1st Edition

Rebuilding Attachments with Traumatized Children Healing from Losses, Violence, Abuse, and Neglect

By Richard Kagan Copyright 2004
    390 Pages
    by Routledge

    390 Pages
    by Routledge

    Learn to build the trust you need to help children in crisis!

    Rebuilding Attachments with Traumatized Children: Healing from Losses, Violence, Abuse, and Neglect is a therapeutic guide to helping troubled children move beyond the traumatic experiences that haunt them. Author Dr. Richard Kagan, Director of Psychological Services for Parsons Child and Family Center in Albany, New York, presents comprehensive information on how to understand—and surmount—the impact of loss, neglect, separation, and violence on children’s development, how to discover and foster strengths in children and their families, and how to rebuild connections and hope for children who are at risk of harm to themselves and others. This unique book is designed to be used in tandem with Real Life Heroes: A Life Storybook for Children (Haworth), an innovative workbook that helps children develop the self-esteem they need to overcome the worries and fears of their past through a creative arts approach that fosters positive values and a sense of pride.

    Rebuilding Attachments with Traumatized Children helps children move from negative or suppressed memories to a more positive perspective, not by denying hardships, but by drawing strength from the supportive people in their lives. Practitioners can use the book as a framework and detailed guide to assessment, engagement, development of service plans, and implementation of attachment and trauma therapy. The book is a comprehensive model for working to build the trust necessary before other trauma therapy approaches can be successfully initiated.

    Topics examined in Rebuilding Attachments with Traumatized Children include:

    • attachment theory and research
    • types of attachment problems
    • PTSD behaviors
    • permanency work with children in placement
    • ADHD, bipolar, and RAD
    • cognitive behavioral therapies
    • storytelling therapies
    • the myth of perfection
    • neuropsychological patterns
    • and much more!
    Rebuilding Attachments with Traumatized Children is a rich resource for practitioners, academics, parents, adoptive parents, foster parents, grandparents, and anyone working to show troubled children how to learn from the past, resolve problems in the present, and build a better future.

    • Preface
    • Acknowledgments
    • PART I: LIFELINES
    • Chapter 1. Attachment
    • Trauma Damage to Neurodevelopment
    • Attachment Theory and Research
    • Attachment and Behavior Patterns
    • Attachment and Behavior Problems
    • Facilitating Attachment
    • Promoting Resilience
    • Conclusion
    • Chapter 2. Angel or Demon?
    • Two Boys
    • The Impact of Neglect and Violence
    • Trauma and Neurological Functioning: Theory and Research
    • Conclusion
    • Chapter 3. The Curse of Neglect
    • Introduction
    • How Neglect Disrupts Attachment
    • Neglect and the Social Service System
    • Statistics and Research on Abuse and Neglect
    • Conclusion
    • Part II: Rebuilding Attachments
    • Chapter 4. Breaking the Curse
    • Introduction
    • Myths That Perpetuate Abuse and Neglect
    • Obstacles to Rebuilding Attachments
    • Methods of Rebuilding Attachments
    • Conclusion
    • Chapter 5. Restoring Hope and Safety
    • Introduction
    • Investigating Child Abuse and Neglect
    • Developing Service Plans for Traumatized Children in Placement
    • Chapter 6. Reparenting the Hurt Child
    • Introduction
    • Tools for Parenting Traumatized Children
    • Steps and Tools for Rebuilding Attachment
    • Conclusion
    • Chapter 7. Permanency
    • Introduction
    • Activities That Foster Attachment
    • Rights and Responsibilities Within Families
    • Skill-Building Activities
    • Signs of Attachment
    • Conclusion
    • Part III: The Making of a Hero
    • Chapter 8. Telling the Story
    • Introduction
    • Trauma Therapy
    • Life Stories: From Shame to Strength
    • Detoxifying Traumas
    • Chapter 9. Real Life Heroes
    • Life-Story Work
    • The Real Life Heroes Workbook
    • Redefining Heroes for Children
    • Finding Heroes
    • Supporting Heroes
    • Protecting Heroes
    • The Hero’s Challenge
    • Chapter 10. The Magic of Parents
    • Understanding and Treating Trauma and Attachment Disorders
    • Rising Above Trauma
    • The Parent’s Life Story
    • Chapter 11. A Hero’s Story: Using the Real Life Heroes Workbook
    • Introduction
    • Beginning the Journey
    • Contents of Workbook
    • Objectives of Workbook
    • Adapting the Workbook for Adolescents and Young Children
    • Facilitating Storytelling
    • Self-Soothing Skills
    • Attachment and Trauma Therapy
    • Adoption
    • Completion of the Workbook
    • Chapter 12. Impasse and Beyond
    • Introduction
    • Getting Past the Impossible
    • Calling a Crisis
    • Therapeutic Tools for Breaking Impasse
    • Obstacles to Breaking Impasse
    • Beyond Impasse
    • Chapter 13. Into the Future
    • The Quest
    • The Therapist’s Role
    • Crossing the Threshold
    • Reconnecting
    • Working with Time
    • Advocacy for Parents
    • The Making of a Hero
    • Appendix A: Important People
    • Appendix B: Attachment Ecogram
    • Appendix C: Outline of Assessments and Interventions
    • Appendix D: Real Life Heroes; A Progressive, Developmental Curriculum
    • Overview
    • Introduction of the Real Life Heroes Model
    • Caring Adult Resource Development
    • Chapter by Chapter, Developing Strengths
    • Completion of Life Story Work
    • Appendix E: Chapter by Chapter, Stronger and Stronger
    • Appendix F: Utilizing Impasse
    • Appendix G: Game Therapy Illustration
    • Notes
    • References
    • Index

    Biography

    Richard Kagan