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Channel / Source:
TEDx Talks
Published: 2017-09-05
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nag7az4-vEo
I have had a twenty five year opportunity to have an amazing career in which I have worked some really talented educators and social service workers and business people during that time I myself was an educator I left there to go work in the health field and after that spent some time trying to eradicate poverty and most recently I've gotten to spend some time learning about and
sharing with others the impact of trauma on the brain you see I've learned that in order to teach something I need to dig really deep and I need to understand it at really great doubts so that I understand the stats and I understand the statistics and figures and I understand all of those things that are the factual pieces so that when I take it to other
people I can make it real for them I understand how it impacts their world to bring it to life I've had the opportunity for the past four years to dig really deep into the impact of trauma and adversity on the brain and so today what I'd like to do is to share with you a piece of what I've learned to give you some hope what I'd
like to share with you today is a topic called adverse childhood those things that happened to us before we turn the age of eighteen that make a template on how we see the world that impact our brains in such a way that when we interact with the world oftentimes it's out of that adversity to researchers Dr Vincent Palladian doctor Robert anda did lots of work in
this area and they actually created a ten question questionnaire but they gave out to eighteen thousand and what they were looking for was what is the impact of adversity childhood on later in life physical health outcomes I tell you that what they found was astonishing and remarkable and sometimes it shakes my court to think about because what they found was a strong dose response correlation between
the amount of adversity that we face is children at our later in life physical health outcomes they were able to actually identify the fact that through that adversity our bodies chemistry and our brains are cheap away you have experienced four or more adverse childhood your life span shortened by so when I say the word adverse childhood experiences or is all probably shorten it now too aces
what do I mean when we talk about aces they ask questions that were in groups of physical abuse sexual abuse emotional abuse neglect parents being divorced growing up in a home with someone with mental illness growing up in a home with someone who was substance abusing we're growing up in a home where you witnessed domestic violence and felt unsafe when they looked at the results of
those eighteen thousand questionnaires they found that people who had not experienced adversity in childhood which all note was only about a third of people actually long term showed almost no sign of any disease as soon as you experienced one adverse childhood experience you're at risk for any physical health impairment started to in point that you've had four or more aces you're actually two hundred and thirty
two percent more likely to have a heart attack and someone who has had not when you've experienced four or more aces you are two hundred and eighty five percent more likely to have heart disease and someone who's experienced no the one that always takes my breath a little bit is that if you have experienced four or more aces you are three hundred and fifty four percent
more likely to have a vision issue and someone who has had no aces as you look at the questionnaire that and the and slutty created and the results which you can find it see C. dot gov and you begin to consider the impact of all of the diseases that they were able to make a correlation between a schism that outcome can become a pretty good story
and it can be a little overwhelming I'll be honest because while they looked at the physical health impact we've also had researchers out there who have looked at the impact on the brain you see when you experience that kind of adversity day after day after day after day your brain does what your brain was wired to do and that's to survive but the way that your
brain does that is that it goes into its mechanism called fight flight freeze resp and when somebody grows up in an unsafe neighborhood or has parents who are substance abusing or mentally ill or domestically violent when they're abused and neglected the brain gets hijacked and it gets stuck in this fight flight freeze mode it creates a template for the entire world where you begin to miss
Percy interaction with other human beings threat when our brains are threatened and they going to fight flight freeze mode we do what we need to do to survive oftentimes that's physical violence that's fleeing the scene of running away or that simply shutting down to the point you can't interact anymore what I learned this information I couldn't help but reflect on my own life experience and that
of many many many people that I've known across my career and I thought about all the people that I'd known who had faced great adversity in their lives and make choices to head this direction and other people who experience that same adversity and I did this direction I spent many many many years pondering what is it that's at that intersection what makes the difference my dog
really deep into that research what I found is that the answer at that intersection his resiliency good news if there is some in all of this talk so far is the resiliency can be built no matter how much adversity resiliency is the most easily and most effectively built through a loving caring nurturing relationship I think that we all can do when I thought about my own
adversity in life I pondered what was it that put me on this path why was it that I was successful why did I graduate from college why did I meet all the benchmarks that I was supposed to be and I reflected upon the numbers and numbers and numbers of who've invested in me I don't resilience you see to build resilience and someone the first thing you
