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The Attachment & Trauma Network, a 2016 Angel in Adoption® Recipient "Trauma-Informed "Trailblazer" has been the VOICE for traumatized children and their families since 1995. Through our mission of Support-Education-Advocacy, we seek to improve the lives of children impacted by early childhood trauma, abuse and neglect, and prenatal exposures in their families, schools and communities. We believe that trauma-informed, attachment-focused therapy and teaching parents therapeutic parenting strategies are significant factors in helping our children overcome their early traumas and build resiliency and healthy relationships. We believe that trauma-informed schools are the best educational environment for all children, but especially the significant population of children impacted by Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).
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Attachment can be defined as a reciprocal relationship. In parenting (or child development) it generally refers to the relationship that develops first between the infant/child and his primary caregiver (often Mother). The quality of this attachment impacts the child’s physical, emotional, psychological and cognitive development. The quality of this primary relationship shapes the child’s basic ability to trust and how positively or negatively he views the world, himself and others. The quality of this first attachment impacts all other relationships.
Trauma is defined as an “event outside normal human experience”. These events are generally emotionally painful and distressing, and overwhelm a person’s ability to cope, leaving him/her powerless. Feeling powerless is an important concept when trying to understand trauma – especially as you apply it to trauma in children. Many think of trauma as the result of a specific “event." But, early childhood trauma is just as likely (more so actually) to fall into the realm of chronic traumatic stress, especially in situations where children are exposed to repeated neglect, abuse and maltreatment.
The most important component in helping a traumatized child to heal is a strong, therapeutic parent (primary caregiver). You can learn more about becoming a Therapeutic Parenting.
The second most important component is trauma-sensitive, attachment-focused therapy. ATN actively encourages ALL families to work with therapists who specialize in attachment & trauma.
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A new season is upon us. The glow from the dawn of the new year is on the wane. For some of us, it is in the company of the resolutions to which we swore our allegiance before we climbed into bed at 9:30 on December 31 – satisfied that 2019 would arrive whether or
For years, I felt frustrated by parents and therapists suggesting I just read fill-in-the-blank adoption books by fill-in-the-blank authors. I’d already read all of those parenting books. I’d highlighted them and made notes in the margins.
But the well-worn copies on my bookshelf didn’t seem to help. Sometimes the most worthy book suggestions even seemed to hurt our family.