ATN Angel: Julie Beem

Julie Beem

In celebration of ATN’s 2016 Angels in Adoption award, we’re profiling ATN members who have helped ATN win the award — and who have themselves been Angels to families and […]

Everyday, I Get Up and Go to Work . . .

Our Mission

Volunteering is the ultimate exercise in democracy.  You vote in elections once a year, but when you volunteer, you vote everyday, about the kind of community you want to live […]

Why I Always Renew My ATN Membership

ATN

by:  Julie Beem Ok – this is a strange topic for the Executive Director to blog about. Yes, I’m biased. But here’s the deal…I pay my annual Attachment & Trauma […]

First Day – Joy, Sadness and Anxiety

by:  Gari Lister Most schools in Dallas started Monday, and my Facebook feed is full of happy children getting ready for their first day of school.  My own daughter started […]

What ATN Means to Me

December 2, 2014 by:  Julie Beem A long time ago in what feels like a galaxy far away, I was a sleep-deprived mom of a raging toddler whose behaviors made […]

Developmental Trauma Disorder

In 2009, professionals researching and treating Complex Trauma in children proposed a new diagnosis of Developmental Trauma Disorder be included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual to capture the dysfunctions […]

What’s in a Name? Part 2 – To Label or Not to Label

By: Julie Beem

“You don’t want her labeled for life.” This sentence is usually spoken by your child’s grandparent (out of sheer concern for you and your family) or by a school official (who may be trying to block access to special education services). Either way, crossing the threshold into “labeling” your child is a difficult thing for many.

Where to begin?

Where do I begin to write about my experience as a father raising children with a trauma history

By: Marc Deprey

Father and SonWell, here it is, the moment I’ve been thinking about. How to start my contribution to ATN’s new blog? I could write about the experience of parenting two kids, eleven months apart with Developmental Trauma Disorder and the whole whack-a-mole nature of that day-to-day experience. I could write about the fact that I can only take time to write this when my kids are asleep and I’m exhausted, or the idea that being around them wears me down to the core (and that I can’t imagine I’ll have any core left sometime soon).