Join me for the upcoming Facebook Live event where I present the rationale for Canada to repeal section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada, to embed in our legislation the bodily autonomy of children, protected from the use of force as a means of discipline. 63 countries around the world have banned corporal punishment. Canada is NOT one of them. I believe if we are to prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences and Increase Positive Childhood Experiences, embedding the protection of the bodily...

Elizabeth Perry provides an update on her advocacy efforts to increase awareness, prevention and healing of ACEs in the Canadian context through her #ACEs Canada organization.

Privilege comes in many forms. Those with privilege must provide a leg up to those without. I recently had a conversation with some professional colleagues that didn’t go well. I’ve been disturbed by it since and thought it might be useful for all of us to use the experience as a teachable moment. I was asked to talk about my work, and I ended up focusing on the difficulties I’ve had experiencing repeated rejection from mainstream colleagues. I didn’t start out intending to express my...

Returning to my childhood hometown is always surreal. The memories flood my soul. Some good. Many sad. They all have meaning in the life I live.

New podcast launched - an educational resource on trauma-informed lawyering by Myrna McCallum, Miyo Pimatisiwin Legal Services @LegalTrauma

The unbridled spread of COVID-19 has caused all but essential service providers to drop what we were doing and settle in at home. This forced slowdown is very uncomfortable for most. But, this forced slowdown may not necessarily be a bad thing. With many of us at home, now's a good time to let our lives catch up to us and envision a new future.

1st Voice ACEs Canada Champion Elizabeth Perry shares why ACEs are meaningful to her and her vision for the future.

With Covid 19 keeping most of us at home, now's the time to let our lives catch up to us and envision a new future.

War is most certainly Hell. It is also a source of #ACEs for the children of veterans. Here's a little insight into my story.

I just finished reading Great Expectations for the second time. I could relate to it much easier this reading as I used an ACEs lens to understand Pip's experiences and challenges. Dickens knew in 1860 the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences. It seems strange to see humanity hasn't really evolved emotionally and socially that much in 160 years. Hopefully the ACEs movement will help propel our consciousness raising.

Twitter post Oct. 24 by Elizabeth Perry for @ACEs_Canada https://twitter.com/ACEs_Canada/status/1187400245568835585 This post I made has received a lot of interest. I thought you on ACEs Connection might also appreciate reading it. #ACEs are not just about children. That's the problem. Many who talk about ACEs just focus on prevention. But there are millions - probably billions of us living on this planet as #AdultsWithACEs Our potential is impeded by the lingering, unresolved effects of our...

Until we are willing to acknowledge that we collectively have not fulfilled the needs of developing humans throughout our evolution, and therefore as adults we are not operating at our optimal capacity as human organisms, we will continue to perpetuate the social conditions that hinder optimal development, all the while pretending that we adults are unaffected and traumatic childhoods are normal.

Temporary free access to highly cited articles making an impact in Paediatrics & Child Health ( PCH ) has just been opened up by Oxford Academic. If you're a research hoarder like me, you'll want to check this out. https://academic.oup.com/pch/pages/highly_cited_articles

Free Online Collective Trauma Summit from Oct 12 - 20th. Daily interviews with some of the leading international researchers in trauma and recovery, with a collective intergenerational, systemic, historical focus.

New article by Elizabeth Perry - Are You Living with an ACEs Legacy? I was and didn't know it until I heard about The ACE Study. Learning about ACEs gave me a sense of relief and freedom from shame. I encourage everyone to check their ACEs.

A new documentary film has recently been released called Conviction. It is self-described as A COLLABORATIVE DOCUMENTARY FILM THAT ENVISIONS ALTERNATIVES TO PRISON THROUGH THE EYES OF WOMEN BEHIND BARS I've recently seen the film and highly recommend it. The content is Canadian, but no doubt the issues the women deal with are universal.

Survey available for reflecting on relationships during childhood.

A new book will be available October 1st, 2019. Published by Elsevier, Adverse Childhood Experiences: Using Evidence to Advance Research, Practice, Policy, and Prevention will be the first book with Canadian content on the subject. This is exciting news for #TraumaInformedCanada #ACEsAwareCanada #ResilientCanada

Trauma lurks in the subconscious of our minds, activated when we feel threatened. In our increasingly unpredictable relationships and environment, some of us are exercising our courage to talk about this taboo subject and help ourselves and others understand, recover and ultimately prevent trauma by focusing on building healthy relationships with self, others, and nature. Elizabeth Perry invites Linked In members to join the international social transformation initiative.

Link to event details for Resilience screening happening in Toronto, Canada August 24th!

