This continuing education course examines contemporary research on the biological embedding of childhood adversity and trauma, with an emphasis on how early experiences shape brain development, nervous system functioning, and long-term patterns of stress responsivity. Participants will review evidence demonstrating how different forms of adversity—including threat, deprivation, and unpredictability—produce distinct neurobiological adaptations across developmental periods. The course reframes childhood adversity from a deficit-based model to an adaptation-focused framework, highlighting how trauma-related changes reflect survival-oriented responses rather than pathology. Attention is given to developmental timing, relative stability versus malleability of adaptations, and the clinical implications for therapeutic intervention, resilience, and trauma-related growth.
Learning Objectives:
Explain the concept of biological embedding and describe how childhood adversity is associated with enduring changes in brain development and nervous system functioning.
Differentiate the neurodevelopmental effects of major classes of childhood adversity—threat, deprivation, and unpredictability—and explain how timing of exposure influences the stability or malleability of resulting adaptations.
Apply an adaptation-focused clinical framework that reframes trauma-related responses as functional survival adaptations, supporting client resilience, self-regulation, and trauma-related growth rather than deficit-based pathology.
AASECT CKA:
B. Developmental sexuality (bio-psycho-social, lifespan) – Focuses on how early adversity shapes neurodevelopment, stress responsivity, and long-term functioning.
H. Health/medical factors that may influence sexuality including…sexual trauma… – Covers the neurobiological and trauma-related health impacts of childhood adversity.
J. Sexual exploitation including sexual abuse, sexual harassment and sexual assault – Addresses the effects of childhood trauma, abuse, and adversity on development and relational functioning.
AASECT ST:
A. Theory & methods of sex-related psychotherapy (models)