Column: Parfitt-Smith On Trauma, Healing & More
[Opinion column written by Michaele Parfitt-Smith]
When most people hear the term ACEs, they think of Adverse Childhood Experiences: abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction that occur before the age of 18. This framework fundamentally changed how we understand the long-term impact of childhood trauma on health, addiction, mental health, and life outcomes.
But trauma does not stop at the front door of the home…
Let me introduce you to ACEs 2, Adverse Community Experiences. ACEs 2 looks beyond families and asks us to look at the conditions and environment that people are trying to live in.
Together, ACEs 1 and ACEs 2 tell a fuller truth: trauma is not only about what happened to us and how our body responded but it is also about what surrounded us.
ACEs 1 include experiences such as:
- Physical, emotional, or sexual abuse
- Physical or emotional neglect
- Exposure to domestic violence
- Parental substance use or mental illness
- Incarceration of a household member
- Parental separation or divorce
The original ACE study showed a clear, dose–response relationship between the number of ACEs and increased risk for:
- Substance use disorders
- Depression, anxiety, and suicidality
- Chronic illnesses [heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune conditions]
- Risky behaviors
- Early mortality
These findings helped validate what many survivors already knew: early trauma lives in the body.
ACEs 2 expands the lens to include chronic stressors and harms that occur at the community and societal level, such as:
- Exposure to community violence
- Poverty and economic instability
- Racism, discrimination, and marginalization
- Unsafe housing or neighborhood conditions
- Lack of access to healthcare, education, and nutritious food
- Over-policing, criminalization, and systemic injustice
- Natural disasters and climate-related trauma
These experiences shape stress responses just as powerfully as family-level trauma—sometimes more so.
A child can grow up in a loving home and still experience profound trauma if their environment is unsafe, unstable, or exclusionary.
Why ACEs 2 Matters
ACEs 2 helps us understand that:
- Trauma is cumulative and contextual
- Communities can be traumatizing—or protective
- Many coping behaviors are rational responses to unsafe systems
This is especially relevant when discussing addiction, violence, and mental health challenges. Substance use, for example, often emerges at the intersection of childhood adversity and community-level stress.
ACEs, Addiction, and the Community Context
When we include ACEs 2, the question shifts from:
“Why do so many people struggle with addiction?”
to:
“What conditions are people trying to survive?”
Trauma-informed recovery requires more than individual treatment plans. It requires:
- Safe housing
- Economic opportunity
- Social connection
- Reduced stigma
- Policies that heal rather than punish
Without addressing community adversity, recovery efforts are forced to swim upstream.
From Trauma-Informed to Healing-Centered Communities
A healing-centered approach recognizes that preventing and repairing trauma requires collective responsibility.
This means investing in:
- Trauma-informed schools and workplaces
- Community-based peer support
- Safe spaces for truth-telling and connection
- Policies that reduce harm and increase equity
- Cultural practices that restore belonging
Healing does not happen in isolation.
It happens in relationships and in the community.
When we shift from asking “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened and what needs to change around you?”, we move closer to real prevention and real healing.
EmPowerMe Bermuda is a peer-led support community grounded in the understanding that healing happens in relationships, not isolation. Rooted in trauma-informed and healing-centered principles, EmPowerMe holds space for lived experience, mutual respect, and shared humanity. Visit our website www.empowermebda.com to find out more about our offerings.
- Michaele Parfitt-Smith, Founder EmPowerMe Bermuda
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