Tag Archives: Trauma
REVIEW: The Attachment Therapy Companion
The Attachment Therapy Companion: Key Practices for Treating Children & Families by Arthur Becker-Weidman, Lois Ehrmann and Denise H. LeBow, revised in 2012, and available through the Association for Treatment and Training in the Attachment of Children (ATTACh). I was introduced to Attachment Focused Therapy (AFT) and the work of Art Becker-Weidman, at my first […]
Boomerang*
Our therapist calls them boomerang kids. Teens who were doing pretty well as older kids; when, wham! They’re back in therapy with all the emotional upheaval, distorted thinking and outrageous behaviors of six years before. Well, not quite. There is a level of maturity and complexity that disguises these episodes of classic reactive attachment disorder […]
ATTACh 2014: Connection
I’ve just spent four days bathed in sunshine, immersed in trauma, connected to my memories and heartache, and surrounded by understanding and shared experience. Family vacation? College reunion? Therapy session? ATTACh 2014: “Trauma-Informed Treatment: The Intersection of Attachment, Science and Hope” was all that and more. Situated at the elegant Rosen Center in Orlando, we […]
Ageing, Loss & Courage
Ageing. Some things we are prepared for. The wrinkles we secretly hope lend distinction to our tired eyes and document the laughter at the edges of our mouth. The skin that sags a little now when we finally lose the weight we’ve always meant to lose, now when we have more patience and resolve but our […]
I Am My Daughter’s Keeper
Some of you know that I am also a poet. Often my two worlds intersect. More often, they collide. I worry sometimes that mothering is too limiting a topic for poetry, that it narrows my reach, marks me in some way inferior or as the dread, “woman writer.” But over and over again I hear […]
Making Classroom Observations: Seeing the Obvious
As a Special Education Parent Consultant and Advocate, one of the services I am able to provide my clients is a trauma sensitive classroom evaluation. I recently observed a classroom and made several recommendations to address the sensory needs of a client’s son. I had gone expressly to evaluate the environment and teaching styles used through a trauma […]
Bouncing
Last week I attended a presentation by the Parent Information Network or PIN, an awesome support group for parents raising children with mental health concerns. The topic was “Bouncing Back.” Afterwards, I realized that for a RAD parent, it’s more just bouncing. Once your child has suffered from early childhood trauma, neglect, loss and/or abuse; and, […]
Changing the Conversation
In my life, I’m used to focusing on the trauma that caught my daughter in its web years ago in another world. Sometimes a child adopted from another country, like Russia, can seem like a princess in a fairy tale. But sad children, neglected infants and witnesses and victims of domestic violence do not inhabit storybooks alone. […]
EYE CONTACT
Eye contact plays a key role in the diagnosis and treatment of Reactive Attachment Disorder. It is the first on the list of Common Symptoms of Insecure Attachment by the Attachment Institute of New England – “Poor Eye Contact (except when lying, manipulating or acting violently).” Nancy Thomas, in her Letter for Teachers insists on establishing eye […]
Time In
“That does it, young lady, I’ve had just about enough of that behavior It time for a time in!” Sure. That’s what we say, isn’t it? When were at the breaking point and one more question will drive us right over the edge. When we just want to relax after a particularly hard day and […]
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