Greensboro Bend, VT

United States

05842

I am a former teacher and an accredited AAMET Emotional Freedom Techniques Master Trainer with an MA in English Literature. I write and work with individuals and groups to self-regulate, build resilience, and add to the joy and optimism in their lives.

I am self employed as a writer and learning coach (see my website at www.winterblooms.net). My early professional background includes teaching at the elementary, secondary, and college levels. Before I took early retirement from teaching in Ontario, Canada and moving to Vermont, I held specialist certificates in Literature and Special Education; these two areas of interest allowed me to develop unique ways of working with students who were unable to remain self regulated because of high ACEs although that term was not in use then. Students' participation in Literature classes focusing on the human condition and the power of story to forge connections among people and within the natural world helped to develop curiosity about the world and respect for themselves and others, a healing experience for all of us.

As a toddler, I was quarantined for 7 months in a Preventorium, an institution designed to prevent babies and children from developing tuberculosis after exposure to the disease. At the same time, my mother was quarantined for two years and my father left our family. During that period of institutionalization, I lived in a 5 sided crib designed to prevent escape and ensure bed rest. For the seven months I was quarantined, I was not touched by anyone other than doctors, nurses, and orderlies. When I met my mother again, I didn't know who she was. The emotional impact of our quarantines destroyed our nuclear family and put great stress on our extended one. When I was released from the TB sanitarium, my maternal grandmother took me as she had taken in my sister. At the time of our collective trauma, the belief was that children were resilient and could get over everything and so no help was sought for my sister and me. My mother's post-traumatic stress dominated our household when she was eventually released from quarantine, but as a child of the Great Depression, she was taught to 'put one foot in front of the other' and count her blessings. The denial of her trauma made trust impossible, and her emotional dependence on us to be what she needed us to be transformed my sister and me into tiny, highly dysfunctional parents when we were very young. After dissociating throughout my elementary and high school years and being labeled "under-achiever" because of my high IQ scores and low grades, I applied to teachers' college with a friend who encouraged me to do this and led me through the process. Almost immediately, the fog of my early trauma began to lift and I began to relate to traumatized students through what I've come to call mutual wound resonance. I had no vocabulary for any of this until I began formal therapy in my 30s and read John Bowlby's and others' work on attachment disorder under my therapist's guidance. Three decades later, when the ACES studies were publicized in the late nineties, I had a lens through which to view my own recurring challenges as well as those of my students. The ACES study helped to shape the next leg of my professional journey from certified teacher to college instructor to learning coach. Now, twenty years later, I regularly help clients understand their personal and interpersonal challenges as the residual effects of their ACEs and ameliorate these challenges with Emotional Freedom Techniques and other energy tools to calm the nervous system (self-regulation) and alter limiting beliefs (cognitive shifts). At present, I continue to work on neutralizing the effects of my ACEs as well as help clients' neutralize theirs through my blog, individual sessions, and EFT classes. Because I have had thirty years as a professional teacher with diverse populations, I recommend all teachers and para-educators have access to courses in ACEs, developmental trauma, self-regulation, and emotional resilience building techniques. Elementary and high schools, colleges, and universities could become our first line of protection against long-term, untreated developmental traumas (ACEs), nurturing self-regulated children and adults who then become skilled at fostering the healthy intra- and inter-personal relationships that are the foundation of a culture of peace.

I've have a request out to join the Vermont ACEs initiative.