The Depths of Emotion: My Review of 'The Deepest Well'

I received this book as an early Christmas present. Being that I love reading anything that has to do with the brain, psychology, or therapy, I was very excited to read it. Something that was different about this book compared to other books I have read was that this wasn't written by a therapist, psychiatrist, psychologist, or someone who had lived the experience directly. Instead, it was written by a pediatrician who happened to make a lot of observations about her patients who have adverse childhood experiences. While I have knowledge of adverse childhood experiences and some of their effects, it was interesting to learn more about the medical side of it. For example, people who have adverse childhood experiences are far more likely to experience various physical health issues later on. There was also a lot of information on the functioning of the brain and stress hormones which I found to be very helpful. While some people may be disappointed to read the book if they were specifically looking for ways on how to heal the longterm effects of adverse childhood experiences, it would be very informative to those who are interested in learning about what may be considered and adverse childhood experience or how it may affect someone. I also found this book to be very inspiring as the author tells her story of how she first began to observe the effects of adverse childhood experiences and progressed in her career to help others understand adverse childhood experiences and make changes so that harm can be prevented or reduced. Being that I am going to school to become a clinical mental health counselor, I found it helpful to see what someone else was able to do to make a difference in the field of mental health, specifically in how it relates to physical health.

Likes and Dislikes

I really liked that this book used specific examples of the author's clients and what they were experiencing. It is always helpful to see how something may be observed and not just the textbook description. I also really liked that there was so much information on what the studies have found and what the effects of adverse childhood experiences can be on physical health. It is also nice that adverse childhood experience assessments were included in the back of the book. Something that I think could be improved is the title of the book as it can be misleading to those who do not work professionally with those who have adverse childhood experiences. For those who are looking specifically for how to heal adverse childhood experiences may be disappointed, however, those who are interested in learning to recognize the longterm effects and how to screen for them may find the book to be very helpful.

Conclusion

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. Though I felt that I had a pretty good understanding of adverse childhood experiences before, I feel like my knowledge has definitely been expanded on and I have been able to see it from a different perspective. By seeing the side of what professionals in the medical may come across and the knowledge they have, I can see how collaboration may be effective later on when I begin working as a counselor. Being that almost everyone experiences adverse childhood experiences or at least knows someone who has, I would higly recommend this book for everyone to read to gain a better understanding.

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