Clinical psychologist Yared Alemu is the founder of TQIntelligence, software that helps identify mental health problems in at-risk children. He spoke to the audience about what happens to the brain after going through trauma. You drink poison that has no taste and you can't smell it, but by the time you find out it's affected you, he says.
Trauma, he explains, is first a physiological experience before it becomes emotional and psychological,he explains. It affects three parts of the brain "essential for functioning well at work," including the frontal lobe, which controls executive function; the amygdala, which plays a fundamental role in forming memories; and the hippocampus, which is involved in learning as well as memory formation and retrieval.
"When these three parts of the brain. are affected by trauma," he says, "what looks like a work-related issue is actually a mental health issue."