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Therapy in a Nutshell

How Childhood Trauma Affects the Brain and Body - The ACES Study

Therapy in a Nutshell

Therapy in a Nutshell -Emma McAdam

Mental Health, Education, Health & Fitness:mental Health, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness

4.8658 Ratings

🗓️ 18 November 2024

⏱️ 13 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Learn how to regulate your nervous system in my FREE online course: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/grounding-skills-for-anxiety-stress-and-ptsd Childhood trauma can have a direct, lasting impact on physical health, mental health, and ability to function in society. But we didn’t have any idea how much impact it had until the late 1990’s, when a curious doctor made a groundbreaking discovery. They found that a huge number of people have experienced at least one Adverse Childhood Experience (64%) and 17% or 1 in 6 children experience at least 4 ACES. And more specifically, 28% of women and 16% of men reported being sexually abused during their childhoods. And this study was done with mostly middle class white folk, but the rates are actually higher with other demographics. So that was the first finding, childhood trauma is way too pervasive. And two- Dr. Felitti found that this trauma is directly correlated with a wide range of negative health outcomes in adulthood, including chronic diseases, mental health issues, substance abuse, and early death. The ACE's quiz at NPR: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/03/02/387007941/take-the-ace-quiz-and-learn-what-it-does-and-doesnt-mean Looking for affordable online counseling? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional from the comfort of your own home. Try it now for 10% off your first month: https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com Support my mission on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/therapyinanutshell Sign up for my newsletter: https://www.therapyinanutshell.com Check out my favorite self-help books: https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/best-self-help-books  Therapy in a Nutshell and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health. In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger Institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life's direction. And deeper than all of that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ orients my personal worldview and sense of security, peace, hope, and love https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/believe If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services. Copyright Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome back to another episode of the Therapy in a Nutshell podcast.

0:05.0

I'm Emma McAdam and I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist.

0:08.0

And this podcast is all about taking the life-changing, but usually kind of complicated topics of therapy

0:14.0

and boiling them down into simple, easy-to-understand concepts that you can use in your daily life.

0:20.0

If you find today's episode is helpful

0:21.5

to you, please pass it on to someone else who could benefit from it as well. Each podcast

0:25.5

episode comes from a corresponding video you can find on the Therapy in a Nutshell YouTube channel.

0:30.3

Also, these podcasts are educational and don't replace the advice or direction you may be receiving

0:35.1

from a therapist or other health professionals. Now please, enjoy the episode.

0:39.3

Childhood trauma can have a direct, lasting impact on physical health, mental health, and the ability to function in society.

0:47.3

But we didn't have any idea how much impact it had until the late 1990s when a curious doctor made a groundbreaking discovery.

0:55.1

Dr. Felitti led an obesity clinic at Kaiser Permanente. In the late 1980s, he observed a strange

1:01.2

phenomenon where many patients who successfully lost weight quickly regained it. Some even dropped

1:07.6

out of the program even though they were successful. So he was curious about this pattern, so Dr. Felitti started interviewing patients to understand why they regained the weight.

1:16.6

And during these interviews, he uncovered that a significant number of these patients had a history of childhood trauma and abuse.

1:24.6

So he started to wonder if obesity might be a coping mechanism for dealing with the unresolved trauma.

1:29.8

So Dr. Felitti collaborated with the CDC to ask over 17,000 adults about their exposure to various types of childhood trauma, and these are called adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs for short.

1:41.3

The original ACEs study identified 10 categories of these experiences,

1:45.7

which can be grouped into three broad categories. Abuse, which includes physical and emotional

1:51.0

and sexual abuse, neglect, which is physical and emotional neglect, and household dysfunction,

1:56.5

which includes domestic violence, substance abuse, untreated mental illness, parental

2:00.4

separation or divorce, or parental incarceration. Now, the original study did includes domestic violence, substance abuse, untreated mental illness, parental separation,

...

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