Why is Echo Parenting & Education convening a conference on developmental trauma? What is developmental trauma anyway?
Ah! Glad you asked! Developmental trauma is what we all know as Adverse Childhood Experiences. Dr. Bruce Perry and the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University have been talking about this stuff for ages. Unfortunately, the diagnostic manual for the mental health field, the DSM, hasn't caught up. They have 'complex trauma' but no real recognition that complex trauma when experienced by a developing child is going to result in all kinds of unique and compounded problems. But don't take it from me - the Trauma Center under the leadership of Dr. Bessel van der Kolk has been trying to get a new diagnosis accepted: Developmental Trauma Disorder. When we heard about that, we jumped on developmental trauma as the theme for our conference.
At Echo, we have long believed that traditional parenting methods can harm children. I nearly did cartwheels when I saw the first question on the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study questionnaire that asks if you had ever been 'sworn at, insulted, put down or humiliated' as a child. Sometimes, despite all the research out there that tells us hitting our kids is harmful, it's hard enough to convince parents to stop spanking their kids, but for the study to recognize the psychological damage that happens when a child is shamed... that was a red letter day.
So, developmental trauma is something Echo is very interested in, especially as it reinforces the message that childhood is a critical time for either building the blocks for optimum physical and mental health, or for creating problems that without intervention can last a lifetime.
The conference we have coming up in February will feature Dr. Janina Fisher who trained with Judith Herman and under Bessel van der Kolk at the Trauma Center. You should check out our website (http://www.echoparenting.org/professional-services/conferences) to see all the wonderful speakers we have lined up. Once word was out about the theme and snagging Dr. Fisher, we were inundated with requests to present from people we couldn't afford. "Oh don't worry, we'll do it for love," was their astounding response.
Our team is working late into the night, every night, to try and get everything organized. From time to time, I'll let you know the progress and tell you about some of our speakers. I have this thought about trauma and microbes... but I'll tell you next time.
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