In conversation with Lisa Cherry – the Trauma Resonance Resilience webinar

I was really pleased to be invited to Lisa’s Trauma Resonance Resilience webinar, where we discussed ACEs, trauma and social change. Lisa is an expert in her field and being able to join her was a privilege.

In the webinar, we covered some of the challenges of applying the bio-medical model to trauma, the purpose of the ACE study and how we can continue to affect social change.

Of course, the coronavirus pandemic was one of the key themes of the webinar. We talked about the impact on individuals, families, front-line workers and other support seeking people. Having managed the coronavirus pandemic to a point that instances of the virus are declining, we now face an impending psychosocial crisis. We looked at what solutions might be available to manage this, including ideas on a cross-sector, multi-agency response. You can find out more about my thoughts on this in my blog about the Resilience Task Force.

Parts of the webinar were quite challenging as we discussed adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), trauma and the BBC programme, What’s the matter with Tony Slattery?. I gave my view on the importance of asking people, ‘what happened to you’? To understand how their childhood experiences may be affecting their health now, so that we can provide a holistic approach to assessment and a biopsychosocial response, rather than automatically defaulting to a bio-medical one.

For more thoughts on asking people about adversity, please read my blog: ‘ACE enquiry:, what it is, what it isn’t and why it’s important’.

Overall, it was a lively discussion, and there were a range of questions from professionals and experts from across the country – highlighting the passion and commitment that many of us share for tackling the impact of trauma and adversity in our communities.

I hope you enjoy the webinar and please share your thoughts – you’ll find me on Twitter @warren_larkin.