Book Club: Navigating Childhood Trauma with ‘The Deepest Well’

Access ‘The Deepest Well: Healing the Long Term Effects of Childhood Adversity’ (2019) here. 

“What a privilege it was to chat with Cathy Kezelman in this Book Club episode. Cathy as inspired me and given me clinical courage through her tireless work advocating for understanding of the impact of trauma in our community. I chose to ask Cathy to read and discuss the book The Deepest Well: Healing the long term effects of childhood adversity because I thought it might encourage us both.

I selected Nadine’s book to discuss with Cathy because we both share clinical experience as GPs, interest in the latest research, and a desire for a shift in paradigm in medicine that acknowledges the impact of life experience on health. I was pretty sure that Cathy hadn’t yet read Nadine’s book and I wanted to see her delight as she read it! What followed was a precious conversation.” 

— Dr Johanna Lynch on her chosen text for Book Club.
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“I was delighted to be invited by Johanna to chat about ‘The Deepest Well”. this is both because Johanna is wonderful colleague who is moving mountains in a space I hold dear but also because Nadine Burke Harris is one of my heroes. To me, this was the planets aligning, with an opportunity to speak candidly about one of the biggest elephants in so many rooms, clinical and otherwise.

Nadine in her TED talk and now in this book has brought humanity, the rawness of personal experience and extensive research and clinical expertise around toxic stress from childhood into the public arena. The elephant is out in the light where it can be examined, thought about, and as Johanna and I have done, spoken about. We can no longer pretend that you can just get over the traumas of adverse childhood experiences, but we can work together to build a community of empathy, understanding and healing.”

— Dr Cathy Kezelman AM on this episode’s chosen text.
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Enjoyed this episode? To learn more…

WATCH

Dr Vincent Felitti: Reflections on the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study

Nadine Burke Harris: How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime 

VISIT

The Australian Society for Psychological Medicine (ASPM)

Blue Knot Foundation

• Practice Guidelines
• Information about childhood and complex trauma
• Fact sheets

READ

A Whole Person Approach to Wellbeing: Building Sense of Safety (2020) by Johanna Lynch.

Lynch, J. M., Kirkengen, A.L. (2019) Biology and Experience intertwined: trauma, neglect and physical health. In Benjamin,R., Haliburn, J., King, S (Eds) Humanising Mental Health in Australia:  A Guide to Trauma-informed Approaches. Sydney: Routledge.

Lynch, J.M. Trauma-informed care in general practice (2021 in press) chapter in the RACGP White book: Abuse and Violence – Working with our patients in general practice. RACGP: Melbourne.

Lynch, J.M Sense of safety: a whole person approach to distress in primary care. PhD Thesis UQ conferred Sept 14 2019.

Innocence Revisited: A Tale in Parts (2010) by Cathy Kezelman.