The new Surgeon General for the state of California, Dr. Nadien Burke Harris has recently made a call to all those who work closely with children, “screen every student for childhood trauma”. She believes in educating all with “trauma sensitive and trauma informed” education programs. Trauma, also known as adverse childhood experiences, is characterized as abuse, neglect, living with someone with mental illness, living with a family member with alcoholism or addiction, bulling, divorce, and/ or domestic violence, among others.

Our Bounce! Camp was created for children to have a safe place to be educated about trauma, learn tools and strategies to work through it and receive evidenced based treatment shown to reduce PTSD symptoms in brain scans. Think of trauma as big rocks children carry that add up in a backpack. If these kids do not have an opportunity to process and work to release the rocks, they add up to the point that they cause back pain, posture changes, headaches, difficulty walking, distraction, inability to focus and so forth. Translate that to the real brain injuries and health issues that can occur long term; addiction, depression, anxiety, and not limited to suicidality. Dr. Burke Harris believes “Adverse childhood experiences are one of the most serious, expensive and widespread public health crises of our time”. 

Please watch the video to learn about the very real long term health effects of untreated trauma in children.