Be VicTORIEus Ep. 92

Book Launch and ACEs Introduction 0:00

Hey, you guys, it's me, Dr. Tori. My book is officially out. And yes, It is time to talk about ACEs. You guys can find the books everywhere. However, I would encourage you, guys to go to my website, bevictorious.com and place your order today. Yes. It's time. To talk. About ACE's. Let's go, y'all. All right. Hello? Hello. Hello, you guys. Welcome back to another episode of Be Victorious. Now let me share. I love running into people that talk about ACEs and you all know that Dr. Gina is all that in a bag of chips, I swear, not the four for a dollar.

She is. All of that. You guys, a physical therapist talking about ACES, She's a psycho breaker. I can go on and on, but to have someone here on this podcast that cannot just talk about aces, her just being a physical therapist. When I tell you she specializes in physio, inner genetic therapy, It's a new holistic approach that bridges physical movement, energy pathways, and emotional well-being. I tell you guys, I believe when we connected on social media, it was because of this. Because she understands that trauma does not live in our memories.

It lives in her bodies. And through her unique lens, she helps individuals release patterns of pain, stress, or store trauma that can often be traced back to guess what? adverse childhood experiences. So if you all want to know why I am so excited, you will find out. You all know that the mind, the body, and the energy alignment needed for true healing is needed, for those with ACEs, especially us with an ACE score.

Dr. Ginau2019s PT Journey Into Trauma and ACEs 2:00

And you-all, I cannot wait for this conversation. Dr. Gina, where are you? I have been fanning this this cycle breaker episode has brought so much value, because we're educators, we are educating, We are doing what we were doing to get this awareness out here. So for you to be here, thank you so Thank you. I'm so glad I found you, it was Kismet, I know. Somebody else is doing this? I felt like I've been on a lonely island for a long time in my little mini research lab as a physical therapist and no one understood what I was doing.

And I didn't even really understand what was I doing until I did. Exactly. Someone told me, you know what, write a book. Because if you write book, that'll help. That's what it is for me. But you're a physical therapist, I will tell you I need you right now because that's what made me interested in ACEs. I developed shingles when I was 37. And my doctor said, you know, we can't do anything about it. And I didn't realize until after I started understanding and educating myself on ACEs. Why? Because it's stored in our body.

It is. Yeah. You know traditionally in medicine shingles will just represent stress. That's under the stress umbrella. And, you know, take this medication, it'll go away and that's it but then it pops up in other ways right that stress and. That's kind of how I started as a PT it was, um, You know I, I was really interested always and talking to people and listening to their stories and chronic pain seemed to be what was the people that were coming to me. Just over and over, and that's kind of how they were walking through the door.

And it was just this one day, it happened to a young man and he had shoulder pain and I asked him, like, when did your pain start? And he's like well when my dad died. It was like this different echo that I heard that day and I was like, could you store grief in the shoulder and could that cause shoulder pain? So I just started researching the emotional map of the body and what energy was and started. Just one patient after another, I started listening to their stories and mapping it out in their body, which is kind of exactly what this is.

I see it. I created that. Yeah, yeah, and I kind of just started following the map and i'm like, okay, And then it was like a timeline and, I'm, like okay this happened in their life and then this Happened and this pain popped up and Then this disease popped, up, then wait a second, wait A second wait, a, second i just did that for so many years and It wasn't until all of a sudden i heard Adverse childhood experiences i mean like what's that and it, was dr. Nadine Burke harris and And then her book came out and I fangirled that and ran to LA.

I'm in California. And so Los Angeles is like 30 minutes away. So I went there and sat in the audience and could not wait to talk to her. and she had, you know, her business, she collaborated with Kaiser Permanente, and so I had this dream of collaborating with a big insurance company and figure out like how can we do this. It was a dream, right? And I'm like, okay. And i said, hey, I have, i waited in this long line. and I said I, have a question for you. When you collaborated with Kaiser, did you have physical medicine and physical rehabilitation?

