Parenting Children Of Trauma

Do you ever feel confused about what went wrong in your foster or adoption story? Are you fearful about the future of your marriage and your children? Do you ever feel overwhelmed and desperate for help? You are not alone. Many foster and adoptive parents are trying to raise children with complex emotional trauma, desperate for answers to heal their families. Caught off guard, these families find themselves with shattered dreams, shattered homes, and shattered hearts, with nowhere to turn for answers. Extended family members, friends, and the greater community don't understand the challenges and sometimes add to the problems these families face, sometimes prolonging the healing process for all. Attachment disorder is cruel. This book is for the wonderful-hearted people who stepped into adoption with dreams of loving a child to wholeness, only to find that hurting kids sometimes hurt people. This book is for parents who feel overwhelmed, desperate, and depleted. Or for the friend or family member who has watched the the adoption story of their loved one unravel. My family has lived our own version of hope and hell in learning what real love looks like for these children. It took our marriage to the brink, our own personal mental health to its limits, our family to some dark places--but we came out in a brighter place. We surfaced with the support of our community, our dedication to making it, and a whole lot of prayer. Before I was raising kiddos with attachment disorders, I was therapeutically supporting families who were. And now I want to offer this hope and help to you. Parenting Children of Trauma brings you everything I've learned as mama, friend, and counselor, in a new and easy-to-understand way through: Demystifying attachment disorders and the impact of complex emotional trauma on our homes and society. Breaking down current treatment options for attachment disorders. Equipping you with information, strategies, and stories to know you are not alone or powerless in your own home. Resources to help the friend or family member who wants to support adoptive/foster families. Walk with me through understanding trauma to alleviate fear and doubt about who you are, who they are, and what your future holds. Because parenting children of trauma will take you to the lowest parts of your existence, only to raise you back up again with a new resilience, a new freedom, a new compassion, and a whole new framework through which to see and love your child. Whether you're already in this situation, thinking about stepping into it, or know someone who is in it, this book will help you set realistic expectations, redefine love, and walk away with actual tools to change the climate of your heart and your home. What's stopping you from reclaiming your heart, your home, and your hope? If you're ready to live free of shame, full of hope, and safe in your own home, then this is your book.

Children who are looked after or adopted may experience varieties of learning difficulties that are caused by the trauma and disruptive relationships that marked their early lives. This book provides authoritative, clinical guidance for carers and adopters on why these learning difficulties can occur and what can be done about them. In straightforward language, it explains how children's difficult early experiences can affect their learning; the importance of play to being able to learn; how to understand what the child is experiencing and why, and how carers and parents can help.

Now in 15 languages. Understand the different types of upsets and traumas your child may experience—and learn how to teach them how to be resilient, confident, and even joyful. The number of anxious, depressed, hyperactive and withdrawn children is staggering—and still growing! Millions have experienced bullying, violence (real or in the media), abuse or sexual molestation. Many other kids have been traumatized from more “ordinary” ordeals such as terrifying medical procedures, accidents, loss and divorce. Trauma-Proofing Your Kids sends a lifeline to parents who wonder how they can help their worried and troubled children now. It offers simple but powerful tools to keep children safe from danger and to help them “bounce back” after feeling scared and overwhelmed. No longer will kids have to be passive prey to predators or the innocent victims of life’s circumstances. In addition to arming parents with priceless protective strategies, best-selling authors Dr. Peter A. Levine and Maggie Kline offer an antidote to trauma and a recipe for creating resilient kids no matter what misfortune has besieged them. Trauma-Proofing Your Kids is a treasure trove of simple-to-follow “stress-busting,” boundary-setting, sensory/motor-awareness activities that counteract trauma’s effect on a child’s body, mind and spirit. Including a chapter on how to navigate the inevitable difficulties that arise during the various ages and stages of development, this ground-breaking book simplifies an often mystifying and complex subject, empowering parents to raise truly confident and joyful kids despite stressful and turbulent times.

An accompanying parent’s guide filled with effective techniques to help challenging children with traumatic pasts. Designed as a manual to complement the clinician’s guide, this book is written for birth, foster, or adoptive parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, or anyone who may be raising a child who has experienced attachment loss and trauma. Their severe behaviors can often leave caregivers feeling confused, frightened, hurt, and overwhelmed, as they struggle to make sense of a massive amount of information—and misinformation—that exists on attachment issues. This book provides understanding, validation, and solutions for these caregivers. In it, the authors explain their innovative model of “team” treatment that includes an EMDR therapist and a family therapist. Best used in conjunction with therapeutic help, it walks readers through an array of parenting strategies that will lead them to a deeper understanding of their traumatized child, and better enable them to calm their behavior and improve their attachment security so they can heal.

Presents a self-help guide for overcoming post-traumatic stress disorder and codependency, outlining a twelve-step program focused on promoting healing and the development of independence and self-reliance.

Has Trauma Affected the Child You’re Caring For? Just as you prepared your home to welcome a new child, it is important to prepare your heart and mind—especially if the child has suffered from a background of trauma. Perhaps your invitation for love is met with hostility, and you find that this new member of your family rejects connection. If so, then it’s critical to acknowledge the effects of trauma on a child’s ability to attach. Mike and Kristin Berry realized this when they became adoptive and foster parents. In their twenty-year marriage, they have had the joy of adopting eight children and fostering twenty-three. They now offer guidance from their own journey to others parenting a child who has experienced past trauma. In Securely Attached, they offer practical insights that are supported by therapeutic and medical facts, so all parents can provide best for the children in their care. You’ll learn: How trauma changes the brain How to identify trauma-induced behaviors How to identify attachment disorders How to advocate for your child in the community. Get the help you need to better care for the children in your home. Discover how you can create a family and home that is safe and supportive so your children can grow to trust and become securely attached.

This practical handbook explores traumatic experiences and their effects on children at different stages of development. The first half of the book examines what constitutes trauma in childhood, including its symptoms, prognosis and treatment. It outlines specific parenting tasks, addresses educational and social issues and answers a range of frequently asked questions. In the second half, single adopter Matthew Blythe describes his experience of parenting twin boys who have experienced significant trauma.

Explaining how adoptive parents can help their traumatised child develop, it looks at the many different factors that can manifest in trauma, and how parents should respond to them.