Nora Baladerian is a clinical psychologist who specializes in helping people with disabilities who have been abused, mostly sexually abused. She directs the Disability & Abuse Project, which strives to reduce the risk of abuse, to promote healing, and to seek justice for people with developmental or intellectual disabilities who have been abused.
Q. What kind of work do you do that involves ACEs?
A. My primary work is providing psychotherapeutic treatment to children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities who have been referred to me after disclosure or discovery of abuse, usually sexual abuse. Many of my clients have autism or are on the autism spectrum, and others have a variety of intellectual disabilities.
In addition to providing treatment, I provide educational seminars and training products to others who serve this population. They include direct care service providers, agency executives, one-on-one case managers in state services, directors of state agencies. However when they become crime victims, responders such as law enforcement officers, prosecutors, judges, and those in medicine, forensic medicine, and specialized forensic interviewers require specialized training and information, which I offer through training seminars and books and videos, webinars, etc.
Q. How would you like to see trauma-informed practices shape your field?
A. Because those with disabilities are abused at over three times the rate of the general population, their ACEs are much higher, according to existing statistics and the 2012 National Survey on Abuse of People with Disabilities. However, the consequences of these ACEs, identified by Drs. Vincent Felitti and Robert Anda, are treated differently. Frequently the consequences -- including psychological, physiological, behavioral and developmental factors -- are attributed to the disability.....not to the history of trauma!
This situation reminds me of the drunk guy looking for his keys near the lamppost at night. When asked if he had dropped them near the lamppost, he says, “No, but I can see better in the light!”
So, when doing presentations on abuse, when I present the ACE Study, a giant, single “AHA!!!” spreads around the room. In the last few months, I have done presentations at the Ohio Attorney General’s Two Days in May conference in Columbus, OH, the Department of Developmental Services in Delaware, the National Conference of the National Association of State Department Directors of Developmental Services in New Orleans and the National Child Advocacy Center Symposium in Huntsville, AL, among others.
Q. What personal or professional moment or event in your life inspired you to work on ACEs?
A. I was attending the National Prevention of Child Abuse conference in St. Louis (in 1998 or 1999, I think) when before a crowd of thousands, Dr. Vincent Felitti presented the findings of the ACE Study. In those days it was very new. I, and probably many others present, were profoundly taken with his presentation, findings, and application to working with children who have been abused, as well as adults who had experienced trauma in their early years. I have met with Dr. Felitti, and he is very open to and interested in the application of his work to my area of interest, which is not only to be aware, but to treat the individuals psychologically, to relieve the pain of the traumas they experienced, so that consequences of abuse can be avoided or healed.
Q. Since you deal with trauma often in your work, what coping skills do you rely on to stay happy and healthy?
A. I actually treat myself with the same therapy I use with my clients! I have also been changed, as ACEs changed me (it just made so much sense!!!) with the discovery of energy psychology in 1979 by Dr. Roger Callahan. Dr. Callahan discovered, through thousands of trials, an effective method of relieving psychological pain that he calls "thought field therapy". It requires the patient to focus on the distressing thought they wish to resolve, and the therapist directs the patient to tap on/stimulate a series and sequence of acupressure meridian points. This causes a "re-set" into well-being and releases the negative psychological state. In terms of western medicine, it balances the ANS (autonomic nervous system.) Thus, thought field therapy (TFT) is a relatively quick and strategic intervention that I use for my patients as well as for myself. It is a stress-reducing technique that when used daily, can calm difficult times. Sometimes I treat myself just before a big presentation when I feel "butterflies" beginning to swarm in my tummy! I do a quick TFT treatment and feel just fine and confident.
Q. When did you learn about ACEs, and how did that change your work (or life)?
A. After learning about ACEs I believe my life and work was changed. I feel that way about ACEs. I have begun to administer the ACEs questionnaire when doing evaluations of my clients, including those applying for disability. I continue to advocate for others to learn about and incorporate the ACEs findings in their work.
I think Oliver Wendell Holmes said it best: "A man's mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions."
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