And she goes, no, we didn't. It got too complicated. You should do it. And I was like, oh, OK. Huh. All right. That was 2018. PT ACEs, PT ACEs. How do we do this? How did we this?" And then everybody started coming through with all the outcomes, the pain, addiction, different disorders and diseases that are associated with ACE's. And I'm like, here it is. Yep. That's the reason why as the educator, I am trying to put the acronym and the words out there so people can have a name for it. Yeah, it's been out there.

So our commonality as I see is Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, because I will tell you she woke me all the way up it was that red dress and that Ted talk I was like, this is what I've been going through all of my life. I'm a first generation high school graduate, and I tell my parents story.

ACE Scores, Adoption, and Expanding the Framework 7:00

However, it woke me all the way up. My dissertation coach said, listen, I know you want to talk about something, but if you're going to about talk something you can be an expert in. Here we are. You know, my parents did not go to college and I felt like I'm that first generation to go college. They were so proud. Just what it took to get there and the like, I looked back and like my grade point average wasn't really even that great in high school. I was struggling but I working so hard to like get where I going and then to go to PT school was like these crazy intense like anatomy and physiology and organic chemistry and all this stuff that my brain just i was struggling but made it through i'm like whoa and then this fascination came with emotions and energy and that was like clicking that that just I got the fact that you are one of a kind Thank you for saying that because you have no idea for two decades.

I had PTs, like when I started my business and I have a PT and she called me out and made me feel so bad. And I thought, you know, she was like, what are you doing? And it was the classical woo, just dismissing it and giving giving lectures and different things and just people looking at me straight faced and I have been in so many rooms for so years where I was like, I don't really think people are catching what I'm throwing. And I just kept going back and kept just going so to be on this side finally, like I've just presented to the American Physical Therapy Association.

Okay, so hold on, because that's exciting. clap your clap like this is a big deal which means there are more people that are aces aware now they know about it they want to learn about they're going to come to you because you are the expert trust me i've done my worst research here the one yeah i'm you don't understand how honored I am. I don't hide my love. Let me, if you post, I like. If you send, i love if. You put something out there I share because that's how I felt when I first got in this.

But I Don't know if, you know, Be Victoria's Foundation is all that in a bag of chips because, that community has grown tremendously. My book has only been out a year and when i tell you people are buying it by the bulk Yes, yes. I've had different people reach out and connect in, you know, different states and that are definitely more smaller than, obviously, Southern California and I'm like, I'll go there, like I will talk to whoever will listen. I mean, I am like in Southern California, and it's been difficult in certain ways, but I always had an audience.

But now in the physical therapy world, it didn't make sense, But it is making sense now. I'm like, you guys, we have all the modalities. This is what we do. We can build this with insurance. It's just the way we frame it. And what I learned in talking to This group of physical therapists where we had a think tank and it was great because I was proposing questions with us as PTs. What can we do with ACEs and how can We present this and here's what I took away from it. Um, you know, as a practitioner and a human being, it's really difficult for them to have conversations personally about bringing this up in the room with a patient and talking about the hard things.

And, um, what I reassured them is, is that most of these patients, they already know what their stuff is. They already knew they've, a lot of them have gone to therapy or now, I mean, can really learn so much about yourself. on your own. And then you can help them put that together and then connect it to their body. I swear that's the magic. It is. What I've been doing is connecting with doctors, connecting study, because it's not an assessment tool. I think people think that ACE's score is the score, and it is really an Assessment Not.

It really is just to say, hey, this is here, these are these questions, what's your score? So that's why I let people know, do not let your ACE score define you. Because there are questions and if you look at it again, I'm a researcher, The original questions was 50 plus questions, but the 10 questions are just 10. There are all those questions combined into one, so even if you see one of those, you're going to say, well, I answered no to this one. So I'm going answer no, and I don't have an ACEs score.

We all have a score, we all score now. Have you taken the study? I have. Yes, I'm a four. Ha! I am a five. I just found out the other day, not being funny but to be totally honest, we have people out here dissecting this and I love to see it. I did not answer correctly because two of the questions were like, well, no, we'll know when now I didn't know that that actually consists into spiritual trauma is emotional. You know what I mean? So it's like, yeah, there's more to learn with that, which I could actually even learn from that as well.

