Babies and young children who have experienced early adversity miss out on good, nurturing relationships, and the sensorimotor development that goes along with them. Their bodies therefore lack a solid foundation for sensory integration. This book lays out a practice model - the Building Underdeveloped Sensorimotor Systems (BUSS) model - to help identify and assess whether these gaps are present in a child's sensorimotor systems. It also advocates the potential of rebuilding the gaps in these systems - using games and activities that take place within loving parent-child relationships - to offer the child a healthy, attuned base from which to develop sensorimotor skills. Also included is a section on parents' experiences of using these activities with their children. With a positive view of approaching sensorimotor underdevelopment, these strategies and case studies all demonstrate that, with the right kind of attention, these children's systems can be rebuilt.

An innovative somatic and attachment-based treatment for working with children and adolescents who suffer from complex trauma and neglect "[This] is a ground-breaking new approach to treating traumatized children, based on the combination of keen clinical observation, sensory integration, and a deep understanding of the latest advances in the neuroscience of trauma."—Bessel van der Kolk, MD, best-selling author of The Body Keeps the Score The SMART (Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Treatment) program addresses three key processes that can be derailed by developmental trauma--somatic regulation, trauma processing, and attachment-building--and uses movement and sensation to target the neurological structures that support emotional and behavioral regulation. Transforming Trauma in Children and Adolescents teaches therapists the eight key skills required for SMART mastery and provides seven regulation tools for clients, helping children and adolescents manage their feelings and attend to developmental tasks like making friends, participating at school, learning to play with others, and developing a sense of self that includes--but isn't defined by--the trauma they've experienced. Enriched with case studies and recommended adaptations, the book includes resources for parents and other caregivers who want to provide ongoing supportive care outside the clinical setting.

Does your child struggle to know how their body is feeling? Do they find it hard to balance or feel uneasy when their feet leave the ground? Early trauma and neglect can have a profound effect upon a child's development. Sensory integration theory offers a way of understanding how the brain processes and stores movement experience, and how these experiences manifest at a physical and emotional level. This book explains how early movement experiences affect brain development and gives examples of how trauma can prevent basic sensory processing pathways from being correctly established. It shows how you can identify gaps in normal sensory development and offers ideas for how you can use physical activities to help build up the underdeveloped systems. Good bodily awareness forms the foundation of motor development as well as social and emotional skills and learning. This book will help your child to be more in tune with themselves and their bodies and feel more comfortable in their environment. Highly accessible with lots of practical tips and examples, this book is written for adoptive and foster parents, and will also be useful for social workers, fostering and adoption workers and those working in primary and early years educational settings.

A resource for practitioners implementing attachment-focused treatment for young people. Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) is an attachment-focused treatment for children and adolescents who have experienced abuse and neglect and are now living in stable foster and adoptive families. Here, Daniel Hughes and Kim S. Golding provide a practical accompaniment to their highly successful DDP text coauthored with Julie Hudson, Healing Relational Trauma with Attachment-Focused Interventions (2019). In this workbook, practitioners are invited to reflect on their experience of implementing the DDP model through discussion, examples, and reflection prompts. Readers are encouraged to consider the diversity of both practitioners and those receiving DDP interventions, and how each unique individual’s identity can be embraced within the application of DDP interventions. DDP can be practiced as a therapy, a parenting approach, and as a practice approach for those working within healthcare, social care, or education, and this workbook is an invaluable resource for readers who fall into any one of these roles.

The first book of its kind on treating trauma in children through creative play with clay, written by a leading voice in the field of art therapy. From the moment we’re born, we rely on our hands to perceive the world. It’s through touch that we communicate with our primary caregivers and attain an abiding sense of love and security. In Clay Field therapy, client children work with clay and water in a rectangular box. The therapeutic focus is not on object creation, but on the touch connection with the clay as a symbolic external world. Movement, touch, and sensory feedback that have long been out of reach are actualized through the creative process, enabling the child to heal past wounds and regain a more fulfilling sense of self. Author and therapist Cornelia Elbrecht has been a leader in groundbreaking art therapy techniques for over 40 years. In Healing Trauma in Children with Clay Field Therapy, she shows how embodied expression within the Clay Field can be an effective tool in treating children suffering the mental, emotional, and physical effects of trauma. She discusses the theory and practice of Clay Field therapy using dozens of case examples and more than 200 images. Working within a fun, safe, and trusting environment, children respond with their embodied braced, chaotic, or dissociated structures of the past, but are then able to foster new sensorimotor experiences that enhance self-esteem, empowerment, and a restoration of developmental deficits. Child therapists will find this book to be a valuable tool--working with a Clay Field can reach even the earliest developmental trauma events, repairing their damage through the haptic hands-brain connection.

