Attachment Center of Kansas

Helping Families Build Stronger Connections

Trauma

Psychological trauma is the result of an event or events that produce extreme stress involving intense emotions including a feeling of complete helplessness which overwhelms a person's ability to cope.  What is traumatic and how that person is impact by the traumatic events is different for each person.   Many factors determine this including personality, attachment development, past trauma experience, support systems, type of trauma, etc. 

Early childhood trauma, especially when it is multiple/chronic and perpetrated within the child's care giving system has the most profound, negative impact upon the child's neurological, social, cognitive and sensory development.  These problems do not resolve with age but continue throughout the life span unless effective treatment is provided.  In other words, the body and mind do not "forget" the traumas nor can the child talk him or herself into "getting over it".

Trauma based therapy directly addresses the impact of traumatic events.  It is a multi-modal and phase based model that focuses on physical, emotional, mental and sensory issues that are interfering with the person's functioning and quality of life.

Trauma Treatment at the Center

Trauma treatment is available to children from age 4 to 17.  An extensive assessment is required before trauma treatment is provided that evaluates type and severity of the trauma/s, the impact of the trauma/s, other co-occurring disorders, the child's internal working model, etc.  I also require clients have a complete health assessment and assess nutrition, physical activity, support systems and other self-care areas.

The primary treatment model used is Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy along with techniques from Structured Sensory Interventions for Traumatized Children, Adolescents and Parents: Strategies to Alleviate Trauma (SITCAP) and Neurosequential Model of Therapuetics.   The focus of the interventions are on addressing the core issues that cause unhealthy behaviors and moods.  Just as with a physical illness, if the symptoms are treated without also addressing the cause of the symptom/s the person will not heal.  Parent education is also provided throughout the course of treatment.  Treatment is individualized, based on the client’s needs, strengths, abilities, age, etc.  The pace of treatment is provided in accordance to the tolerance of the client and has no time limits.

Trauma treatment involves 3 phrases:

1) Safety and emotional regulation - Evaluating the safety of the person and then assisting the child to learn to "feel" and "think" safe.  Education about trauma and it's effects, awareness of feelings, tolerance of feelings and thoughts, awareness of body sensations, the causes of behaviors and moods and cognitive restructuring of false or inaccurate beliefs are addressed.

2) Directly address and resolve the traumatic memories.  Although trauma memories are introduced in the first stage of treatment and continues to be dealt with throughout the therapeutic process, it is in this stage that the core trauma-processing work is explicitly addressed.  This is primarily done through writing, drawings and verbalizations.

3) Helping the child use what s/he has learned and further develop and solidify the skills and strengths needed to live a healthy and productive life.  Life skills, social skills, communication techniques, problem solving techniques, developing boundaries and values are some of the common tasks addressed in this stage of treatment.

Child Maltreatment Facts

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, almost a quarter of a million children are abused and/or neglected each year.  Children from birth to age 3 are at the highest risk of maltreatment followed by children between the ages of 4 and 7.  Half of these children were abused or neglected again within a 5-year period.  40% are abused by their mother, 18% by their father and 17% by both parents.  The Third National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect reports that three times as many children are maltreated as are reported to Child Protective Service agencies.Child

Center for Adoption Research

“Insecure attachments become psychiatric disorders when emotions and behaviors displayed in attachment relationships are so disturbed as to indicate, or substantially increase the risk for, persistent distress or disability. An attachment disorder, thus, represents behavior at the most extreme ends of attachment relationships, reflecting serious distortions in the child's use of the caregiver as a secure base.”

 

Mother Teresa

The success of love is in the loving - it is not in the result of loving.  Of course it is natural in love to want the best for the other person, but whether it turns out that way or not does not determine the value of what we have done.