A Tauranga psychologist is teaming up with the son of a Hollywood movie star to start a national conversation on the impact traumatic childhood events has on mental health.
Psychologist Janet Peters has met with Robert Redford's son, James Redford, in Auckland to discuss the issue. Redford recently directed a critically acclaimed documentary on the topic called, Resilience: The biology of stress and the science of hope.
Ms Peters' aim was to organise a screening of the documentary to act as a nationwide fundraiser for a children's charity while raising awareness of the issue.
She has been researching adverse childhood experiences and trauma-informed care and recently wrote a report on the topic for the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership.
"My interest is that I have a background in trauma personally, thus want to help others," she said.
Ms Peters said research showed traumatic events in childhood created toxic stress which had physical, mental and emotional health impacts which often carried through in to adulthood.
"Toxic stress can change the chemicals in your body and it's hard to learn, hard to relate to people, hard to thrive."
She said researchers had found childhood adversity could cause fundamental changes in development of the brain, the immune and hormonal systems, and misbehaviour could be symptomatic.
[For more of this story go to http://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-...mp;objectid=11804623]
Comments (0)