Four years ago, I decided to start a conversation about the long term impact of childhood abuse. More specifically, about what happens when those abused children grow up and have children of their own. When I had become a parent, I went looking for books on this topic, and I didn’t find anything. But I knew I couldn’t be the only one who was dealing with this. And once I found one other person who was willing to write about this, I said, let’s collect these stories. The stories of these...

Dr. Suzanne Frank has known about the impact of childhood adversity on young lives for decades. She’s seen the fallout in the faces of young people huddled in beds at a children’s shelter where she worked years ago. She’s seen it as the regional child abuse services and champion for the Permanente Medical Group. And she’s seen it in hospital examination rooms where, as a member of the Santa Clara County’s Sexual Assault Response Team, she’s been called in to examine shell-shocked children...

On a beautiful fall day I drove up to Baltimore from my home in Washington, DC for an event I learned about in a  post by Donna Jackson Nakazawa  on the ACEs Connection group named after the title of her new, must-read book,  Childhood...

"Evidence with neurofeedback suggests that trauma-informed treatment should also be brain-informed treatment- and not just to know that the brain is an issue, but to work with it directly.” Sebern Fisher, Neuofeedback in the Treatment of Developmental Trauma: Calming the Fear-Driven Brain. Neurofeedback for ACEs: Chat with Sebern Fisher Oct. 10th (10 AM PST / 1 PM EST) Chats are live, online discussions - not webinars. We gather and connect, via chat messaging to share stories, resources,...

You go Joyelle! I am SO proud of you! I am a survivor too and I’m doing similar work. My focus is on helping adult survivors of adverse childhood experiences, not necessarily parents, to acknowledge and transform their pain. I’m so excited to hear you are in that avenue and can’t wait to point people to your work. I can’t tell you how much this encourages me because I have received some push back from experts in this space since I don’t have the certifications or licenses on this topic. I’ve...

Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic: One-Pager

On Thursday, April 28, Donna Jackson Nakazawa, an award-winning science journalist, joins the podcast "History. Culture. Trauma." Jackson Nakazawa is the author of seven books, and an internationally-recognized speaker whose work explores the intersection of neuroscience, immunology, and human emotion. This podcast is our final episode to acknowledge April as National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Throughout the month, co-hosts Ingrid Cockhren, CEO of PACEs Connection, and Mathew Portell,...

PACEs Connection is excited to roll out our summer 2023 *CRC* curriculum dates. Members who complete the CRC will qualify for a fall 2023 fellowship program.

I'm thrilled to announce that my book, Healing Emotional Eating for Trauma Survivors: Trauma-Informed Practices to Nurture a Peaceful Relationship with Your Emotions, Body, and Food is available. I'm honored that PACES member Donna Jackson Nakazawa, award-winning science journalist and author of seven books, wrote the foreword. Healing Emotional Eating for Trauma Survivors is the culmination of my nearly 40-year career as a clinical social worker and holistic psychotherapist specializing in...

Christina Bethell, Ph.D, MBA, MPH, founder of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI), principal author of the groundbreaking study on positive childhood experiences, and creator of the free Well Visit Planner, among other innovations. Two internationally-respected leaders and innovators in complementary aspects of early relational health and childhood and maternal health equity recently launched a partnership they believe will benefit everyone from newborn babies and...

Former PACEs Connection employees Dana Brown (L) with Vincent Felitti, MD, co-author of the 1998 Adverse Childhood Experiences study, and Carey Sipp (R) in San Diego in January, 2024. The last few months have been quite challenging, but we pushed, persevered, and didn’t give up hope. The “we” is Carey Sipp and Dana Brown. We were long-time staff members of PACEs Connection determined to reinstate the website and the resources and information we provide to communities after the platform went...