Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris, a well-known trauma awareness advocate and now the surgeon general of California, is introducing screening for adverse childhood experiences into public health programs in her state. In an interview held before her appointment to the post, she expressed an optimism that mirrors Bessel van der Kolk’s. “Believe it or not,” she told me, “it’s going better than I’d hoped. I think we are looking at incremental milestones that need to happen over thirty or forty years’ time, but a lot of groundwork is taking place.” For his part, Will Van Derveer has initiated a
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