Here's a series called Seeing White - a set of 14 podcasts exploring the construction of race and white body supremacy in human consciousness.

This is a compilation of interviews with scholars outlining the historical origin of the concept of race and its use as a tool for economic and power advantage. It is essential knowledge for those of us working on decolonizing our minds and conceptualizing white body supremacy.

The latest gift from @ACEAwareNation #ACEsToAssets conference. @DrGaborMate talking about self-regulation, self-acceptance, self-healing, forgiveness, my favourite #AliceMiller, and good ways to intervene for child welfare. Gems of wisdom. So thankful for the access generously provided for those of us unable to attend in person. My biggest take aways: encouragement to "Keep doing what you're doing..." and validation that historical "evil is an emanation of the traumatized human unconscious."

Change Your World is the newest addition to the body of resources on Resilience. It has been written by Michael Ungar, PhD - one of the most informed voices in resilience research. Although the reviewer was skeptical leading up to reading the book, expecting more victim blaming, which is often the predominant theme of resilience promotion, she was pleasantly surprised. She now recommends this book to everyone interested in learning how to build a healthier humanity.

While working through the book My Grandmother's Hands by Resmaa Menakem, I recorded my thoughts and questions about White Fragility and my embodiment of it. I'm still cleansing from centuries of trauma from my own ancestors, and disrobing from the lies my cells have been steeped in. This is deep work. This record captures my process at one juncture.

Understanding ACEs research can aid us in facilitating social transformation. It changed how I see myself, others and nature. I am convinced it can help each of us.

I knew I didn’t have the best childhood possible, but I didn’t realize it was that bad until after my life crashed down around me at age 42. When I realized I had built my adult life on lies, I had to go back to ground zero and figure out why and get to the core so I could build the rest of my life on a foundation of truth.

Dr. Sandra Bloom, MD, author of the Sanctuary Model, discusses the adverse childhood experience (ACE) study and childhood trauma's effect on adult health.

Talking ACEs in Nova Scotia - Elizabeth Perry joins Charlene Pickrem on her community radio program Mental Health: Let's talk about it.

As a result of recent changes to the Nova Scotia Children and Family Services Act, child protection workers' scope of practice has been increased, but no additional resources have been allocated to support an already overburdened system. We discuss what needs to happen, and what Nova Scotians can do to help!

From: https://www.scotsman.com/news/aces-light-bulb-moment-or-magic-bullet-for-social-ills-1-4870913 In the mid-1980s, doctors running a weight loss programme at a clinic in San Diego happened upon a startling discovery. Struggling to understand why successful slimmers were quitting, lead physician Dr Vincent Felitti began interviewing the leavers and found many had experienced sexual abuse in childhood. His findings led to a conclusion that would have major implications for public health –...

What could make people be able to empathize? People who have experienced very little loss in their lives can miss the ability to grasp the pain others live with every day. If they had tragedy happen in their lives my wish would be that from that tragedy they would henceforth be able to empathize with those they have dismissed throughout their privileged lives.

Jose Fernando Aguado writes: In my clinical practice, I often see how dysfunctional families cause pain to their members, and it is my opinion that the cult perspective can help explain certain aspects of what these families go through. I start with a working definition of a dysfunctional family and note some broad areas of relationship between dysfunctional families and cults.

When hurt people hurt hurt people, the effects can be even more devastating.

“All I do know is as we age, the weight of our unsorted baggage becomes heavier . . . much heavier. With each passing year, the price of our refusal to do that sorting rises higher and higher. . . . "

I've had a busy last few weeks in Nova Scotia.

I started a weekly peer support group for women survivors of trauma in April 2018. It took a few weeks to get any uptake on the offer. In the beginning a few people who knew me trickled in to provide some encouragement. Some people working at the center that eventually agreed to give me access to a room to host the event, told me that if people got the sense that I was in it for the long haul, they would then start taking me up on my offer. I was determined to persist, so I stuck it out even...

I'm feeling excited if not a little trepidatious. I'm launching a peer support group this month in Halifax, Nova Scotia, for adult identifying women who are interested in working together to recover from the lies we learned about ourselves and others as a result of childhood trauma. Talking about trauma in my community usually receives a trauma response of resistance. And yet I interpret that as validation of the need for what I want to do: to increase awareness and action towards addressing...

Initially when I started visiting my Memory Forest I was compelled to wander down the same path. But as I got more comfortable and felt safer among the memories, I started venturing off the well-worn paths and started making new trails. This has been my experience of neuroplasticity and recovery from interpersonal trauma and ACEs.