Becoming Trauma Informed Changed My Life | Carla Carlisle | TEDxCharlotte

Description: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) impact children into adulthood without social buffering. ACEs increases a person’s likelihood of trying to die by suicide by as much as 1200%, I almost lost my child at the tender age of 6, and consistent exposure to his family’s intergenerational trauma impacted my own mental and physical well being. Trauma and mental health are as important as physical health, without advocacy and support, the impact can be devastating to the individual and society.

What do you want people to learn from your talk? I want people to learn two key things: the connection of mental health (especially ACEs) and physical health and the importance of everyone taking ownership by helping/advocating for those who didn’t have support as a child and their children (The Least and The Lost).

What action items do you want people to take away from your talk? Learn more about ACEs. Volunteer to provide support; via foster care, respite, donations, advocacy (legislative and other) – and to just be more kind and understanding that everyone wasn’t born into the same circumstances. Carla Carlisle is a speaker, author, and mental health advocate. Carla became a foster parent in 2010 to a baby boy born two months prematurely. Her relentless quest for motherhood would lead her on an eight-year, unconventional journey to rescue the child she now calls her son. Carla’s calling is to minimize/eliminate Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and their impact; focusing on family and children.

She is an active Board Member of the Alexander Children’s Foundation (Alexander Youth Network), Storyteller with Mental Health America of the Central Carolinas, and volunteers with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (Charlotte Chapter).

Carla works for a global financial services company in Charlotte, North Carolina. Carla earned her B.A. in sociology from Indiana University in Bloomington. She also earned an M.S. in human resources management from American University in Washington, D.C. and another in organizational development from Johns Hopkins University, Maryland. In addition, Carla has obtained a graduate certificate in change management from Johns Hopkins University. None of these degrees prepared her for loving and fighting for the life of the child of her heart. She is the proud mother of three boys and two dogs. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx