In celebration of ATN’s 2016 Angels in Adoption award, we’re profiling ATN members who have helped ATN win the award — and who have themselves been Angels to families and children.
By: Sarah Neal and Vincent Kennebeck
When our children came to live with us, we recognized something wasn’t right almost immediately – they were engaging in behavior that made us angry and scared. Positive attention and consistency only made things worse. None of the typical parenting methods we’d used successfully with other kids were making any impact. We were frustrated and frightened and didn’t know what to do. Shortly after they moved into our home, our kids were diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder and PTSD (one child’s diagnosis changed to Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder in 2015). Everything we found online discouraged and even terrified us.
Then we found Billy Kaplan, and through his work, he saved our family (even though we would not meet him in person until 2016).
“Chaos to Healing,” a video Billy created with Christine Moers, is an invaluable resource. His professional insights on the effects of early-childhood trauma really helped us understand why traditional parenting methods fail with traumatized children and offered easy-to-understand advice. “Chaos to Healing” put us on the path to therapeutic parenting.
We got in touch with Billy after watching the video and learned more about him through his website, and he led us to even more helpful resources (including ATN!). We were lucky enough to attend the “Parenting in SPACE Conference” he established with his counseling practice (House Calls Counseling). Meeting the House Calls team, working directly with Billy, and interacting with other parents of traumatized children who “get it” was easily the most influential and validating weekend we’ve ever experienced as parents.
Billy continues to inspire us with his unique, easy-to-understand explanations of early-childhood trauma and its effects. He is truly an Angel in Adoption for any parent who needs support in learning how to parent therapeutically.
In celebration of ATN’s 2016 Angels in Adoption award, we’re profiling ATN members who have helped ATN win the award — and who have themselves been Angels to families and children.