Life story work allows care-experienced and adopted young people to understand their histories and come to terms with their feelings about the past. This accessible guide helps therapists and social care professionals to develop their skills to support children and families through their life story journey. It builds on the fundamental 6-step model for practice to incorporate elements from a variety of therapeutic approaches, from DDP to creative therapies. Theoretical explanations, case vignettes, and practical suggestions provide guidance on practice-based issues in life story work, such as working with parent/carer-child dyads, incorporating a birth family perspective, talking about traumatic stories, managing endings and constructing the life story book. Essential reading for anyone undertaking life story work, this guide enhances a time-tested model with up-to-date research and new ideas for overcoming the most common challenges practitioners face when delivering life story work.

"This volume is a welcome and excellent resource for all clinicians working with severely traumatized children." Francine Shapiro, PhD Founder, EMDR Humanitarian Assistance Programs "Over the past 15 years, Ms. Gomez has developed highly original and brilliant interventions for working with these very difficult to treat children. This book will be an enormous great gift to our field." Dr. Susan Coates Clinical Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry College of Physicians and Surgeons Columbia University This is the first book to provide a wide range of leading-edge, step-by-step strategies for clinicians using EMDR therapy and adjunct approaches with children with severe dysregulation of the affective system. Written by an author internationally known for her innovative work with children, the book offers developmentally appropriate and advanced tools for using EMDR therapy in treating children with complex trauma, attachment wounds, dissociative tendencies, and compromised social engagement. The book also presents the theoretical framework for case conceptualization in EMDR therapy and in the use of the Adaptive Information Processing model with children. Principles and concepts derived from the Polyvagal Theory, affective neuroscience, attachment theory, interpersonal neurobiology, developmental neuroscience and the neurosequential model of therapeutics, which can greatly support and expand our understanding of the AIP model and complex trauma, are presented. The text also offers an original and pioneering EMDR therapy-based model to working with parents with abdicated caregiving systems. The model is directed at assisting parents in developing the ability for mentalization, insightfulness, and reflective capacities linked to infantís development of attachment security. A unique and innovative feature of this book is the masterful integration of strategies from other therapeutic approaches, such as Play therapy, Sandtray therapy, Sensorimotor psychotherapy, Theraplay and Internal Family Systems (IFS), into a comprehensive EMDR treatment maintaining appropriate adherence to the AIP model and EMDR therapy methodology. Key Features: Provides creative, step-by-step, ìhow-toî information about the use of EMDR therapy with children with complex trauma from an internationally known and innovative leader in the field Explores thoroughly the eight phases of EMDR therapy in helping children with attachment wounds, dissociative tendencies and high dysregulation Incorporates adjunct approaches into a comprehensive EMDR therapy while maintaining fidelity to the AIP model and EMDR therapy methodology Contains an original EMDR therapy-based model for helping parents with abdicated caregiving systems to develop metalizing and reflective capacities

Attachment is a word used to describe a simple idea – the relationship with someone you love or whose opinions are important to you – so why is so much of the language relating to attachment so obscure, and why is it so challenging to help children who lack healthy attachment bonds? Attachment in Common Sense and Doodles aims to bring some clarity and simplicity to the subject. Providing grounded information and advice accompanied by a series of simple 'doodles' throughout, it explains attachment in language that is easy to understand and describes how to apply this information in everyday life. It describes how the attachment patterns in children who are adopted or fostered differ, summarises the latest research in the field and provides advice on how to repair attachment difficulties and to build secure, loving relationships. Covering all of the 'need to know' issues including how to spot attachment difficulties, build resilience and empathy and responding to problematic behaviour, this book will be an invaluable resource for families and professionals caring for children who are fostered, adopted or who have experienced early trauma.

Using clay in therapy taps into the most fundamental of human experiences - touch. This book is a comprehensive step-by-step training manual that covers all aspects of 'Work at the Clay Field', a sensorimotor-based art therapy technique. The book discusses the setting and processes of the approach, provides an overview of the core stages of Gestalt Formation and the Nine Situations model within this context, and demonstrates how this unique focus on the sense of touch and the movement of the hands is particularly effective for trauma healing in adults and children. The intense tactile experience of working with clay allows the therapist to work through early attachment issues, developmental setbacks and traumatic events with the client in a primarily nonverbal way using a body-focused approach. The kinaesthetic motor action of the hands combined with sensory perception can lead to a profound sense of resolution with lasting therapeutic benefits. With photographs and informative case studies throughout, this book will be a valuable resource for art therapists and mental health professionals, and will also be of interest to complementary therapists and bodyworkers.

This deeply compassionate and inclusive resource explores the practice of yoga therapy, mindfulness, and somatic enquiry with children and young people who have complex needs. Suitable for working with ages 5-18, the book explores a wide range of conditions, including sensory processing disorder, autism, Down syndrome, hypermobility, scoliosis, anxiety, depression, and trauma. Chapters also include comprehensive theory on the nervous system, child development from the age of 3+, the benefits of expressive arts, and regular reflective prompts for the adults. It is supplemented with over 100 photographs to ease learning and is an invaluable resource for therapists working with children and teens with complex needs.