Dr Sarah Temple Email and Phone Number

We can choose to do things differently. The time has come to raise the bar and aim for greater reductions in preventable disparities in health and development, as well as larger benefits for more people across racial, ethnic, and income groups, whether they live in urban, small-town, or rural areas. The first step should always be to eliminate disparities at their source by reducing poverty, increasing opportunity, and protecting people from hardships and threats related to racism and other sources of significant adversity. But we know that there is significant variation within groups in terms of responses to interventions and that it’s no longer enough to look at average outcomes. We need to notice and engage with those people who are not responding to standard approaches and think differently.In our trauma- informed coaching approach we use evidence from Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University and The Alberta Family Wellness Initiative to explain the biology of stress using straight forward psycho-education tools such as The Resilience Scale. Persistent, high levels of stress during the prenatal phase and the first three years of life- in the absence of an adult care giver able to provide responsive emotion validating relationships – can lead to physiological changes at a molecular level that can impact lifelong emotional, mental and physical health. As well as changes to the way brain architecture is laid down, systems such as the immune system, hormonal system and genetic expression can be affected. One of the reasons that people can struggle to make healthy life style choices as an adult is that their experience of a toxic stress response (with chronic inflammation) early in life can has caused changes to the functionality of their stress response at a molecular level and led to them being more emotionally reactive. Understanding this science and learning ways to cope with these differences can lead to improved emotional literacy which in turn can lead to improved executive function. With improved executive function people are able to make healthier lifestyle choices and make changes that they previously struggled with. When health, care and education settings apply the principles of person-centredness and work together with families and communities (as well as with other services), they can play a crucial role in improving lifelong health and wellbeing.Sarah has experience devising outcome frameworks that enable change and led The Somerset Emotion Coaching Project funded by Somerset County Council between2014 and 2022.