Because, I just give the test to somebody, so I see where it is coming back. It's an assessment. I have therapists that have told me. tell me, well, hey, let's add this question. So I was grateful in 2023 when they added what was needed, and I'm going to say what is needed because when I did my dissertation, these were the things that I recommended like systemic racism, bullying, mass shootings, community violence, those things needed to be added a long time ago. And so I think that's what I love.

It's, it's me. Has that conversation because we can still talk about the 10 questions all day. But look at our society right now and what we're going through right. Now, I have had a lot of people come to me, um, uh, did 25. I say I did twenty five years in Chicago and look it was Chicago's going to right? Now. So people are like, well, It is not under the ace's umbrella. It was not aces. And I'm like no, no. It would make sense. Where does adoption fall in? Good question. Because I just recently had a client with a lot of pretty severe mental health stuff going on.

I'm telling the perfect lady that once it added, and I was telling her it would be placed under either household dysfunction or other adversities. It's a huge topic right now. Adoption is for sure. Yes, because I think, you know, we're seeing. I just, I always look at like the current events in my office like what is here right now, and things shifted after 2020. There's always like a hot topic every month like, what's coming in what younger the younger generation is saying. And the topic of adoption was was just I never worked with it in the way that I just recently worked within and I'm fascinated it this particular case

How ACEs Show Up in the Body 15:00

did fall into almost all of the aces practically but. It's definitely something to look at because you can hold a lifetime of trauma in in utero because I have to ask the in-utero questions. Do you know anything about your birth? Or when was it? When were you adopted? All the questions because then it makes sense the way the body is presenting itself the ways it is. Exactly. I posted with, I'm working with a group of ladies, they are heavy on it, it was actually someone. This podcast is an educational tool.

It's been used worldwide as an education tool, so I am humbled. Not just because you're here because these gems that we've dropped already are needed. Now, one of the young ladies, I want to say episode, and I'll get in particular because I always identify people by their episode. But it's an episode and she talks and goes all the way deep in, in regards to adding it either to ACEs or bringing awareness to adoption. We had a huge talk here recently, she put it on my page and adoption as an average childhood experiences.

I wanna say it got 400 or 500 likes. So that needs to be definitely added, considered. I call it ACEs inclusion in ACE 2.0 because here it is, that was in 1998, it's 2025. So many other things really need to added under the umbrella. That was actually a good question. Appreciate that. Now, let's dive in. How do you see, because you talked about one of your patients, ACE is showing up in the body. You know, I'll start with abuse. That is definitely the one that stuck out the most, particularly sexual abuse and physical abuse because that body boundary and the way it leaves an imprint in the body.

Physically, I had a patient, a young woman come in with neck pain. And it was pretty severe. Most of the people that had come to me had been everywhere, tried everything, acupuncture, all the things. Then I asked all of questions. Her father was in war, suffered from war trauma. She was the one out of mom and sister that used her voice and pushed back and that was dangerous. She sustained physical abuse and trauma from that. It really carried in her whole entire spine. As a physical therapist, and now I know this information, it's really more about her knowing and bringing up this truth and pain so it can all surface together and be released.

and that's when you know story after story like that they would come in and they're like I feel better like you do oh okay oh next patient and then it's like You know, why would somebody have so much pelvic pain, back pain just full body pain and with autoimmune disease and so many other things. So, you know as we know the issues are in the tissues and the more that I got into these tissues, the memories that were coming up and they would share more and more life experiences. And then they share all of a sudden it would pop into their mind that they remember a time where they were like in a room couldn't escape all of it and it was like there was the body pain and its surfaced and there's the fear you know there is where the couldn t complete that defense mechanism that they needed like hey you know push away they were too young too scared whatever it was and it needed to be completed so first the body is in safety so i create that safe space that is my number one my voice the way i ask you no i'm you nothing's a surprise like you we don't start with body work right away if that's what it is and so when you can complete that process and then bring that safety to them, and then they're trusting themselves, they are trusting their body.

