Bruce Perry on the Healing Power of Human Connection and Resilience in Trauma

In today’s episode, we talk with Dr. Bruce Perry who co-authored, The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog, Born For Love: Why Empathy is Essential and Endangered, and What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing (2021). We are also joined by Megan White Zappitelli, M.D., a child and adolescent psychiatrist, and Maddison Hussey, M.D., a child and adolescent fellow.

[chrisisalive]

I love this episode! I’m grateful for Dr. Perry’s books and love for people!

[SylviabombsmithUjhybd]

Despite the obvious and unfortunate lack of Shedler the Wise/Great in this video, I found this to be a fantastic episode as this guy is obviously very smart and an expert in his field. It was also nice that he was mindful and inclusive of the two other guests. He very skillfully brought them into the conversation, and then used that as a segway to then answer your initial question. Savoir-faire!

A few thoughts:


1:48 – dat lip bite

4:22 – When he says “ _early_ _development_ _has_ _a_ _profound_ _impact_ _on_ _how_ _you_ _function_ _as_ _an_ _adult_ ” it reminds me of William Faulkner (1951) when he said “ _The_ _past_ _is_ _never_ _dead_ . _It’s_ _not_ _even_ _past_ ”.

14:56 – I like how he initially asked you to call him Bruce, and then minutes later addresses you as “Dr. Puder”. 🤣🤣🤣 Very humble and respectful!

52:59 - When he says “ _not_ _just_ _evidenced-based_, _but_ _evidence_ _generating_ ” it reminds me of the concept of “ _practice-based_ _evidence_ ” opposed to “ _evidence-based_ _practice_ ” whereby we use what learn clinically in our interactions with patients to inform what we consider as evidence.

58:16 – There it is! The Contextual Model! Horray! 🥳🥳🥳

Definite themes in this episode of: mulitfinality, equifinality, social determinants of health, Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, and distributed causation, risk and protective factors, protective triad.

[mathew]

Heart rate variability rather than heart rate is a good indicator of the pendulum between the parasympathetic and the sympathetic nervous systems