As a new and honored guest writer/blogger with the CPTSD Foundation I am going to start this journey with a series of six-week short articles linking thoughts, experiences, reflections, and academia on the topic of CPTSD with a specific focus on children 0 – 4 years old.

The reasoning is personal, professional and academic. I am told it is rare to have all 3! Like an infant who suffered adversity between the ages of 1 to 4 years old when trying to achieve optimal brain development (a critical stage in a child’s brain development and attachments), the trauma and traumas acquired followed me throughout my childhood and into adulthood.

Unaware and completely oblivious to CPTSD as many are, the unacknowledged diagnosis took me to the brink of suicide (s), a survivor but also equally and importantly led to the development of insight, learning, character, and heart. A fighter who kept getting up and taking more and more (needlessly so if help had been available as a child). This took into my mid-late forties to understand its complexity and to start to ‘join the dots’ up of a secretively family history and traditional parenting approach. A journey back in time was required to approximately age 22 months old.

The title of the series ‘I Can’t Remember. But…’ speaks volumes given the age range I am discussing. Dissociation, Implicit and Explicit Memory all become relevant. The ‘Before and After’ slogan, represents 0-3 years (the before, implicit memory, dissociation, no recollection) with the ‘after’ being fragile, vaguely and hazy remembered explicit memories from age 4 onwards, into adolescent then adulthood. The older the clearer, accurate and evidential.

The series will succinctly explore and analyze key areas as follows:

Part 1. The importance of optimal brain development in the ‘first thousand days’ of childhood and the consequences of trauma – ‘Like a Bat out of Hell’
Part 2. The effect on the brain, memory, sleep and the body’s role in trauma during childhood – ‘The Shadow’.
Part 3. What a child requires to limit and heal from trauma in childhood – ‘A Fence around the Cliff, not an Ambulance in the Valley’
Part 4. What is this all about? Adulthood and the Ambulance in the Valley – ‘a Game of Cluedo’
Part 5. The Adverse Childhood Experience Study (ACE’s) – ‘In or out, do I fit or not?’
Part 6. Bringing it all Together – ‘The Good, Bad and the Ugly’.

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Martin Dearlove

Martin Dearlove, age 48 years old is a husband of an amazing wife Marie and father of two beautiful and extraordinary daughters. He and his family immigrated to Western Australia in 2015 from the United Kingdom which was his birthplace in the North of England.
Martin qualified as a professional social worker in 2006. After qualification, Martin practised front line child protection and family support with periods acting in a practitioner, managerial/leadership, consultancy and trustee director roles in the United Kingdom and subsequently Australia. Prior to 2006, Martin worked in the Health and Social Care Sector in various fields, roles with varying groups of clients and in different workplace settings. Martin has worked passionately for 26 years in the Health and Social Sector. This includes the Not for Profit and Government Departments and Organisations.
Martin has continued to learn to complete further Post Qualifying Qualifications in Social Work, Health and Social Care and Leadership after 2006. In 2020 Martin has returned to formal studies as part of a planned career break which will focus on the emerging and developing fields of Neuroscience and Epigenetics. He is at the start of a Master of Science Degree in Applied Neuroscience at the famous Kings College in London. This is the second-largest Psychiatric and Neuroscience Research Department in the World and the biggest in Europe. Alongside his studies, Martin volunteers by writing and contributing his knowledge, ideas and skills to organisations such as The Higher Education Digest, IdeaSpies and the CPTSD Foundation in the United States. Martin hopes such roles will help educate people and agencies on various topics in child welfare as well as being a vital part of much-needed innovation and change.
Martin holds a strong passion for helping children and his vision is to limit the long-term effects of childhood trauma globally. Bringing together the much-needed specialisms for individual specialist needs in child welfare is what he aims to achieve. Martin’s favourite quote is as follows:
“It’s impossible said pride.
“It’s risky said experience.
“It’s pointless said reason.
“Give it a try, “whispered the heart.
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