And then I work it, this is where my Pilates background comes in, in the core training, then now all of a sudden, I have them breathing into their belly, breathing in to their strength, so now I'm connecting the cord muscles, we're curling up and they shaking, all the body, the bodies like, hold it there, want you to hold, why am I shaking? That's your power. That's where your power is. And so then with that, I'll have them say like, one, two, as they're finding that core, because now they are using the vocal cords.

Now they've strumming that vagus nerve and then I will turn it into like a ha, like ha ha breath and we'll get stronger with it. Then I bring them up to standing and I have a pole and like we're lunging towards one another. I'm like okay I am going to push you a little bit and so I gotta push them and am like I need you to back. and so I want you to meet me with your strength." And so then that's the physical therapy part, but right? That's what we learn as PT. So I'm like, you guys, we're already doing this stuff.

I just need you do this other part. And I've always just felt like a body detective and like this investigator, and I like open the case and i'm, like what's going on here in this body? And that's just kind of how it's come about. And with abuse and then with neglect and household dysfunction, it depends on the personality. It's a lot of words that are thrown at you. from our parents or what they hear. If there's domestic violence, it's hearing, seeing. So I have to work with the senses. And if there is a highly sensitive child, They're taking it all in.

Personality develops. Sometimes it depends who they are. Are they extroverted or introverted? So how are they going to react to that? If they're more introvert, they'll take it on more as their fault. This comes into postural stuff now. Some of them have poor posture. They look sad. Don't have a lot of energy. Won't do anything. Or we have the flip, which is like... Now they have behavioral issues. You know, you can't control them and they're out of control. And I mean, that's very general, but that just kind of two ways that I typically see it if I'm seeing a child with behavioral issues.

But yeah, and then I like, what's your body feeling? They almost always have pain. Almost always. Oh, are you saying that chronic pain can be more of a travel response instead of physical therapy or physical injuries? Yeah. I mean, it's a conglomeration of emotional pain that presents itself physically. Like, sure, if you're running and you are playing flag football and your foot goes in a ditch and like, ah, I pulled my hamstring and we go, we stretch it, put ice, do the things, give it a little rest and boom, you on your way.

You're good. Right. This has been there and it's back pain and It won't go away and you try everything and You're doing all the things and we're not getting the response if we are trying to treat it and were not Getting a response. We have to do something different. It's almost always emotional at that point. Exactly. My God, you all stop and pause. Drop these gems, Dr. Gina, because these are the questions that people want.

Healing Through Movement, Safety, and Core Work 23:00

Everyone always asks me next steps, and it's really hard to answer that question because, again, I stick with the education. I'm here to bring awareness to ACEs. Again, it is not out there. People are not in conversation. but here it is we're having this conversation and you're doing this work that's so needed yes my goal next year it's you know i've always thought thought of it as art and science because it so like in so many years people have asked me i had students i live across the street from um long beach state and There's a physical therapy department there and I've I have gone to several physical Therapy departments to be like, hey, I want to teach what I do and you know, they're like maybe we can fit you in complex trauma.

I'm like okay, put me there. That's fine. Like wherever just put Me somewhere, but I I'm putting together this framework on how do I teach this? I am so curious and there's so much. And I think I ready now because there is such a shift since 2020 in the mental health and how it's showing up in body that I finally like, all right, I can put this together. I know you can teach a class. ACES 101 is the thing for me because again, I'm introducing ACEs to everyone, but next steps would be a class because you're going to answer the questions that people have been having for years.

I will tell you now, there are people that... I just had a young lady that worked with the original ACes study and she's like, listen, I have issues. I had ACES. What do we do at 60? I'm trying to prevent our age, the generation below us and the generations below, us not to go through and go, through the experiences we've went through. That's my goal. My personal goal because I don't hide it. Right. We can do something about it, It is. And as you say, having this conversation is exactly what I found myself saying to a group of physical therapists where I'm like, you're right in the trauma lines.

Like you are right there. There's pelvic floor physical therapist. I am like you know that you were dealing with a lot of trauma, right? And there was a younger generation that came in and they showed up at my think tank and I was like here we go. This is it. They are listening. They want this information. And it's necessary. It's wild to be in this in real time. Where it is like, where do I go? How do i find, how come I never knew about you before? I'm like it wasn't there. Exactly. We're just putting this together right now.

