Wheeling to Healing...Broken Heart on a Bicycle: Understanding and Healing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

A native of Boliva, James Encinas twice crossed the United States--Los Angeles to New Jersey--on a bicycle. The first trip, during his mid-twenties, was done in hurt and fueled by anger. The second, at age 55, was done in the pursuit of healing himself and others. Having experienced domestic abuse, bullying and discrimination as a child, memories of trauma limited Encinas's freedom in significant ways. When he learned how Adverse Childhood Experiences (www.acestoohigh.com) impact adult health, his path towards healing began, and it widens daily. During the second cross country bike ride, Encinas collected stories of other experiencers of trauma and healing, dispensed information about human resilience and shared his deep belief in the power all people have to engage with and be enlightened by the process of healing.

The book Wheeling to Healing...Broken Heart on a Bicycle: Understanding and Healing from Adverse Childhood Experiences takes readers to places where hurt originates and then into landscapes that offer larger views and inspire movement toward relief from trauma at a deep level. It educates people about the science of trauma, and encourages them to use a wide variety of methods that can open an individual and unique process of healing.

James Encinas uses his life and experiences to care, inspire and promote relief from the effects of traumatic memories. When healing is embraced, life becomes more joyful.

James Encinas, a former actor and grade school teacher, is a parent education specialist, teacher trainer, public speaker and author. He wrote Wheeling to Healing...Broken Heart on a Bicycle: Understanding and Healing from Adverse Childhood Experiences to illustrate that healing from Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) is possible when the heart is open and the mind is willing to embrace healthy ways to maintain peace, honor and respect for self and others. Children and adults reflect the reality in which they were raised. To avoid the shame, anxiety and uncertainty created by ACEs, people learn to armor up and shut down which traps them in unhealthy and even dangerous patterns. The workshopss James teaches use a variety of tools and exercises (e.g. breath work, coordinated body movements, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), acupressure, meditation) to open individuals up to their pure, undamaged souls and give teachers new ways to reach into the minds and hearts of students. Clear communication, combined with active listening, is key for healing to begin and healthy relationships to be maintained. Safe environments, especially in healing communities, allow members to recognize who they are, what they can become, and grasp the idea of a spiritual force greater than the self and its interconnection in all things. This type of awakening is key to letting go of the trauma left behind after ACEs, and preventing future emotional abuse and domestic violence. Workshop graduates bring non-judgmental behavior to their home/work/school, and this healthy paradigm is what changes communities for the better. James is one of the founders of the Westminster Avenue Elementary School Endowment, a not-for-profit focused on strengthening ties with parents and the community at large. He is a certified Echo Parenting Trainer. James is a Fellow from the first class of the Aspen Teacher Leaders Fellowship and is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. He is in the process of becoming an Interfaith Minister.

Mary L. Holden has some favorite words: Letter, word, sentence, paragraph, reading, writing. These nouns and gerund forms of verbs represent her life's work, play and passion. Mary's goal as an editor is to uphold a writer's voice on the page and get them to see their manuscript in its best light. Mary offers developmental editing, line and content editing, ghostwriting and proofreading. As a self-employed freelance editor and writer, she's on the editorial staff of the MiniBuk company, and is a co-founder and partner of new72media in Oregon as well as Drafting Your Future in Arizona. She believes in supporting her community through volunteer work and is a member of Local First Arizona. Every year, Mary takes on certain editing projects pro bono. Several of her clients have learned English as their second language, and it has been her honor to assist them as they've developed and published their written work.

Jane Stevens is the founder of ACEs Too High (www.acestoohigh.com) ACEs Connection (www.acesconnection.com).