Quotes from Bruce D. Perry

ultimately altered their ability to respond properly to stress for a lifetime.

All of us want to know that what we do, what we say, and who we are matters.

Resilient children are made, not born. The developing brain is most malleable and most sensitive to experience—both good and bad—early in life.

This is a common thread in our culture: We're reactive; we prioritize convenient, short-term solutions; we're risk-averse; and we use material things rather than relationships as rewards. Here, have a toy. Be good and we will give you a thing. Giving toys instead of calming touch is an outrageously misguided practice. It's the result of developmentally ignorant, trauma-uninformed policies—and another example of the need to change our systems.

The long-term effects of stress are determined by the pattern of stress activation. When the stress-response systems are activated in unpredictable or extreme or prolonged ways, the systems becomes overactive and overly reactive—in other words, sensitized.

is even more difficult to understand and take into account how early childhood trauma can express underlying genetic vulnerabilities.

Qué es lo que le permite a alguien tomar la decisión correcta, incluso a pesar de que no se le hayan ofrecido las oportunidades necesarias para su óptimo desarrollo?

predictable, moderate, and controllable activation of the stress-response systems, such as that seen with developmentally appropriate challenges in education, sport, music, and so forth, can lead to a stronger, more flexible stress-response capability—i.e., resilience.

It occurred to me that if both genes and environment could produce similar dysfunctional symptoms, the effect of a stressful environment on a person already genetically sensitive to stress would probably be magnified.

pathological need to be needed and their identities revolve around being seen as nurturers and helpers.

Haftada bir terapi ile seneler boyunca yerine oturmuÅŸ davran??lar? ve inançlar? nas?l deÄŸiÅŸtirirdiniz?

There is a direct relationship between a person's degree of social isolation and their risk for physical and mental health problems. But when you do have connectedness…you have built-in buffers for whatever stress or distress you experience.

The mind wants to see what we believe, so it clings to things that support those beliefs—that worldview—and ignores things that don't. But trauma shatters this inner landscape. Your worldviews are broken to pieces.

the control she gained over the situation allowed her to manage her anxiety such that it minimized the effects that the abuse had on her daily life.

Through moderate, predictable challenges our stress response systems are activated moderately. This makes for a resilient, flexible stress response capacity. The stronger stress response system in the present is the one that has had moderate, patterned stress

Memory is the capacity to carry forward in time some element of an experience.

Is fear transmissible from generation to generation? Can the fearfulness of a parent be transmitted to the child? -the answer is an empathic yes.

And since the brain is the part of us that allows us to think, feel, and act, whenever I'm trying to understand someone, I wonder about that person's brain. Why did they do that? What would make them act that way? Something happened that influenced how their brain works.

We often use our belief in another person's "resilience" as an emotional shield. We protect ourselves from the discomfort, confusion, and helplessness we feel in the face of their trauma. It's a kind of looking away; it lets our worldview go unchallenged and lets our life continue with minimal disruption.

What this also means is that early experiences will necessarily have a far greater impact than later ones.

Very often, "what happened" takes years to reveal itself. It takes courage to confront our actions, peel back the layers of trauma in our lives, and expose the raw truth of our past. But this is where healing begins. —

But this help is often mistimed, disorganized, and almost always ignorant of trauma. Thousands volunteer their time in the first few weeks; six months later, no one does.

colonization intentionally fragments families, community cohesion, and cultures, and that disconnection is at the heart of trauma.

until you heal the wounds of your past, you will continue to bleed. The wounds will bleed through and stain your life, through alcohol, through drugs, through sex, through overworking. You have to have the courage to pull out the wound and begin to heal yourself.