ACES Adverse Childhood Experiences
Online ACEs & Resilience Questionnaire
A private self-assessment tool that measures your exposure to adverse childhood experiences and evaluates your resilience factors, with no information collected or stored.
About ACEs – Adverse Childhood Experiences
Learn more about what Adverse Childhood Experiences are, how they are measured, and how they can shape physical health, emotional wellbeing, and relationships throughout adulthood — then explore the books and podcasts below to go deeper.
About Resilience: Strength in the Face of Adversity
Learn more about how resilience can be built at any age, why it matters in the context of ACEs, and how the right support and protective factors can reduce the long-term effects of childhood trauma — then explore the books and podcasts below to go deeper.
Books
The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity by Nadine Burke Harris
A physician’s account of how adverse childhood experiences become embedded in our biology, increasing lifelong risk for serious illness, and how science-based interventions focused on sleep, nutrition, mindfulness, and relationships can interrupt the cycle and promote healing.
Childhood Disrupted by Donna Jackson Nakazawa
An examination of how childhood trauma permanently alters the developing brain and immune system, why some children are more vulnerable than others, and how it is possible to reset your biology and heal.
It Didn’t Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle by Mark Wolynn
An exploration of how unresolved trauma is passed down through generations, with practical tools for uncovering inherited patterns of depression, anxiety, and chronic pain, and breaking the cycle for good.
Podcasts
Childhood Trauma, ACES & ABES Trauma Chat Podcast Episode 09
An explanation of the original ACE study, the ten questions it measures, and the concept of Adverse Babyhood Experiences — the earlier, often overlooked layer of developmental stress that can shape long-term health.
Beyond ACEs, with Dr. Lisa Amaya‑Jackson – One in Ten Podcast Season 1, Episode 11
A thoughtful interview with a trauma expert about why context matters for ACEs — not all trauma is equal, the concept of resilience is more complex than it appears, and healing is ultimately shaped in relationship and community.
Early Life Experiences, Attachment and Trauma
Books
What Happened To You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Bruce D. Perry, Oprah Winfrey
A conversation between Oprah Winfrey and trauma researcher Dr. Bruce Perry exploring how early childhood experiences shape who we become, shifting the question from “What is wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”
Running on Empty: Overcome Your Childhood Emotional Neglect by Jonice Webb
A look at childhood emotional neglect — how growing up without being truly seen, heard, or emotionally supported has a lasting impact on adult life — and practical steps toward healing.
The Drama of the Gifted Child by Alice Miller
How children who suppress their own needs and emotions to secure parental love can carry lasting feelings of emptiness and depression into adulthood, and how confronting that past opens the door to finding one’s authentic self.
Scattered Minds by Gabor Maté
An exploration of how early emotional neglect and attachment disruption shape the developing nervous system — using ADD as a lens to examine how children adapt to environments where their emotional needs go unmet, drawing on Maté’s own experience with the condition.
Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence―From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror by Judith Herman
An exploration of how prolonged trauma requires three stages of healing — building safety, reconstructing the trauma story, and reconnecting with the world — and why recovery is as much a social process as an individual one.
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk
An exploration of how trauma is stored in the body as physical tension and a constant state of alert, and why healing requires body-based approaches such as yoga, mindfulness, and movement alongside traditional therapy.
The Power of Attachment: How to Create Deep and Lasting Intimate Relationships by Diane Poole Heller
An exploration of how early childhood experiences shape our adult attachment styles, and how it is possible to move from insecure patterns toward more secure, intimate, and fulfilling relationships through practical exercises and self-awareness.
Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory by Deb Dana
A practical guide to understanding the nervous system’s responses to perceived threat — developing moment-to-moment awareness of internal states and learning to move from patterns of fear and reactivity toward greater safety, connection, and resilience.
Podcasts
Transforming Trauma Podcast
A podcast exploring how to move beyond surviving to thriving after complex trauma, with in-depth interviews from NARM-informed therapists and specialists addressing childhood, relational, and intergenerational trauma through body-based and relational healing approaches.
Point of Relation Podcast with Thomas Hübl
A podcast exploring the healing of intergenerational and collective trauma at the intersection of science and spiritual wisdom, with conversations that bridge nervous system understanding and inner work toward personal and collective transformation.
Childhood Trauma – Being Well Podcast with Dr. Bruce Perry (Episode)
A conversation exploring why early experiences have such a lasting impact, what distinguishes trauma from stress, and practical approaches to healing.
This Conversation Will Change How You Think About Trauma – The Ezra Klein Show with Dr. Bessel van der Kolk (Episode)
A conversation on how traumatic experiences become embedded in the body as present-day physical sensations rather than memories, why the mind obscures trauma, and why healing requires approaches that go beyond talk therapy.
Become an Active Operator of Your Nervous System with Deb Dana – 10% Happier with Dan Harris, Episode 424
An accessible introduction to Polyvagal Theory and its practical applications — exploring how the nervous system moves between states of safety, connection, and survival, and how understanding these biological patterns opens pathways to greater regulation, self-compassion, and genuine connection with others.