Adverse Childhood Experiences

This classification of experience burst onto the scene in the early ‘00s. It has been widely researched now and what might seem obvious, that early traumatic experience has a lasting effect, is well documented.

This can be physical and also mental. Common problems including increased risks of anxiety and depression. There is more research appearing in the press this week about the impact of verbal violence on top of physical acts.

It seems logical that a young, developing nervous system is trying hard to cope with what it is experiencing. It is developing coping strategies. This can often mean a thwarted system ends up struggling with relationships through life and also struggles to recognise and manage emotions. The system can decide it is normal to deal with difficulty and almost seek it out as something it has coping skills to deal with.

We hear about resilience and I’m not sure we are well versed yet on what that is, how it is developed and how it can be recovered if it is lost. Yes, we all learn hard lessons but if these are relentless and there is not safe recovery space for people then it can be tricky to move to what might truly be a more resilient way of operating.

Counselling can help explore how you might have been impacted, what coping strategies you use and how those can be reviewed and renewed.

Let yourself finally have something you need. Happy to talk it through.

sabcounselling@gmail.com