LOVE this CRUCIAL recognition of why #BCEs, or Benevolent Childhood Experiences, matter so much! As a science journo I’ve sat and deeply listened to 100s (maybe 1000s over a 30 year reporting career?) of individuals tell me their stories. 1/ https://twitter.com/eperryinsights/status/1197906275264278531

As I listen to the narrative of the #adversity someone has faced in the past, or is facing now, whether due to #trauma or #Illness or #LifeCircumstancesI and how they are coming closer to a felt sense of well-being "now" ... 2/

..and by "coming closer to a felt sense of well-being" I mean how they (teens/young adults/adults) are evincing a new sense of self by availing themselves of all their resources within, as well as via safe relationships, and by pursuing healing strategies that resonate 4 them..3/

I ALWAYS LISTEN FOR THE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION: Who helped you? Who were your #benefactors? With whom did you feel safe, known, seen? With whom did you have #BenevolentChildhoodExperiences? @healWRITEnow @eperryinsights @guy_phd @CBWeThrive

This study shows that kids who have caring adults in their lives are less likely to suffer “trauma-related symptomatology,” and #BCEs or “favorable childhood experiences may counteract long-term effects of childhood adversity.” @kevinhoneycutt @LMegaparsec https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28992958 

Knowing who and what helped you to be resilient - who made you feel understood, valued, worthy - is an important aspect of understanding the science of #adversity and the science of human #resiliency. Benevolent Childhood Experiences counter the effects of #ACES. @DrKirbyLWycoff

I've asked this before, and I'll ask it again - because bringing this concept into the public discourse MATTERS: #WhoWasThere4You?
The Good Enough #Parent. The #SchoolNurse. The Good Neighbor. The Aunt who saw you for who you really were. The Grandmother. The #Teacher.

Kids and teens NEVER FORGET who made them feel safe, who gave them emotional shelter. Even decades later people tell me about these benevolent elders or benefactors were there for them during the difficult passages of their childhood, or during their teenage or college years.

That person who took that extra time to really see YOU. THIS MATTERS FOR KIDS. The #BenevolentChildhoodExperience @mindfulmaryt @MindfulDrG @Rutgers_UBHC @sdalfonzo @suzannezeedyk @SuzanneGieseman @TraumaTroveTrac @TurnAroundMom @warren_larkin @rick_kraus @NicoleNugentPhD

#WhoWasThere4You?
I’ll know who was there for me. When I was 13, after my father died overnight from a sudden medical error, I stopped speaking completely. No voice.

One day my English teacher, Ms. Lindow, pressed into my palm the key to the "teacher's library." She told me, "Go there whenever you need to. Read whatever you want."

During lunch time I would sit on that sagging old brown teachers' couch and delve into Henry James, Edith Wharton, the poets Adrienne Rich and Louise Bogan, Denise Levertov. The world began to spin on its axis.

Thank you Ms. Lindow, wherever you are, for seeing something in me that I did not yet see in myself: the young, hungry reader for whom books would be a salve on the unseen wound.

One day when I was 17 my high school art history teacher Ms. Thiel asked me if I'd like to go on a college tour. At the time I didn't think about it. My art teacher taking me on my college tour? Okay Why not? And so I went. Wish Ms. Thiel was on #twitter so I could thank her here

Thank you Ms. Thiel for those 5 days visiting colleges on the East Coast. Thank you for seeing a spark in me that I didn't see in myself: I was worthy of the education you envisioned for me, and although I was the 4th child of a widowed mom, there was a thing called a scholarship

Thank you Aunt Nan for coming into my room one day when I was 14-yrs old and sitting on the side of my bed, and taking my hand and whispering over and over, "Donna, it's not you. I see what's happening here and it's NOT YOU. I want you to know that. It's NOT your fault."

There are so many more people who were my #BenevolentElders. As I get older, I think of them so often, and thank them silently. My Gram. My Grandmother Donna. My college poetry professor, Dr. Pope.

Each played a role in my being a science journalist and feeling worthy of having a #voice by taking that time to see me and help me find some tiny kernel of worthiness within.

Okay, WHO WANTS TO PLAY? Who were YOUR Benevolent forces? With whom did you have #BenevolentChildhoodExperiences? Who, when you were with them, made you feel, Yes, I can. Yes, I am worthy. Yes, I matter?
Your turn!