Adoption & Trauma: Things are Better…but not yet Great

Child holding his head

Reflecting on ATN’s 30th anniversary and my 16 years as Executive Director always leads me to the observation of how much has changed since the 1990s when it comes to our understanding of early childhood trauma, attachment disorders and what children and families need.  Like many of my colleagues at ATN, I walked into this […]

Parenting Track: Building Resilient Communities for Children Conference 2025

Plenary Session:  Changing How We See People Changes People Plenary Speaker: Robyn Gobbel, MSW For 30 years, the Attachment & Trauma Network has been committed to supporting families of children impacted by early childhood trauma.  This track is full of expertise, compassion, understanding and strategies for anyone caring for a child with trauma-based challenges and […]

Standing Strong

Parents and Caregivers, join us for our Standing Strong Conference September 13-15, 2021 – Virtual This conference is designed for parents & caregivers of children impacted by trauma or struggling with attachment challenges, anxiety or neurodiversity that impacts their learning. Helping our children get the supports, services and care that better enable their learning is […]

Focusing on Attachment: What Else I Didn’t Know

Focusing on Attachment: What Else I Didn’t Know

What happens once you know? What comes after “you don’t know what you don’t know,” anyway? Well, now, I think it’s “when you know better, you do better,” but that is now, not then. Back then, it took several steps. First, I had to grasp that I had more to figure out about my amazingly […]

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

pile of gray question marks with one lighted up in orangish yellow and another in blue

“You don’t know what you don’t know” In my parent group for those whose children think differently, a favorite phrase is “you don’t know what you don’t know.” This phrase has come to reassure me as I look back over the years. I carried guilt that I could never do enough and worried that I […]

Two Words: Attachment Insecurity

Theater-style masks showing insecure and secure attachment

Trying to do everything right I never imagined that two words, “attachment insecurity,” could have such a distressing and at the same time life-affirming effect on a person. My son already carried a diagnosis thought of as hard-to-parent. I felt like I was already there, bearing that heaviness alongside him. We had endured some of […]

#TSS 2021–Thank You!

thank you written with calligraphy pen

Thank you for the conference… This Mom can’t say thank you enough for the Trauma Sensitive Schools Conference in February 2021. What a great experience to join with others who are passionate about finding answers, having hard conversations, and learning heavy things. There is nothing worse than traveling a tough, unexpected road silently and alone. […]

On Being an Anti-Racist White Mom

Young woman holding anti-racist sign

The Atlanta shootings It’s been a few weeks since the news broke about the shootings at 3 spas in the Atlanta area. Watching this unfold on my TV, sitting in my Atlanta suburban home, I was confounded. Now…so many days later…I still am. Was the shooter racist? Was this a hate crime? The news media […]

Questions to Consider When Selecting an Attachment or Trauma Therapist

attachment therapy

Many professionals will say they are familiar with working with children with attachment disorders or trauma problems. The following are suggested topics to consider when deciding on which professionals to work with. *         What training has the therapist received? How many hours of supervised training in attachment therapy? What specific trauma training have they received?  […]