That's it. And we're creating a community of people that not just know about ACES, we are doing something about it! I tell people all the time. I'm so happy, I cannot wait to pull you in this community because you don't understand. It is a Community of Us. Yes, I'll tell you what's really, really amazing. We have a cool meeting tomorrow about building a motor skills lab. So again, in the PT realm, when my children are in high school about to graduate and when they were in kindergarten and first grade, I read up on the Waldorf philosophy and they were big about moving the body and crossing midline, which connects the hemispheres of the brain.

So I took my son's kindergarten class and I had them skip, lay on a mat, roll up, Can they do a single leg stance for how long? Can the jump rope? Basic things that some kids, first grade's a little bit better at it. We kind of figured out first grades more of our target where we wanna be, but I found three kids. And I was like, all right, teacher, these are the three that are struggling with strength, coordination, and balance. She goes, get out of here. They're the ones actually having the issues with reading or writing letters, sounding out, writing their letters for their name.

And so we followed them and worked with them all year and got them strengthened through hula hooping and skipping and all the things. We'd go there once a week. And it was the first year out of 40 years, she was retiring that year, that she passed everybody on to first grade. So we did it with my daughter's class and did again. All these years later, my kids are in high school, we are finally putting together a motor skills lab for a large company that I believe when these kids have sustained any kind of trauma in utero, or when their mother is going through postpartum, all of her generational wounds have opened up, and in this place of maybe there's disconnection, maybe um storms happening in the house that this child can still stay focused in their body they can Still learn to read because there's so much research with motor skills and reading because once we get past third grade it makes it really difficult so that's what this was for and i'm like finally the doors are opening this this executive director's like come on in i'M like yes because this is where we can prevent it and prevent the ACEs.

There's certain things that happen, but we can prevent so much more pain. Yep, we care. I'm heavy into extracurricular activity. So that would be the jump rope that you talk about. Any play activity, that is what I am heavy on because I've seen it work. We're talking about the students who used to come in my classroom and share the issues that they have. And again, I can't do anything. I'm not even their teacher. However, see it as a cry for help. See it, as someone that really wants to learn more.

So I'll ask this question. In your experience, what breakthroughs have you seen when clients begin connecting the physical symptoms to their emotional history?

Motor Skills, Schools, and Prevention 29:30

I had a young man during the pandemic come in with suicide ideation and it was one of the first young 14 year olds that I'd ever worked with that was so young and so difficult to work with him. But we felt close, I knew the family, so as we connected the emotional to the physical, this young joined a sports team, found his friends, just graduated high school and into his first year of college. His family was so, so grateful. It was really difficult asking a 14-year-old why you don't want to be in your body anymore, which was the creative way of how it came out that day, and so I use that all the time.

I'm like, why don' you want be your in body any more? And so he said, that's a really difficult question to answer. And I'm like, it's actually a real difficult to ask you. It was the first time I was there. Again, this is having the conversation that I didn't really want to asked this young man this question, but we did. But look at that transformation. I really think that what they want is this space. That's what gives them the place to heal. And then wonderful things happen, major transformation.

Of course, with a chronic pain, it's typically like they get their life back, their, life opens up, they're more expansive. They find their dreams. they find what they really intended to be here for and what their good at. And that's a lovely thing to witness. I think you are all of that. When I tell you you're answering the questions that people are asking, like, I've always advocated for extracurricular activity. The fact that they took it out of schools. Yes, I went to. They put, our old house, we were by our local elementary school that our kids went to and things were happening, crime, whatever, but they put a fence around the elementary so that the kids, my kids we would go there on the weekends and we'd play on monkey bars and do all the things.

We played baseball, they rode bikes because it was just a large area to play in. And I went to the city council meeting and I talked all about brain core. I Talked about aces I talk about trauma and they were like, okay next next, next and when I was done they kind of like said their thank you at the end of the night and They're like this one guy's like excuse me. Like who is that one that talked about the body and trauma? I like that's me That's Me and you need to take that gate down like take it down.

