Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) are experiences we encounter as children that left us emotionally, psychologically, and/or physically overwhelmed resulting in a fight, flight or freeze response in the body which affects the nervous system. When these events occur, it is vital that a trusted caretaker support the child to fully process the event in order for it to not become a long-term issue.  Unprocessed events are stored in our cellular memory even when we do not have a conscious memory of them. This even includes a traumatic birth experience. It is important to understand that what is experienced as trauma to a child’s immature system is drastically different than what an adult can manage and process. Traumatic experiences get activated every time we encounter a present experience that reminds our energy system of the early experience. It colors our perception and our reactions and triggers the nervous system into stressful physiological reactions thereby reducing the ability of the immune system and the body's natural tendency to function in homeostasis. Too much stress (toxic stress) causes a child’s brain and body to produce an overload of stress hormones, such as cortisol and adrenaline. This overload harms the function and structure of the brain. This can be particularly devastating in children, whose brains are developing at a rapid pace from before birth to age three.

Memories, emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and opinions are forms of energy that significantly influence how we view ourselves and the world around us.  The experiences we have throughout our lives influence the qualities of these energies. How we draw meaning and make sense of those experiences is vital to healthy adult functioning in relationships and to the state of our physical and mental health, as well as having an impact on our perceived purpose in life. Early traumatic experiences distort the healthy flow of our energy system. After many years of our systems trying to compensate for this distortion, we can and often do begin to experience many symptoms - physical, mental, emotional, or likely some combination of all three. When our fight, flight or freeze response gets activated through hypo or hyper-arousal states triggered by the recall of an event through present circumstance, it is vital to find the experience that underlies it in order to unravel all the ways it is likely wreaking havoc on your system.   

-The CDC’s Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study), uncovered a stunning link between childhood trauma and the chronic diseases people develop as adults, as well as social and emotional problems. This includes heart disease, lung cancer, diabetes, and many autoimmune diseases, as well as depression, violence, being a victim of violence, and suicide.

-The study’s participants were 17,000 mostly white, middle and upper-middle-class college-educated San Diegans with good jobs and health care – they all belonged to the Kaiser Permanente health maintenance organization.

-Childhood trauma was very common, among all segments of the population including employed white middle-class, college-educated people with great health insurance.

-There was a direct link between childhood trauma and adult onset of chronic disease, as well as depression, suicide, being violent, and being a victim of violence.

-More types of trauma increased the risk of health, social, and emotional problems.

-People usually experience more than one type of trauma – rarely is it only sexual or verbal abuse.

Behaviors associated with high ACE scores:

-Using drugs

-Overeating

-Engaging in risky behavior

-Smoking

Two-thirds of the 17,000 people in the ACE Study had an ACE score of at least one — 87 percent of those had more than one. Eighteen states have done their own ACE surveys; their results are similar to the CDC’s ACE Study.

-As your ACE score increases, so does the risk of disease, and social and emotional problems. With an ACE score of 4 or more, health risks start getting serious. The likelihood of chronic pulmonary lung disease increases by 390 percent; hepatitis, 240 percent; depression 460 percent; suicide, 1,220 percent.

There are 10 types of childhood trauma measured in the ACE Study Conducted by Center of Disease Control (CDC).

Five are personal:

-Physical abuse

-Verbal abuse

-Sexual abuse

-Physical neglect

-Emotional neglect

Five are related to other family members:

-Parent who’s an alcoholic

-Mother who’s a victim of domestic violence

-Family member in jail

-Family member diagnosed with a mental illness

-Disappearance of a parent through divorce, death, or abandonment

-ACEs are common - Nearly two-thirds (64%) of adults have at least one.

-Having an ACE is related to a higher incidence of the adult onset of many chronic diseases, such as cancer and heart disease, as well as mental illness, violence, and being a victim of violence.

-ACEs don’t occur alone. If you have one, there’s an 87% chance that you have two or more.

-The more ACEs you have, the greater your risk of disease. People have an ACE score of 0 to 10. Each type of trauma counts as one, no matter how many times it occurs. You can think of an ACE score as a cholesterol score for childhood trauma. For example, people with an ACE score of 4 are twice as likely to be smokers and seven times more likely to be alcoholics. Having an ACE score of 4 increases the risk of emphysema or chronic bronchitis by nearly 400 percent, and attempted suicide by 1200 percent. People with high ACE scores are more likely to be violent, have more marriages, more broken bones, more drug prescriptions, more depression, and more autoimmune diseases. People with an ACE score of 6 or higher are at risk of their lifespan being shortened by 20 years.

