What I Learned -or Remembered- when I Read Brave

BRAVE - book review

1) There are (at least) 2 kinds of being brave. One is an illusion in which we tell ourselves a version of events that we would like to be true. The other is the real deal. It involves facing our fears head on and living to tell the tale. In a future ATN blog post, […]

It’s Not Always Depression: An Emotional Education

–by Laura Dennis, with much gratitude to Hilary Jacobs Hendel, to whom I owe both the title and content of this post This is not a book review Last month, I wrote a post previewing Hilary Jacobs Hendel’s new book, It’s Not Always Depression: Working the Change Triangle to Listen to the Body, Discover Core […]

Why Adoptive Moms Don’t Get Enough Self-Care, and What to do About It

–by Sandi Lerman [originally published on the author’s blog, Adoption Roots and Wings, May 28, 2017]   Manager’s note: Trauma mama / Parent coach Sandi recently reached out to ATN, and we couldn’t be happier! Please enjoy her first post, and may there be many more to come.    As a parent coach for adoptive […]

It’s Not Always Depression, Sometimes It’s the Holidays

Sometimes it's the holidays, not depression

–by Hilary Jacobs Hendel There are many myths and “shoulds” about how families and holidays should be: Families should love each other. Families should get along. Holidays should be fun…To name but a few. The fact is: Many people do not have happy families, happy family memories or happy holidays. Therefore, holidays and families may […]

Facing the mess as me

–by Laura Dennis, originally published on the author’s own blog, Les Pensées du chat noir [This is not the ATN post of the week, but rather an explanation of why it isn’t (yet) here. And after last week’s post on caregiver stress, I thought this could maybe be of help to some.] We all have […]

Caregiver Stress: It Might Eventually Kill You

Word cloud shaped like a person

–by Donald Craig Peterson originally published on the author’s website, ADOPTING FAITH: A Father’s Unconditional Love, July 31, 2017 The serious look on the eye doctor’s face was obvious. Then she said, “Are you under a lot of stress at work?” Instantly I let out a nervous laugh. “At work – no. But home can […]

Parenting Trauma Requires a Major Expectation Overhaul…

Manager’s Note: Back in February, we published a guest post by “Emerging Mama” Monica. It was so popular that we decided to try another. Please visit Monica and see all the good things she has to say at http://emergingmama.com/, where you will find, among other things, the original version of the post that follows, which was […]

Special Needs Parenting Can Make You Sick…Literally

Special Needs Parenting

  -by Julie Beem The title probably doesn’t surprise you, but now there is scientific evidence…right down to the cellular level. A study coming out of the University of California-San Francisco compared biological mothers of chronically ill children to those of healthy children. The finding was that those who had chronically ill children had a […]

Tuesday Toolbox: Calm Down Box

by:  Allison Cooke Douglas We’ve used a “Calm Down Box” with our child for years. It’s full of tools they can use when they are beginning to escalate. This is a specific child’s box, so it’s tailored to his specific sensory needs; yours would not look exactly the same. We offer it to him as […]