These kids need To move it's very important. It's still up. But whatever I But again, there's power. Do it because I'm telling you now, you go into schools, I go in to schools. I just went into a school and I will share the two days that I was there, the impact that made in two day, some people not too happy. Because again, I think it's that awareness of ACES. I ask the students because they know that I'm a podcast host. They didn't realize that.I was there to talk about ACEs.They thought I was a substitute teacher and I loved it because that opened up for them to have me to create that safe space and for when I didn't know me at all.

And everything that I got out of those kids was amazing. They want to play, they want learn, They wanted to do those things. The basketball players, again, two days came to see me speak at five o'clock after practice. It was humbling because they don't me me all and for them to show up, we're talking about a group of basketball player that after basketball practice, you know how that goes. But when I asked them, they wanted to show their support because they felt like somebody was there to support them.

Sometimes that's all people need. That's, all the students need sometimes is to, for people to know that there's somebody there, to listen. Right. I have a lot of my friends who teach high school classes and they'll ask me to come and guest speak and I'll always go, I'm like, alright, and show up. And sometimes I don't, but you, know, um, same things. So I can't read their faces. And I've had a young man, he raises his hand and I'm like, what's he gonna say? And he goes, are you taking any interns?

I was like wow. Okay, I actually grabbed one too while I there. I have a younger lady and have to shout her out. Her mom sent her a text and said, do you know about ACEs? Because the mom didn't. And the daughter said adverse childhood experiences? Who is she and where can I find her? She said we're doing a training right now. She is getting her doctor degree in clinical psychology. Fantastic. These kids are going to learn about this. They're going know about coming in. I love being on this side of it.

And I know that part of my legacy is leaving the treatment methods of healing adverse childhood experiences in the body. Absolutely. So before we leave, because I really want to do this again, I think we have to have this conversation.

Breakthroughs, Advice, and Where to Find Dr. Gina 35:00

I've met my match. What message do you want share with someone, anyone who feels stuck in their body or their healing journey? Someone who will feel stuck. Um, Someone who feels stuck. I want you to take the time and grab a piece of paper, and I and put a line down the center and it's life experiences on the left side. And then how your body responded on right side, like I've had back pain since I was 14. I fell off a horse when I six or I fractured my ankle when was 13. What was going on in your house at the time?

What is going in life at time and you really start to make these connections. and it starts to give you information and then you can journal about that particular incident. Pick one and just journal know just free flow what comes up and start to make some connections and your body will start. To respond because then what I see is when we make those connections The body shows up and then a lot of times people have been trying to do the things, the physical things. And when they make those connections, those physical treatments or modalities or whatever kind of self-care you were doing starts to work.

Right. That's what I would say. Be gentle with yourself. Yes, you guys, we want her back. Let's say it, let's put it out there right now. The gems that you dropped, oh my God, please tell people where they can find you, because I don't want to end. We have to continue to have this conversation. We had to, we had, to we have too. So I'm going to ask you, because I know that this we talked about so much, not just about the, We didn't even get into the the energy. I Know there's so Much. There we, have To talk about The energy parts of it.

we Had to talk About this first though. Cause then I'll bring you into the energy because this is what has happened here recently. Our cycle breaker series. Cause you are a true cycle. Breaker has been so energetic. What I'm going to let the listeners know is that you'll be back. We have to do this again. Where can people find you? You can find me at drjinacalderon.com. Calderón has an E at the end and I'm active on Instagram. I'll always drop in some information there. You might see my kids, but that's okay.

i'm really proud of them because they they've taught me a lot about the body. So having kids has taught a me lot. so I am proud them and their athletic abilities. kind of help make those connections in their own lives and how that's showing up. Again, those extracurriculars, but I'm there. I have a retreat going on in Joshua Tree, which I've had a lot of kids in the last few years that have had really rough time in transitional adulthood from 18 to 25. So I am taking a group out to Joshua tree next month.

If you're interested in that, that is on the website. For you guys, another episode. Let's be clear. She's going to be back. So let me just go ahead and say goodbye for now. But you, guys will see us very, very soon. Goodbye. You guys have a good one. Thank you.