The child within is our true self—alive, happy, productive, and strong. It needs to be nurtured properly and when it isn’t we suffer mentally, emotionally, and physically.
Dr. Whitfield developed effective methods to treat and heal issues that 95% of people suffer from.
His charity is devoted to raising awareness, educating, and advancing Dr. Whitfield's groundbreaking work to improve the lives of people everywhere.
Charles Whitfield was a pioneering physician, therapist and best-selling author of Healing the Child Within, alongside dozens of other publications (see list).
He graduated from the University of North Carolina with a Bachelors and Doctorate of Medicine. Soon after, he spent two years working with tuberculosis patients on Native American Reservations in the Dakotas, and then went on to be awarded a Postgraduate Royal Fellowship in London England for a year.
He taught Internal Medicine and Psychiatry at Southern Illinois University Medical School and the Maryland School of Medicine, and became one of the founding fathers of Addiction Medicine and, subsequently, Trauma Psychology.
His writings and career are world renowned, and he received many awards for his work, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Atlanta Psychotherapist Association for “Introducing us to Our Inner Child.” His works have been published in multiple languages and continue to be read by new audiences even decades after publication (see list below).
When Charles and his wife Barbara Whitfield moved to Atlanta in 1996, together they wrote many more books together covering a multitude of topics related to healing, well-being, recovering from abuse, and numerous other psychological and spiritual matters.
He spent the last twenty years of his career at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) looking at how repeated traumas in childhood—called Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)—affect adult life. Whitfield and his colleagues demonstrated that the long-term effects of such trauma, that include, among other things, life long autoimmune issues, behavioral issues, nervous system dysregulation, and so on.
This study was called the ACE Study and is referred to by professionals to this day to assist diagnosing their clients and patients.