Childhood Trauma

08/12/22 • 42 min

When it comes to childhood trauma, do our bodies keep the score, and with what emotional impacts?

Historian of child psychology Emma Sutton finds out about the recent explosion of interest in "trauma-informed" approaches and their impact on family relationships. She tries out some trauma-informed therapy herself, and discusses with therapists and experts what this approach can mean for dealing with the aftermath of adverse childhood experiences - including the additional harm done to families when someone decides to "go no contact" with a parent.

Emma discusses with Reverend Giles Fraser the dangers of overly medicalising painful experiences - and Giles speaks about his own experience of being beaten frequently when at school. The episode ends with a visit to the Kazzum Arts project and its director Alex Evans - who speaks about the powerful influence that adults can have in protecting children from the worst effects of trauma, by being playful, curious, accepting and empathetic in their interactions with them.

Steve Haines is a bodyworker and author who is deeply interested in pain, trauma and anxiety. @stevehaines66

Dr Charley Baker is an associate professor of Mental Health at the University of Nottingham. @CharleyBaker1

Dr Angela Davis is a historian of motherhood and parenting in twentieth-century Britain. She is the author of Modern Motherhood: Women and Family in England, 1945–2000.

Dr Joshua Coleman is psychologist in private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area and a Senior Fellow with the Council on Contemporary Families, a non-partisan organization of leading sociologists, historians, psychologists and demographers dedicated to providing the press and public with the latest research and best practice findings about American families. @drjcoleman

Reverend Giles Fraser is the Vicar of St Anne’s in Kew, as well as being a journalist and author. His most recent book is Chosen: Lost and Found Between Christianity and Judaism, and in 2017 he made a series for Radio 4 - “This Old Heart of Mine” - about the experience of surviving a heart attack and bypass surgery. It gave him the chance to reflect on matters of the heart - physical, emotional, and spiritual. @giles_fraser

Alex Evans is a visual artist, director and creative facilitator living and working in London. He is proud to be the Artistic Director of Kazzum Arts, after taking on the role in June 2017. @KazzumArts

"Living With Feeling" is produced by Natalie Steed for Rhubarb Rhubarb, and supported by the Wellcome Trust. It is brought to you by the Queen Mary Centre for the History of the Emotions. Find out more about our work at The Emotions Lab website.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When it comes to childhood trauma, do our bodies keep the score, and with what emotional impacts?

Steve Haines is a bodyworker and author who is deeply interested in pain, trauma and anxiety. @stevehaines66

Dr Charley Baker is an associate professor of Mental Health at the University of Nottingham. @CharleyBaker1

Dr Angela Davis is a historian of motherhood and parenting in twentieth-century Britain. She is the author of Modern Motherhood: Women and Family in England, 1945–2000.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

Happiness Lessons

Should mindfulness and happiness take their place on the school curriculum alongside maths and literacy?

Thomas Dixon asks whether 200-year-old ideas about love, emotions, and primary education are still relevant today. He visits three schools with different approaches to emotions, and meets experts on mental health and wellbeing - asking whether there is a crisis in young people's mental health today, whether schools should be part of the solution, and if so what that solution might look like. Katharine Birbalsingh talks to Thomas about the "tough love" approach at Michaela Community School, and discusses whether it is harsh, or loving, to try to instil an ethos of Stoicism and individual resilience: "You say it's mean, I say it's love."

Adrian Bethune is a primary school teacher, the author of "Wellbeing in the Primary Classroom" and founder of “Teachappy”, an organisation committed to putting wellbeing and happiness at the heart of education. @AdrianBethune

Dr Lucy Foulkes is a Senior Research Fellow at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families and an honorary lecturer in psychology at UCL. She is the author of "What Mental Illness Really Is... (and what it isn’t)". @lfoulkesy

Dr Alex Turner is Applied Research Lead at The Children's Society @DrAlexLTurner

Louis Weinstock is a psychotherapist and the author of "How the World is Making Our Children Mad and What to Do About It"

Michael Eggleton is Headteacher of the Charles Dickens Primary School and Nursery, a research school in Southwark, where he leads their wellbeing curriculum @Michael_cdps

Katharine Birbalsingh is Headmistress of Michaela Community School, Wembley, and Chair of the government's Social Mobility Commisssion. @Miss_Snuffy

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

Emotional AI

Do wellbeing apps and emotional mood trackers make you feel nervous, furious, or happy?

In this episode, historian of emotions and author Richard Firth-Godbehere goes in search of the science, technology, ethics, and feelings behind emotional AI.

Fellow historian Thomas Dixon acts a guinea pig for Richard, trying out some emotion-tracking apps. with emotionally mixed results, while Richard speaks to historians, ethicists, and others about the theory of “basic emotions” that hampers a lot of emotional AI, and also the ethical dilemmas posed by the ability of big tech companies to harvest and store increasingly intimate information about our feelings and our bodies.

Along the way, Richard reflects on the long history of emotional objects - and how bits of technology, old and new, can conjure up strong feelings, as well as encountering a award-winning app designed for children who have lost a loved one, and thinking about how he might have responded to it when he lost his own father.

Dr Charley Baker is an associate professor of Mental Health at the University of Nottingham. @CharleyBaker1

Professor Thomas Dixon is Director of the Queen Mary Centre for the History of the Emotions, the author of Weeping Britannia: Portrait of a Nation in Tears (2015), and previously presented "The Sound of Anger" podcast series. @ProfThomasDixon

Louis Weinstock is a psychotherapist and the author of How the World is Making Our Children Mad and What to Do About It

Dr Sally Holloway is Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow in History & History of Art, School of History, Philosophy and Culture, Oxford Brookes University where she researches the histories of emotional culture, love, and heartbreak. @sally_holloway

Chloe Duckworth is Co-founder & CEO of Valence Vibrations

Professor Andrew McStay is Professor of Digital Life at Bangor University, and the author of Emotional AI: The Rise of Empathic Media. @digi_ad

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.