Episode 272: Openness, Compassion & Authenticity with Julia Rose M. Polk, M.A. LMFT

If you’ve been listening to the podcast recently, then you might know that about a month ago I left my full-time job at the county here in California to pursue work full-time with The Trauma Therapist Project, The Trauma Therapist | Podcast and Trauma Therapist | 2.0.

I was working at the county for the last 5 years and was there as a Mental Health Clinical Specialist, under a licensed supervisor, and assessing and treating young people between the ages of 12 and 25 who were showing early signs of psychosis.

As you can guess there was a lot of trauma with these young individuals.

I Loved the job.

I Loved working with the kids.

However, I knew I needed to do something else and something different.

It took me several months to get up the nerve to leave, and then I finally did.

Was I more than a bit scared? Definitely.

Did I spend a lot of time wondering whether I’d lost my marbles? Yep.

But I was so, so ready.

And now I’m loving every second of it.

Even though there are days when I feel like I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.

Why do I love this work?

Because I get to speak with incredible people like my guest today. Julia Rose M. Polk.

And I’m not kidding.

You know when you meet someone, or you’re talking to someone, and what they’re saying is just so open and honest and real, and you can sense their authenticity?

That’s what it was like when I was talking with Julia.

I loved talking to her so much, I’ve already had her back for her second episode. (That one will go live in a few weeks!)

For over a decade, Julia Rose has been studying specifically the impacts of early childhood trauma on adult mental health and behavior, some of this research culminating into her master’s thesis entitled: The Effects of Spanking On Mental Health, and Why Clinicians Need to Know (2016).

In her work with clients over the years, she has consistently found that at the root of depression, anxiety, addiction, compulsion, and a range of other mental health issues is a childhood which involved one or more traumatic incidents that have yet to be acknowledged, expressed or resolved. Tremendous shifts occur when this is done, as it allows these wounds to begin to heal.

Julia Rose is an Adjunct Professor of Psychology at the University of the West, and is Founder and President of Trauma Camp, a professional development and consultation company that trains educators about trauma-informed and relationship-based approaches in the classroom.

She is also certified by the International Association of Trauma Professionals as a Youth Trauma Treatment Professional, and has begun training from the ChildTrauma Academy’s Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics.

Importantly, Julia Rose has also spent half her life addressing, treating, reducing and resolving the impact of her own early childhood trauma--experience which serves as her foundational knowledge on this topic.