have to do is to show up present heatedly assistant predictably something in them that is Val you and you invest so many people coaches family friends friends parents co workers and bosses who build a credible resiliency and I'm eternally grateful some of those people inspired me so much that he knew that I needed to give back to the so that I can give back and while
I may not teach in the classroom everyday teach all the time this year was a little bit different because all I've spent those four years looking deeply at trauma and educating people where ever I go talking to teachers and talking to social service workers and talking to business people about all that information this year I had the opportunity to be if I had the opportunity that
was career changing and I went to an elementary school where my job there was to educate teachers the staff about drama and then to coach side by side with teachers on a weekly basis on how to become trauma in fort how to create environments that were sensitive to the adversity that students had been through and I met my amazing third grade teacher who did everything I
asked her as a coach created an amazing room that was very trauma informed very sensitive to students needs doing well academically a place that I would want to be and I was impressed I'm not gonna lock and I was a bit in awe at her ability to create that climate and that culture my life was when I saw the she did see every day Smith would
walk into that room she knew that her first and foremost job was to create predictability and safety he created a climate where it was okay to make mistakes where it was okay to take risks every day she did the same morning routine every day she did movement to get the kids engaged every day she sent the same messages over and over and over we created a
space where they could share their fears where they can share their excitement where they could share their feelings and we're from both of us they continually heard words like a new day tomorrow try again let's work together to solve that problem you're welcome here I want you here you're part of our community and I watched those students who had come from incredible adversity wet hair triggers
who were so angry and oftentimes shutting down begin to relax in predictability safety the nurturing that she created while I watched that happen for twenty six kids I want to tell you about once per that young man that I watched and I watch the impact of her approach a young man named drew you see when drew was a first grader he was suspended for forty five
days mostly for fighting and is a second grader he was suspended thirty days again mostly for fighting but Mrs Smith met drew that first day she made sure that he knew you're welcome here and I love you we're gonna get through this together day after day after day she sent him that message and when I got to come into the room I had to ride Mrs
biz credibility with those kids whom I and to drool who sought the back of the room with a surly I up me and who was incredibly suspicious of my intentions he didn't warm up to me right away and as I wrote that credibility and I kept showing up in a cab to be present after eleven visits drew finally let me look at his paper and on
my fifteenth visit he came up he stood beside me any bumped into me for he scurried away see I knew that day I had one try and it started the ball rolling on really I continue to show up in Mrs Smith's room and we continue to send those messages insistently as we possibly could and I'm happy to say drew never got suspended in third grade and
that didn't happen by accident that happened if somebody showed up everyday and loved him kids and loved all of those kids the end of the year drew was having a really hard time leaving he knew over the summer he would get to see his adult people he had every day of school and he was struggling and I was there one of the last days and I
was walking around the room and I was hoping some students and talking to a young man looking at his paper and the next thing I know drew climbs on a chair and onto my back he wrapped his legs around me a call like four year olds do except he wasn't for he was a big nine year old and he wrapped his legs around me put his
arms around my neck and he just hung there and pretty soon he started to engage with the young man that I was looking at his paper and they started to talk any continue to hang their it was time to go to jail but I walked down to the gym with him hanging on my back that way and of course some administrators who saw me in the
hall were a little bit but taken aback and then they noticed who was carrying him and just waved and all its that crazy trom informed lady it'll be okay and later one of those administrators came to me and she said Carol that was drew trying to love you wasn't it that was Druce hug because you see no matter how much relationship by belt built withdrew it
was never okay the hot and I knew that day that that was drew's hug as I left that day I knew that my career and my life and I have no doubt that drew's life was impacted by Mrs Smith this year and I know that Mrs Smith's life was impacted by drew and I know that my life would change but both as I continue forward into
other schools and I do other trainings I do it for that because I watched what could happen kids like drew when they get a room in a school but once them there and doesn't cast them aside for behavior that I watch them welcome him other students like him every day and I watch them say we want you here and you're part of arc and I hope
that is true and his twenty six pierced about this summer and the world grabs them and tries to pull them in a thousand directions for just one moment they remember that they are lovable that they are worthy they have enough resilience resist that because that is a world that I want to live in those schools that all of us should
