1) Introduction about your self.
Carla A. Carlisle is TEDx speaker, author, trauma expert and child advocate. A proud boy mom, she has dedicated her life to informing the world about the impact of trauma and how we can excel beyond it.
2) about your profession and how you are involved in this profession
Carla’s organization is Carla A Carlisle LLC. She found her calling after becoming a foster parent and now adoptive parent to her son, JC. Through the six-year journey to adopt JC,
Carla saw the direct impact of trauma and intergenerational trauma on her child and herself. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) impact children into adulthood without social buffering. ACEs increases a person’s likelihood of trying to die by suicide by as much as 1200%, I almost lost my child at the tender age of 6, and consistent exposure to his family’s intergenerational trauma impacted my own mental and physical well-being. Trauma and mental health are as important as physical health, without advocacy and support, the impact can be devastating to the individual and society. Carla not only wanted better for her own son, but for all people who are traumatized or dealing with toxic stress.
Carla’s workshops:
Workshops
From Tolerance to Advocacy: How Being Trauma Informed Changes Lives
Are you an educator, administrator, or work with kids and witness “bad behavior?” Join trauma expert and child advocate, Carla Carlisle, to learn how to stop just tolerating the child in your life who experienced trauma, but to really accept, understand, and advocate for them. Leave the workshop with the tools you need to deescalate crises, build bonds and create a safe environment for the child and you. Attendees will have the skills and tools to better prepare for crisis intervention and ultimately crisis prevention.
Supporting a Child with Trauma: The Resource Parents’ Blueprint
Is there a child you love that needs help? So many of us are faced with caring for a child without really understanding what to do. In many situations, we don’t know the details of the child’s trauma, but we see its impact. Join trauma expert and child advocate, Carla Carlisle, to build the blueprint to create a strong support system for the child you love. You’ll learn the ten resources you didn’t know were available to provide financial, legal and mental health support for your child.
Care for Caregivers: The 4-Step Method
Do you interact with children and find yourself exhausted by the end of the day? If you live on hypervigilance for too long you will inevitably run on empty. Join trauma expert and child advocate Carla Carlisle, to learn her 4-step BEST method for self-care as a caregiver to arm you with the support, incentives and tools you need to fill up your emotional tank.
3) about your achievements
Carla gave her TEDx Talk entitled Becoming Trauma Informed Changed My Life to share two important things: 1) the connection of mental health (especially ACEs) and physical health and 2) the importance of everyone taking ownership by helping/advocating for those who didn’t have support as a child and their children. She isn’t asking anyone to be a superhero, just to become a loving advocate to a child or children in need. See more at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT7aiDiAI84&t=16s
Carla and her 11-year-old son JC penned “My Big Notebook: It’s About Me with a Little Help from My Friend JC”. My Big Notebook is the first of its kind; a fun, private, guided way for elementary school-aged children to express their own thoughts, feelings, and experiences as an ongoing form of self-expression while coping with life and daily stressors. JC is your child’s buddy in a composition-style book. My Big Notebook includes evidence-based coping mechanisms packaged into fun journaling and coloring pages along with meaningful stories from JC’s life.
Carla penned “Journey to the Son” to share the often perilous journey many children face when the trauma of their parents is unresolved. She pours her heart out to the reader about her battles with infertility, a failed marriage, becoming a foster parent and then losing the child to the foster care system. She went on to try to help the birth parents and ended up becoming a victim of trauma herself. Yes, she risked it all for the son of her heart. Learn more at
Carla was a key contributor to Change, Creativity, Curiosity and Hope in a Crisis Called Pandemic: Uncertainty, Fear, Perspective and Prayer, which is a great bedside book to read through during those times of isolation at home during the pandemic. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1977232426/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_8ATB8FFTXZPK5DH7JSA4?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Awards:
2022 Career Mastered Women’s Leadership in Action Award for outstanding leadership, iconic global presence and inspiring business know how. To be awarded 3/22.
2020 Mental Health America of the Central Carolinas (MHA) Advocacy Award
2020 Mecklenburg County’s Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Team Member of the year award based on her outreach and dedication to the community and law enforcement, showing by her own journey the importance of deescalating someone in a mental health crisis.
Service:
In the United States, she serves on the board of the Alexander Children’s Foundation, Member and Social Media Subcommittee Lead for Carolina Violence Prevention Collaborative (CVPC), Stakeholder Advisory Counsel for PCORI (Partners in Care for Suicide Prevention), Policy & Advocacy Committee at MHA of Central Carolinas (US), and volunteers with NAMI Charlotte (North Carolina, US).
5) long-term and short-term goal
Carla’s short-term goal is to share aspects of her journey to motherhood and the impact of trauma on children to national and international audiences, which would include book sales of Journey to the Son and My Big Notebook.
Longer term, Carla wants to get My Big Notebook translated and provided to children in foster care and orphanages across the world. She sees herself speaking on international stages giving workshops and keynote speeches to share hope for our children who endure so much.
8) about family
Carla was born in the United States in a small town called Kokomo, Indiana. She attended Indiana University undergraduate school where she became a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Carla moved to Washington, DC and worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), the United States Senate and consulted to multiple government agencies while obtaining a Master of Science (M.S.) degree in human resources management from American University and another in organizational development from Johns Hopkins University. Carla obtained a graduate certificate in change management from Johns Hopkins University.
Her biggest accomplishment has been becoming a mom. She is a proud boy mom and dog lover. Her home is always busy. Her sons have started following in her footsteps by sharing the importance of mental health in the community. She loves writing, social media and traveling with her kids, friends, and family.
9) conclusion
Through a life changing experience, Carla became a symbol of hope and resilience for those adversely impacted by trauma and toxic stress. Her mission is to bring awareness to the impact of trauma so those in a position to help, will. Helping children and their families will make the world better for us all.
10) something want to tell to people.
Experiencing trauma as a child is devastating and can bring about developmental delays and much worse, but there is hope! It takes just one loving advocate to positively change the trajectory of a child’s life.