Robin Karr-Morse is a family therapist and author of Scared Sick: The Role of Childhood Trauma in Adult Disease. Before participating in a panel on childhood trauma and our health, she sat down in the green room to talk Downton Abbey, what’s she’s hiding her closets (both literal and figurative), and how her first year of college changed her life.
Q. What’s the last thing that surprised you?
A. My two-year-old granddaughter’s acuity about things I was totally shocked that she knew.
Q. What are you keeping in your closet that you should have thrown away?
A. Oh, way too much. [Laughs.] Way too much. My size four clothing that I keep hoping to get back to. A couple of trinkets from Iran or China that I will probably never wear but seemed like a good idea to keep.
Q. What’s your greatest extravagance?
A. Travel.
Q. What salad dressing best describes you?
A. Oil and balsamic vinegar.
Q. What’s your favorite plant or flower?
A. Wild sweet pea.
Q. What was the most important year in your life?
A. My freshman year of college. It was my first year living independently. My parents died when I was little, and I was raised by my grandmother. I was in girls’ schools all the way through my childhood. It was my first chance to kind of make my own way, and that was pretty terrific.
Q. What’s something most people don’t know about you?
A. My own history.
Q. If you could be anyone in history, who would you be?
A. I think I’d still be me.
Q. Do you DVR any television shows?
A. Downton Abbey is probably the only thing I’ve watched in the last 10 years. I’m not a TV person-I don’t sit still well.
Q. Where would we find you at 10:00 a.m. on a typical Saturday?
A. In the pool, swimming-every Saturday.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.