Understanding the impact of Adversity, Deprivation and Trauma

The title underscores the book’s central idea: Exposure to abuse and violence fosters the development of a hyperactive alarm system and moulds a body that gets stuck in fight/flight and freeze.

Trauma interferes with the brain circuits that involve focusing, flexibility, and being able to stay in emotional control. A constant sense of danger and helplessness promotes the continuous secretion of stress hormones, which wreaks havoc with the immune system and the functioning of the body’s organs.

The book describes various therapeutic interventions, including trauma processing, neurofeedback, theatre, meditation, play, and yoga. However, it emphasises that each intervention must be tailored to the individual as one size never fits all.

Two-thirds of us have experienced at least one adverse childhood experience, from the likes of bereavement and divorce to abuse and neglect. In The Deepest Well, Dr Burke Harris reveals the science behind childhood adversity and offers a new way of understanding the adverse events that affect us throughout our lifetime.

You can hear Nadine Burke Harris talk about how childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime in this Motional Munchable.

When the Body Says No draws on scientific research and clinical work to provide the answers to critical questions about the mind-body link - and illuminates the role that stress and our emotional makeup play in an array of common diseases and the physiological connection between life’s stresses and emotions and the body systems governing nerves, immunity development, and hormones.

Oprah Winfrey and renowned brain development and trauma expert, Dr Bruce Perry, discuss the impact of trauma and adverse experiences – and how healing must begin with a shift to asking 'What happened to you?' rather than 'What’s wrong with you?'.

Through wide-ranging and often deeply personal conversation, Oprah Winfrey and Dr Perry explore how what happens to us in early childhood – both good and bad - influences the people we become.

A simple change in perspective can open up a new and hopeful understanding about why we do the things we do, why we are the way we are – and provide a road map for repairing relationships, overcoming what seems insurmountable, and ultimately living better and more fulfilling lives.

Many of us experience adversity and trauma during childhood that has lasting impact on our physical and emotional health. And as we’re beginning to understand, we are more sensitive to developmental trauma as children than we are as adults. ‘What happened to us’ in childhood is a powerful predictor of our risk for physical and mental health problems down the road, and offers scientific insights into the patterns of behaviours so many struggle to understand.