The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Trauma and Adversity—A Transformative Guide to Understanding Childhood Trauma and Health

by Nadine Burke Harris

there is a molecular mechanism behind every natural phenomenon—you just have to look for it.

epigenetic.

Environment and experience play a huge role in determining which parts of your genetic code are read and transcribed in each new cell your body creates.

When a four-year-old breaks a bone, that trauma is not encoded in his epigenome; it doesn’t affect him in the long term. But when a four-year-old experiences chronic stress and adversity, some genes that regulate how the

brain, immune system, and hormonal systems respond to stress get turned on and others get turned off, and unless there is some intervention, they’ll stay that way, changing the way the child’s body works and, in some cases, leading to disease and early death.