The "life-changing" story Oprah reports this week

a correspondent candid with Oprah Winfrey Oprah your story for 60 minutes this week is about childhood trauma mm-hmm and there's a lot of new science here about trauma-informed care for for anyone who's dealing with a traumatized child what can they learn from your story well I think that this story is going to it is my hope that our story on trauma-informed care will not just be impactful but will also be revolutionary it certainly has caused a revolution in my own life and I was struck by this story because it reminded me of my own childhood growing up in Milwaukee it's it's not lost on me the irony of being back in the same city Milwaukee where I grew up on welfare poor a lot of negative experiences sexual abuse and all of that what's the difference between a really bad childhood and being able to overcome that and a traumatic childhood and someone not being able to overcome that really it boils down to something pretty simple and the answer that dr. Bruce Perry gives you is relationships if you also have opportunities to be connected to people in positive ways that can buffer some of those effects and and as you get older I'd like to know more about that what he really means is love he's a scientist he's not gonna use the word love but it really is about how you are responded to valued trusted and loved by those around you so I didn't get it from the people who I felt I should have gotten it from it can be anybody who cares enough about you to ask the question what happened to you could you trace back in your mind it was that person who me I know exactly who did it I know exactly the moment I started to feel valued and for me it was school I wanted to be a fourth grade teacher because of mrs. Duncan and I haven't seen mrs. Duncan since then mrs. Duncan is here today the moment I felt the most value was in my fourth grade class when mrs. Duncan said to me I I was the one who was chosen to lead the class and whatever it was so what was I like I don't I don't really remember I do remember you that was nobody was such a fluent reader well if I had a class full of students like Oprah I would've been floating on the air mrs. Duncan instilled in me this sense of believing that I mattered and that is what every human being is looking for when you first heard that I had like done something in life where you did you know that it was me yes I kept up with you without your being aware of it and it was mrs. Duncan who helped heal you for me yes it was mrs. Duncan and then it was my my sixth grade teacher mr. Graham it was school that made me feel a sense of value and connection he learned a lot on this story oh I learned a lot on the story the story was life-changing for me life changing really life changing and people use that word rhetorically life changing it's changed the way I operate with in my business with my people with my school you say that the most important question to ask of people who have gone through trauma is not what's wrong with you but what happened to you yeah yeah so when you see you know a church being shot up or you see you know all of the headline-making stories of people seemingly gone mad your first thought is what happened to that person right right you know what has been life-changing for me is the question what happened to you not what is wrong with you but what happened to you which is an important question not just for people who have been so-called traumatized but it's the most important question you can ask of anyone I can say that of all the stories I've ever done in my life and all of the experiences I've ever had and people I've interviewed this story has had more impact on me than practically anything I've ever done it's changed the way you see everyone it's changed the way I see everyone so when I have an employee who is acting out of line or who is just being a jerk I don't think what's wrong with that guy what's wrong with that girl what's wrong with that but I think I wonder what happened to them I wonder what happened to them I wonder what happened that caused them to behave that way that's what this story did for me

Channel: 60 Minutes

Views: 298,206

Keywords: 60 Minutes, CBS News, Oprah Winfrey, Oprah, Childhood Trauma

Id: dF20FaQzYUI

Length: 5min 11sec (311 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 09 2018