-ACEs are responsible for a big chunk of workplace absenteeism, for costs in health care, emergency response, mental health, and criminal justice.

-The fifth finding from the ACE Study is that childhood adversity contributes to most of our major chronic health, mental health, economic health, and social health issues.

-It doesn’t matter which ACE a person has; the harmful consequences are the same. The brain cannot distinguish one type of toxic stress from another; it’s all toxic stress, with the same impact.

ACEs can be really challenging to heal with traditional talk therapy alone, particularly if one’s conscious memory of the event is not accessible or is compromised as a way of coping, which is often the case. Symptoms can be subtle and often hard to detect which can explain why in some cases, psychotherapy is not always effective by itself as a treatment. Medication can help soften the symptoms, but it will not resolve the underlying energy distortions caused by the original event. Over time, other more serious symptoms will evolve that will require more medication which begins a vicious cycle.   

Energy therapy, particularly concurrent with psychotherapy, is advantageous, efficient, and an effective way to access these distortions and resolve them at the root. While convention tells us that an incident is in the past and over, and should not still have an effect, our bodies cannot be convinced in the same way. The body holds the memories of these events  This explains why the mere thought of a particular food such as a lemon stimulates salivation. Our bodies remember the taste of that food and react as they did when we first tried it.  This is also referred to as cellular memory. When the body is repeatedly having a stress response from past traumatic events stored in cellular memory, the health of the overall system is eroded over time. The energy system is designed to function in a particularly healthy way and it will work to optimize its energy flow going into overdrive to address dysfunction and distortion to seek equilibrium. An assessment and treatment at the cellular or quantum level identifies the energy of these events held within the biofield and works at a deeper level than the rationalization of the mind.

In an energy therapy session, a good practitioner will always look for the deepest energetic root of the conditions to fully begin to uncover, unravel, and reestablish equilibrium and healthy flow. The biggest driving factor in a successful session is the authenticity of the intentions set by the client. Energy always follows intention. One must truly intend to heal - which means facing the deepest truth one may have to face, in order for the opportunity of deep healing to present itself. This is where the ego, fear, and doubt (i.e. lack of faith) can often present as an obstacle. Fortunately, those can be addressed with energy therapy too. The process can best be described as an unfolding of the energies at a pace that the inherent intelligence of your system dictates. It is often the case that structural therapies such as massage, chiropractic, and mental health therapy can be supportive of the process.   

ACEs can be really challenging to heal with traditional talk therapy alone, particularly if one’s conscious memory of the event is not accessible or is compromised as a way of coping, which is often the case. Symptoms can be subtle and often hard to detect which can explain why in some cases, psychotherapy is not always effective by itself as a treatment. Medication can help soften the symptoms, but it will not resolve the underlying energy distortions caused by the original event. Over time, other more serious symptoms will evolve that will require more medication which begins a vicious cycle.

Energy therapy, particularly concurrent with psychotherapy, is advantageous, efficient, and an effective way to access these distortions and resolve them at the root. While convention tells us that an incident is in the past and over, and should not still have an effect, our bodies cannot be convinced in the same way. The body holds the memories of these events  This explains why the mere thought of a particular food such as a lemon stimulates salivation. Our bodies remember the taste of that food and react as they did when we first tried it.  This is also referred to as cellular memory. When the body is repeatedly having a stress response from past traumatic events stored in cellular memory, the health of the overall system is eroded over time. The energy system is designed to function in a particularly healthy way and it will work to optimize its energy flow going into overdrive to address dysfunction and distortion to seek equilibrium. An assessment and treatment at the cellular or quantum level identifies the energy of these events held within the biofield and works at a deeper level than the rationalization of the mind.

In an energy therapy session, a good practitioner will always look for the deepest energetic root of the conditions to fully begin to uncover, unravel, and reestablish equilibrium and healthy flow. The biggest driving factor in a successful session is the authenticity of the intentions set by the client. Energy always follows intention. One must truly intend to heal - which means facing the deepest truth one may have to face, in order for the opportunity of deep healing to present itself. This is where the ego, fear, and doubt (i.e. lack of faith) can often present as an obstacle. Fortunately, those can be addressed with energy therapy too. The process can best be described as an unfolding of the energies at a pace that the inherent intelligence of your system dictates. It is often the case that structural therapies such as massage, chiropractic, and mental health therapy can be supportive of the process.