Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology and How You Can Heal
by Donna Jackson Nakazawa
In the mid-90s Kaiser Permanente and the Centers for Disease Control partnered up to conduct a research study that has come to be known as the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACES). The study asked over 17,000 adults about their experiences with ten different types of childhood trauma including:
- Physical abuse
- Sexual abuse
- Emotional abuse
- Physical neglect
- Emotional neglect
- Mother treated violently
- Household substance abuse
- Household mental illness
- Parental separation or divorce
- Incarcerated household member
The study then followed these individuals and looked at the relationship between the number of ACES they had and the health, behavioral and social problems they developed later in life. The research indicates that childhood trauma has a significant impact on health issues over the lifespan.
In Childhood Disrupted, Donna Jackson Nakazawa does a brilliant job in helping us, the readers, to understand the long-term impacts of childhood trauma on the body and the way in which this then can create health and behavioral issues. She then walks us through ways to counteract the impact of childhood trauma on the body and to re-wire and calm your system.
If you are a client who is dealing with addiction, chronic health issues, auto-immune disorders or other long-term issues this book may help you to understand the connection between your story and your current struggles and what you can do about it.
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
by Greg McKeown
You know those books that you read and it changes how you think about things forevermore? This is one of those books. I recently read Essentialism and it has been like getting a new pair of glasses. I’m looking at everything just a bit differently.
Essentialism is about identifying what in your life is truly essential so that you can pour your creativity, time and energy into these things and limit the time spent on non-essential activities. At no time in history have humans experienced the sheer amount of options and choices that we currently face. We have never had access to so much information, so many different activities, so many different avenues for exploration. Because of these rapid changes, we are unprepared to know how to handle the many choices in front of us. We can easily be pulled into spending large chunks of what I call life minutes on things that lead nowhere and are not life-giving to us or others.
“Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done…It is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at your highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.” —Greg McKeown
This book is a great book for those in recovery who are learning to engage with their lives in different ways and are thinking about what brings them joy, purpose, passion and fulfillment. It will help you to think about how you want to spend your life minutes and help you get aligned better around what is essential for you.
Written by Michelle Mays LPC, CSAT-S