Theraplay
Theraplay® assumes that the primary motivating force in human behavior is a drive toward relatedness to others not objects. Personality development is at its core interpersonal. The early interactions between parent and child are the crucible in which the self and personality develop. During treatment sessions objects are not used to resolve issues of childhood trauma, attachment, or […]
Real Life Heroes
Real Life Heroes provides practitioners with easy-to-use tools including a life storybook, manual, creative arts activities, and psycho education resources to engage children and caregivers in trauma-focused services. Tools and procedures were developed and tested with latency-age[1] children in a wide range of child and family service programs including children with symptoms of Complex PTSD […]
Child Parent Psychotherapy – CPP
Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) is a therapeutic intervention specifically designed for children from birth through age 5 who have experienced at least one traumatic event. Such traumatic events may include maltreatment, the sudden or traumatic death of someone close, a serious accident, sexual abuse, or exposure to domestic violence. These experiences can profoundly impact a child’s […]
Attachment, Regulation, Competency (ARC) Model
The Attachment, Regulation, Competency Model (ARC) is a framework for intervention with youth and families who have experienced multiple and/or prolonged traumatic stress developed by the Trauma Center at Justice Resource Institute (www.traumacenter.org), the institute founded by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, expert in childhood trauma. ARC, developed by Kristine M. Kinniburgh and Margaret E. […]
What Works & What Doesn’t
Let’s start with what DOESN’T WORK…and why: Traditional Psychotherapies — i.e. talk therapies, don’t work with children with an Attachment Disorder or those with early childhood, (especially pre-verbal) trauma. Two reasons. First,traumatized children are not helped by talk therapy because of their inability to access (talk about) their actual trauma memories and the specific events and triggers. […]
I Believe Square Pegs Need Trauma-Sensitive Schools
by: Melissa Sadin At ATN we believe that early childhood trauma and attachment disruption impacts brain development. A study found that children living in an Eastern European orphanage had larger more reactive amygdalae and smaller hippocampal volume than children in the same country that had never been in an orphanage. In addition, the same researchers […]
ATN Webinar Special Education Interventions Strategies
Special Education for Children with Attachment Trauma: Interventions & Strategies Recorded October 20, 2015 Melissa Sadin, M.A.T., M.Ed. and Julie Beem, ATN’s Executive Director delved into evaluating behaviors that make learning challenging and interventions/strategies that can help traumatized children and those with attachment challenges to learn. Materials: Presentation Slides Addressing Student Problem Behavior- Part II: […]
First Day – Joy, Sadness and Anxiety
by: Gari Lister Most schools in Dallas started Monday, and my Facebook feed is full of happy children getting ready for their first day of school. My own daughter started last week — on Wednesday, of all weird days — and somehow I missed posting her picture (so of course I’m embarrassing her by posting […]
A Niche for Every Child
by: Craig Peterson All children need a special activity in their lives – something to call their own. And especially those who’ve experienced trauma. Many of these opportunities happen through school. For some it’s team sports. For others it might be music or theater. In the case of my son Andrew, he found his niche […]
Catching More Flies with Honey – IEP Meeting Strategy
by: Julie Beem “You’ll catch more flies with honey than vinegar,” my grandmother was fond of saying. I have to admit that I didn’t start out using this principle for IEP meetings. I was way too intimidated. At first I believed what I was told in IEP meetings, that everyone there had the singular purpose […]