What can HIV in Iowa teach us about trauma’s impact on the health of individuals and communities? By conducting a simple survey, Holly Hanson and her team at the Iowa Department of Public Health showed the powerful connection between childhood trauma and HIV. In this podcast, Holly will present this study and participate in a discussion with Matt, Curt, and Jerry on the effects of trauma on individual and community health.

Learn more about Holly’s work in Iowa

Iowa HIV Report with Trauma Information

Memory is a process that allows for the organization, storage, and retrieval of information from the past to influence our perception of the present and anticipate the future. Many people continue to consider “memory” as what we recall in a life narrative but the process of memory is more complex. Due to a child’s age or a person’s state of mind, many of our most powerful memories are stored without words and are experienced as if they were reoccurring, without conscious awareness that one is remembering. Unintegrated, unresolved traumatic memories can continue to haunt an individual in the present and become barriers to new, successful life experiences.

 

The human body comes equipped with physiology to keep it safe by mobilizing internal resources when external demands are high, and recovering and repairing itself when demands are lower.  The autonomic nervous system is primarily responsible for managing this balancing act of shifting resources.    In 1999, Dan Seigel coined the term “Window of Tolerance” to describe the range of one’s optimal level of arousal.  This model is widely used to understand brain-body reactions to stress and regulation. One of the impacts of exposure to traumatic events, can be a shift in how the brain & nervous system respond to normal, everyday happenings in the environments we find ourselves in that results in a narrowing of the Window of Tolerance.  In this episode, we talk about our experiences observing the impact of this shift, and how we can individually and collectively work to expand our Window of Tolerance to effectively cope with the demands we are faced with.

Our challenge to you: Be very aware of cups through the Holidays!

In the 1960s, John Bowlby provided a theoretical framework for understanding the importance of early child-caregiver interactions, which has become known as Attachment Theory.  Bowlby’s framework has given rise to a vast amount of psychological research and the importance of attuned, attentive, consistent caregiver interactions to optimal child development is undeniable. But what constitutes an attuned, attentive interaction? What happens in the brains of children and their caregivers during these interactions that are so important to both?

Metronome Video

In this episode, Matt, Curt, and Jerry shine the trauma-informed lens on current events. The trauma in the news over the last months include sexual harassment, threats of nuclear war, political instability, military deaths, child sexual assault, natural disasters, and mass shooting. It is difficult for anyone to avoid being affected by all these traumas.

Triggers occur when something in the present brings back conscious or unconscious memories of past trauma. For some, these memories elicit extreme emotional state and behaviors termed retraumatization. In this podcast, we explore the science behind these phenomena and how our current news environment puts us all at risk and poses an especially tricky challenge to those with traumatic pasts.

In Episode 7, Matt, Curt, and Jerry examine the effects of childhood trauma on brain development. This examination begins with an introduction to the Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Study. This study redefined how we thought about risk factors and the lifelong impacts of ACES on all areas of health – behavioral health, brain health, physical health, and overall well-being. Building on the ACE Study, the podcast takes a deeper dive into the connection between childhood trauma and brain development.

Mollie Hiebert’s music therapy site: 6beet.com

Center for Disease Control’s Adverse Childhood Experience Site

 

In Episode 6, Matt, Curt, and Jerry present a framework that has important implications for answering the all-important question “Why do we do what we do?”  To change a behavior, you must first understand it.  This is where Trauma Informed Care and Applied Behavior Analysis overlap to give us a more integrated understanding. Along with the perspective gained from an understanding of the effects of early childhood adverse experiences on the developing brain, attachment, and the nervous system, functional behavior assessment provides an additional perspective for understanding trauma symptoms.  We call these two perspectives the “two why’s”.

First, traumatic environments cause disrupted attachment, underdeveloped brain structures, and sensitized nervous system which leads to the individual engaging in extreme behavioral and emotional reactions.   These behaviors are extreme coping strategies/ adaptations which help the individual to survive.  Second, our biology has equipped us with the ability to adapt to environmental requirements through the processes of reinforcement and punishment.  These extreme behavioral reactions and the development of extreme coping strategies expose the child to behavioral contingencies that typically developing children may not be in contact with such that the extreme coping strategies are maintained over time by both negative reinforcement (avoidance) and positive reinforcement.

These two “why’s” make us wise.  The complete understanding that they provide will guide treatment and interventions.

Links

• Article Jerry mentioned: State Trends Show Fewer Young People Tried As Adults
• Matt’s blog post on Trauma-Informed Libraries Shh no more 

Jerry’s Question of the week:  What are those environmental conditions that make it hard for you to stay connected to yourself? When was it hard for you to pause, reflect, and ask the trauma-informed questions about the situation?

In Episode 5, Matt, Curt, and Jerry continue discussing some of the ways that experiences can impact individual people as well as groups of people collectively.  In this episode, we touch on a phenomenon known as intergenerational, or transgenerational, transmission.  Previously, prevailing views held that child-rearing practices were the mechanism of transmitting similar patterns of behavior across generations.  More recent findings related to epigenetics have added to our understanding through the identification of biological and genetic mechanisms supporting transgenerational similarities in behavior patterns.  The hopeful news is the incredible capacity of humans to adapt to changing conditions through a variety of mechanisms.  Not only can the actions we take today to improve our world make a difference in the immediate context, but also those actions can make a difference to generations that follow.

Links

• Wolynn, M. (2016). It didn’t start with you: How inherited family trauma shapes who we are and how to end the cycle. New York: Viking.
• http://www.goldcreekcenter.com/new-blog/2015/10/11/helping-children-cope-with-disaster

Jerry’s Question of the week: If exposed to trauma can harm us and connections can help us heal and maintain our health, how do you strike a balance in your work and life?

In Episode #4: Trauma & Epigenetics, Matt, Curt, and Jerry explore the topic of epigenetics. Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in living organisms.  Epigenetics is the field of research that examines alterations in gene expression caused by mechanisms other than changes in DNA sequence.  This relatively recent field of study suggests additional mechanisms through which experiences can directly influence traits passed on from parents to children.  Epigenetics expands our understanding of factors influencing heritability to include behavioral patterns, and environmental conditions.

This Poverty Genetic – Through the Wormhole

 

In this episode, Matt, Jerry, and Curt start to talk about applying the biological concept of homeostasis to varying levels of individuals, groups, organizations, and systems.  There’s A LOT to talk about here, and certainly many questions to be asked.  One question to consider is the difference between the effect of previous learning, and what is a biological drive towards establishing and maintaining steady states.

Jerry’s Question of the Week: As you begin to deal with clients, pay attention to what you are experiencing internally?

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Mentioned Resources

White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg