"An extraordinary, eye-opening book." --People National Health Information Awards winner "A rousing wake-up call. . . . This highly engaging, provocative book prove[s] beyond a reasonable doubt that millions of lives depend on us finally coming to terms with the long-term consequences of childhood adversity and toxic stress." --Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow Dr. Nadine Burke Harris was already known as a crusading physician delivering targeted care to vulnerable children. But it was Diego--a boy who had stopped growing after a sexual assault--who galvanized her journey to uncover the connections between toxic stress and lifelong illnesses. The stunning news of Burke Harris's research is just how deeply our bodies can be imprinted by ACEs--adverse childhood experiences like abuse, neglect, parental addiction, mental illness, and divorce. Childhood adversity changes our biological systems, and lasts a lifetime. For anyone who has faced a difficult childhood, or who cares about the millions of children who do, the fascinating scientific insight and innovative, acclaimed health interventions in The Deepest Well represent vitally important hope for preventing lifelong illness for those we love and for generations to come?. "Nadine Burke Harris . . . offers a new set of tools, based in science, that can help each of us heal ourselves, our children, and our world."--Paul Tough, author of How Children Succeed "A powerful--even indispensable--frame to both understand and respond more effectively to our most serious social ills."--New York Times

The Surgeon General of California reveals pioneering research on how childhood stress leads to lifelong health problems and what we can do to break the cycle.

Perfect for fans of The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, this eye-opening book includes a free Adverse Childhood Experience test and looks at the widespread crisis of trauma and childhood adversity through the objective lens of science and medicine, providing a roadmap for deeper understanding and change. It is vital now more than ever, as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, that we find a way to address, understand and heal trauma.

Two thirds of us have experienced at least one adverse childhood experience, from the likes of bereavement and divorce to abuse and neglect. In Toxic Childhood Stress Dr Burke Harris reveals the science behind childhood adversity and offers a new way of understanding the adverse events that affect us throughout our lifetime. Based on her own groundbreaking clinical work and public leadership, Dr Burke Harris shows us how we can disrupt this cycle through interventions that help retrain the brain and body, foster resilience, and help children, families, and adults live healthier, happier lives.

When a young boy walked into Dr Nadine Burke Harris's clinic he looked healthy for a preschooler. But he was seven, and hadn't grown a centimetre since a traumatic event when he was four. At that moment Dr Burke Harris knew that her gut feeling about a connection between childhood stress and future ill health was more than just a hunch – and she began her journey into groundbreaking research with stunning results.