-centered analytic strategies for quantifying cumulative and unique constellations of ACEs that probabilistically co-occur, contemporaneously or across development, to influence risk and resilience. Studies examining intergenerational patterns and biological correlates are introduced and progress toward delineating causal risk mechanisms discussed. In addition, several existing tools and methods for assessing ACEs in young and school-age children, adolescents, and adults are summarized. Clinical and public health implications of ACE screening in healthcare, schools, and other settings are considered, as is the clinical application of research on ACEs in trauma-specific prevention and treatment. The chapter concludes with a focus on future research priorities.

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Adverse childhood experiences and trauma informed care: treating the whole patient with a more complete osteopathic approach

Journal of Osteopathic Medicine ◽

10.1515/jom-2020-0322 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Author(s):

T. Brian Marcoux

Keyword(s):

Adverse Childhood Experiences ◽

Medical Training ◽

System Level ◽

Traumatic Experiences ◽

Childhood Experiences ◽

Health Crisis ◽

Trauma Informed Care ◽

Adverse Childhood ◽

Trauma Informed ◽

The Impact

Abstract In 1998, a seminal study identified a strong connection between participants’ exposures to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and the development of risk factors for serious health conditions later in life. More than two decades later, leaders in both policy and health care professions now appreciate the impact of social determinants of health, including the enormous societal costs incurred by deleterious experiences, and recognize that treating illness begins with prevention in early childhood. The trauma informed care (TIC) model offers a treatment approach that lends consideration to the traumatic experiences that impact a given patient and allows for more complete treatment by their physician. Delivering care under the TIC model encourages trauma identification, early intervention, system level awareness and policy change, and avoiding retraumatization in the therapeutic setting. Various programs across the country seek to employ these methods at the community, state, and federal level. Several programs aimed at introducing medical students to these principles have contributed to an incorporation of TIC within the physician pipeline. In this Commentary, the author proposes an expansion of the Tenets of Osteopathic Medicine with a fifth principle—considering the implications of a patient’s past formative experiences, their present life circumstances, and their future prospects—as a vehicle for instilling TIC principles ubiquitously throughout osteopathic medical training to develop physicians who treat the whole person more completely and are better equipped to manage this public health crisis.

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Adverse Childhood Experiences as a Determinant of Public Service Motivation

Public Personnel Management ◽

10.1177/0091026018801043 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 48 (2) ◽

pp. 123-146

Author(s):

Crystal Evans ◽

Gregory R. Evans

Keyword(s):

Public Service ◽

Adverse Childhood Experiences ◽

Public Service Motivation ◽

Curvilinear Relationship ◽

Self Healing ◽

Childhood Experiences ◽

Negative Experiences ◽

Wounded Healer ◽

Adverse Childhood ◽

Wounded Healer Archetype

The wounded healer archetype predicts that people who suffer negative experiences in childhood would be motivated to enter helping fields as a way of self-healing. Developmental traumatology, however, suggests that people who have negative experiences in childhood may have their development stunted, particularly when it comes to caring for others. To test these competing theories, researchers test the effect of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on public service motivation (PSM) and find negative experiences in childhood are associated with a lower willingness to help others. However, some evidence suggests that a curvilinear relationship exists such that extreme levels of ACEs result in more PSM.

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Trauma and learning in America’s classrooms

Phi Delta Kappan ◽

10.1177/0031721717696476 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 98 (6) ◽

pp. 35-41 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Salvatore Terrasi ◽

Patricia Crain de Galarce

Keyword(s):

Learning Environments ◽

Adverse Childhood Experiences ◽

Well Being ◽

Academic Growth ◽

Traumatic Experiences ◽

Social Emotional ◽

Childhood Experiences ◽

Adverse Childhood ◽

Health And Well Being ◽

Student Competencies

Whether they work in a rural, urban, or suburban district, all teachers should expect to confront children who have had adverse childhood experiences involving trauma. All teachers should understand how trauma affects students’ social, emotional, and academic growth. The more that teachers understand how traumatic experiences affect student competencies, the more proactive they can be in creating trauma-sensitive learning environments. Trauma-sensitive schools provide a safe and respectful environment that enables students to build caring relationships with adults and peers, self-regulate their emotions and behaviors, and succeed academically, while supporting their physical health and well-being.

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Building Resilience Against the Sequelae of Adverse Childhood Experiences: Rise Up, Change Your Life, and Reform Health Care

American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine ◽

10.1177/1559827619839997 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 13 (5) ◽

pp. 470-479 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Robin Ortiz

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Adverse Childhood Experiences ◽

Emotional Abuse ◽

Lifestyle Modification ◽

Disease Risk ◽

Traumatic Experiences ◽

Childhood Experiences ◽

Building Resilience ◽

Adverse Childhood ◽

The Impact

A reformed approach to health care tackles health at its roots. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in those exposed to them may contribute significantly to the root causes of many diseases of lifestyle. ACEs are traumatic experiences, such as physical and emotional abuse and exposure to risky family environments. In 1998, a ground-breaking study found that nearly 70% of Americans experience at least 1 ACE in their lifetime, and graded exposure is associated with the presence of mental health disorders, heart disease, cancer, and other chronic diseases. Over the past 20 years, evidence has demonstrated further disease risk, outcomes, and epigenetic underpinnings in children and adults with ACEs. Building resilience—the capacity to adapt in healthy ways to traumatic experiences—through lifestyle modification offers potential to combat the negative health effects associated with ACEs. Emerging research demonstrates resilience is cultivated through individual skills (emotional intelligence, coping, and fostering healthy lifestyle choices), and nurturing supportive relationships. Being mindful of the impact and prevalence of ACEs and diversity of individuals’ experiences in society will help build resilience and combat the root cause of chronic disease. This review aims to cultivate that awareness and will discuss 3 objectives: to discuss the effects and hypothesized pathophysiological underpinnings of traumatic experiences in childhood on health and wellbeing throughout life, to present ways we can promote resilience in our daily lives and patient encounters, and to demonstrate how advocacy for the reduction of ACEs and promotion of resilient, trauma-informed environments are fundamental to health care reform.

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