Bruce is a psychiatrist and senior fellow of the Child Trauma Academy in Houston. In addition, he remains an adjunct professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine. In 1987, Bruce began a fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Chicago.
Bruce has been a consultant to many high-profile incidents involving traumatized children: The Columbine High School massacre, The Oklahoma City bombing, and The Waco siege.
He also wrote The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog: What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love and Healing. Elements of that book are indeed discussed in this book as well.
Bruce began his relationship with Oprah in 1989 and has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show many times sharing experiences of childhood trauma. Accordingly, Oprah shares her understanding from trauma and adversity from a young age.
Indeed, with Bruce as a leading expert on childhood and brain development, they bring together storytelling with his research to provide a powerful way to understand, learn and understand (not overcome) trauma.
Start with a new approach
In addition to Bruce’s insights and experiences, I hope to see more understanding and compassion for people. The syntax alone ‘What Happened to You,’ versus more negative statements is certainly telling enough about our emotional intelligence levels. Besides, learn to be more aware, stepping away from the old “What’s wrong with that person” view that just makes understanding an impossible standard to achieve:
A recent study by the National Survey of Children’s Health found that almost 50 percent of the children in the United States have had at least one significant traumatic experience. Even more recently, a study from 2019 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 60 percent of American adults report having had at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE), and almost a quarter reported three or more ACEs. These numbers are even more sobering when you consider that the CDC researchers believe them to be an underestimate.
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Welcome a change for understanding
The experiences Bruce shares are remarkable to understand as he works with children to help drive awareness and solutions through his counseling. His insights to behavior patterns of not only children will help us peel away the first layer of the onion as we begin to understand struggles of children and their behaviors trying to interpret or respond to their situations.
I am reminded of The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath and Michael Lewis’ book The Undoing Project. Both books provide insights to elements that alter memory recall, but do not directly address trauma.
In conclusion, Bruce and Oprah are providing much needed insights to simply understanding trauma. This is another book of the year in my opinion that must read by everyone.
Jay Shetty Podcast | Healing From Childhood Trauma & Becoming Self Aware, Confident Adults
OWN | Why The First 2 Months are Crucial For a Baby’s Development
SXSW EDU | Oprah Winfrey & Dr. Bruce Perry in Conversation
OWN | Dr. Bruce Perry on How to Transform Pain Into Power
Kay Warren | What Happened to You? | Hope Mental Health Community