The impact of ACES on the child's developing brain - London Conference

Overview

The impact of ACES (adverse childhood experiences) on the child's developing brain: How to interrupt the trajectory from painful life experiences to long-term social, behavioural and mental health problems.

This conference is a very rare opportunity to hear two internationally acclaimed neuroscientists whose research over decades, has involved the brain scanning of people who’ve suffered abuse and/or neglect.

Remarkably, Dr Martin Teicher (Harvard University USA) has researched the impact on the brain of the following ACES: being shouted at, shamed, bullied, smacked, having suffered physical abuse, sexual abuse, watched domestic violence, parent to sibling violence.

Professor Eamon McCrory’s research includes the brain imaging of young people who’ve experienced maltreatment. He found adverse impact on the brain’s executive functions, reward systems, threat processing and emotional regulation systems. All this leads to fall out in terms of behaviours that challenge, problems socially and with mental health. When people are ignorant of the needs of these children and young people, all too many suffer the gross social injustice of getting permanently excluded, instead of supported and enabled to thrive.

Both neuroscientists will explore how to interrupt the trajectory from painful life experiences to long-term social, behavioural and mental health problems. We owe it to all children and young people who’ve suffered adversity to be neurochemically and neuroanatomically literate, and this conference will support you in this vital task.

This conference is a must for all mental health professionals.