The Deepest Well

Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity

By: Dr Nadine Burke Harris

Narrated by: Dr Nadine Burke Harris

Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

A pioneering physician reveals how childhood stress leads to lifelong health problems and what we can do to break the cycle.

When a young boy walked into Dr Nadine Burke Harris's clinic he looked healthy for a preschooler. But he was seven, and hadn't grown a centimetre since a traumatic event when he was four. At that moment Dr Burke Harris knew that her gut feeling about a connection between childhood stress and future ill health was more than just a hunch – and she began her journey into groundbreaking research with stunning results.

Two thirds of us have experienced at least one adverse childhood experience, from the likes of bereavement and divorce to abuse and neglect. In The Deepest Well Dr Burke Harris reveals the science behind childhood adversity and offers a new way of understanding the adverse events that affect us throughout our lifetime. Based on her own groundbreaking clinical work and public leadership, Dr Burke Harris shows us how we can disrupt this cycle through interventions that help retrain the brain and body, foster resilience, and help children, families, and adults live healthier, happier lives.

Like the classic Silent Spring, this book helps readers see a problem hiding in plain sight that impacts us all. By looking at the widespread crisis of childhood adversity through the objective lens of science and medicine, this book provides a roadmap for deeper understanding and change.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2018 Dr Nadine Burke Harris (P)2018 Macmillan Digital Audio

Critic reviews

Offers a powerful - even indispensable - frame to both understand and respond more effectively to our most serious social ills. (David Bornstein, New York Times )

A heart-breaking, world-shaking, revolutionary book. The Deepest Well uncovers offers a new set of tools, based in science, that can help each of us heal ourselves, our children, and our world. (Paul Tough, author of New York Times Best Seller How Children Succeed)

Adverse childhood experiences are the single greatest unaddressed public health threat facing our nation today. (Dr Robert Block, former President of the American Academy of Pediatrics)

The Deepest Well is a rousing wake-up call, challenging us to re-imagine pressing questions of racial and social justice as matters of public health. The research and stories shared in this highly engaging, provocative book prove beyond a reasonable doubt that millions of lives depend on us finally coming to terms with the long-term consequences of childhood adversity and toxic stress. (Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow )

The Deepest Well is more than a riveting medical story - it’s a must-read guide for recognizing, understanding and treating a condition that many will find in our own homes. (BookPage )

This important and compassionate book further sounds the alarm over childhood trauma - and what can be done to remedy its effects. (Kirkus, starred review)