Debra Wesselmann

Raising kids who experienced early life trauma can be overwhelming for the adults in their lives, whether they’re adoptive or foster parents, guardians or biological parents. The behaviours caused by the impact of trauma on children’s brains and nervous systems can be alarming. These kids’ mistrust, reactivity and impulsivity place major roadblocks in their lives and in their relationships. Originally published as Integrative Parenting, this expanded and updated guide for parents provides strategies that weave together the science of attachment, trauma, neurobiology and child development. The methods presented in this book empower parents as agents for change through a deeper understanding of even the most bewildering behaviours. Here readers will find tools to build trust, calm impulsivity and reactivity, and improve children’s ability to think and communicate. Traumatised kids and their parents deserve a chance for a better future together—with this book, parents can pave the way.

Loss of a parent, separations, abuse, neglect or a history of a difficult foster or orphanage experience can lead to profound emotional dysregulation in children. Working with these children can feel overwhelming for clinicians. But by integrating EMDR with family therapy, clinicians can strengthen parent–child attachment bonds and help to mend the early experiences that drive a traumatised child’s behaviour. This manual—an update to Debra Wesselmann’s popular Integrative Team Treatment for Attachment Trauma in Children—provides clear, step-by-step application of the Integrative Attachment Protocol for Children (IATP-C). In this treatment, psychoeducation assists parents in developing trauma-informed responses to their children’s challenging behaviours, while family therapy and EMDR therapy deepen children’s bonds with parents; improve self-awareness, self-regulation and self-worth; and assist children with making sense of their traumatic pasts. Any EMDR-trained clinician—or any clinician pairing with an EMDR therapist—can implement this treatment approach to heal suffering from attachment trauma and offer children and their families a better future.

Delivers a unique, comprehensive treatment that galvanizes inner resources for reorganizing personality and healing childhood attachment rifts At the heart of this innovative text is a strengths-based, Attachment-Focused Trauma Therapy for Adults (AFTT-A) that facilitates healthier functioning and attachment patterns for adult clients. This model uses a multimodal, step-by-step approach to restructuring the internal personality system to reclaim the authentic "Self" by providing new attachment experiences for "Child" parts of Self and negotiating new adult-life roles. AFTT-A orients all inner personality components to the present moment in which unmet childhood needs for nurturing and protection can be met within clients themselves. The book delivers a sequence of scripted protocols that accesses and activates the client's own strengths, creating an internal system of resources and using bilateral stimulation to deepen positive affective shifts. Throughout the book in Pause and Reflect sections, the authors encourage therapists to think about their own attachment patterns that emerge in therapy sessions and implement activities to enhance personal self-awareness and improve attunement to clients. Short vignettes and excerpts from client sessions illustrate the model's application, and end-of-chapter Points to Remember and Troubleshooting tips reinforce key concepts and underscore common therapy challenges and their solutions. The AFTT-A model is useful not only for EMDR therapists but can be easily integrated with non-EMDR models of trauma therapy. Purchase includes digital access for use on most mobile devices or computers. Key Features: Presents protocols and protocol scripts for each step of the therapy process Uses a PAC (parent-adult-child) model to help clients understand parts of Self and normalize their inner experiences related to attachment trauma Delivers a standalone treatment for restructuring personality, healing childhood attachment ruptures, and developing effective adult-life skills Integrates preparation and reprocessing phases of EMDR therapy Promotes in-depth understanding of client behaviors through attachment and trauma models Emphasizes therapist self-reflection to facilitate optimal therapeutic relationships Includes treatment vignettes and excerpts from client sessions to deepen understanding of AFTT-A model Presents troubleshooting tips, exercises and activities, helpful checklists, templates, worksheets, script examples, and more

Dit boek biedt specifieke opvoedstrategie n voor opvoeders van chronisch getraumatiseerde kinderen. Deze opvoedstrategie n zijn te gebruiken door ouders/pleegouders, familieleden en anderen die een kind verzorgen dat gehechtheidstrauma heeft meegemaakt. Ook kan het boek gebruikt worden door therapeuten om een behandeling te ondersteunen, waarbij EMDR en gezinstherapie wordt ge ntegreerd (zoals IGT-K). Kinderen die nare gebeurtenissen hebben meegemaakt binnen hun gehechtheidsrelaties door mishandeling, verwaarlozing, medische ingrepen of uithuisplaatsingen ervaren intense pijn, angst en wantrouwen. Deze diepe gevoelens uiten zich vaak in 'lastig' gedrag, agressie en/of extreme geslotenheid, zelfs nadat de thuisomgeving is veranderd door adoptie, pleeggezinplaatsing, een voogdijmaatregel of het oplossen van problemen thuis. Integratief opvoeden geeft informatie over de invloed van gehechtheidstrauma op de hersenontwikkeling. Je krijgt vaardigheden en strategie n aangereikt die het functioneren van je kind kunnen verbeteren. Je zal leren hoe je benodigdheden om de gehechtheid te bevorderen (zoals affectie, emotionele afstemming en spel) kunt inzetten om de kloof tussen jou en je kind te overbruggen. Mindfulness en strategie n om de hersenen van je kind te kalmeren zullen je kind ondersteunen om te reflecteren op zijn eigen gedachten, gevoelens en keuzes. Hierdoor leert hij om op een effectievere manier beslissingen te gaan maken. Het oorspronkelijke boek Integrative Parenting werd geschreven door ervaren therapeuten uit de Verenigde Staten: Debra Wesselmann, Cathy Schweitzer en Stefanie Armstrong. Integratief opvoeden is de Nederlandse editie. De vertaling en bewerking is verzorgd door Nathalie Schlattmann, klinisch psycholoog, EMDR- en TF-CBT supervisor, Mara van der Hoeven, orthopedagoog en onderzoeker, en Irma Hein, kinderpsychiater en onderzoeker. Alle drie zijn zij verbonden aan Levvel, specialisten voor jeugd en gezin, te Amsterdam.

Designed as a manual to complement the clinician’s guide, Integrative Team Treatment for Attachment Trauma in Children: Family Therapy and EMDR, 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.

Loss of a parent, separations, abuse, neglect, or a history of a difficult foster or orphanage experience can lead to profound emotional dysregulation and mistrust in children. Working with these children—many of whom have experienced multiple traumas and losses—can feel overwhelming. Clinicians must navigate complex case management decisions and referrals, address the needs of parents and schools, not to mention ameliorate the traumatic memories and severe behaviors that present in the kids. But by working as a collaborative team, EMDR and family therapists can, together, strengthen the parent-child attachment bond and help to mend the early experiences that drive the child’s behavior. This book, and its accompanying Parent Manual, are intended to serve as clear and practical treatment guides, presenting the philosophy and step-by-step protocols behind the Integrative Team Treatment approach, so both the family system issues and the child’s traumatic past are effectively addressed. You need not be a center specializing in attachment trauma to implement this team model, nor must members of the team practice at the same location. With at least one fully-trained EMDR practitioners as part of the two-person team, any clinician can pair with another to implement this treatment approach, and heal children suffering from attachment trauma. Also available is the accompanying parent’s guide, Integrative Parenting: Strategies for Raising Children Affected by Attachment Trauma, filled with effective techniques to help challenging children with traumatic pasts