Young children in the child welfare system are inherently vulnerable to disruptions in early attachment, and abrupt changes of placement can function as trauma triggers. In this article, the authors present a case from a Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) Learning Collaborative which exemplifies the potential trauma of placement changes, and how CPP…

Allan N. Schore has served on the clinical faculty of the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine since 1996 and has maintained a private clinical practice for more than four decades. He has contributed significant research to the disciplines of interpersonal neurobiology, affective…

This is the first comprehensive clinical introduction to using a time-limited mentalizing approach for working with children, ages 5 to 12, who experience emotional and behavioral problems, including anxiety, depression, and relational difficulties. Mentalization-based treatment (MBT) promotes a child's ability to make sense of their own mind, and…

In the last few decades, grief and loss research in the psychological domain has focused almost exclusively on its dysfunctional nature. I examine what is underneath these questions about pathology and suggest that our discipline is suffering from an attachment wound where we have dissociated from our historical roots when it comes to the study of…

This article tells the story of a single mother, Maria, who has a history of trauma, and her 2-year-old daughter, Lina, as they learn, play, and heal together through the use of Child-Parent Psychotherapy, an evidenced-based, trauma-informed therapeutic intervention in a home-based program model. Through the power of play, Maria and Lina are able…

Child-parent psychotherapy (CPP) can strengthen the relationship and attachment between caregivers and children. Young children who have experienced multiple traumas, such as the destruction caused by a natural disaster and the sudden, traumatic loss of parents, depend on support of other caregivers for recovery and resilience. The case…

An evolving relational dynamic approach to psychotherapy and counselling education is described. Key themes integrated within the approach are the learning community and transformational relationships. Learning is a reciprocal change process involving students, teachers, supervisors and therapists in overlapping learning communities. Drawing on…

Infancy is a time of extreme opportunity, but it is also a time of extreme vulnerability, particularly for those reared in high-risk environments. Although infant exposure to any risk is important to understand, this brief focuses on the experience and impact of "trauma," defined as witnessing or experiencing an event that poses a real…

The experience of divorce influences life of children involved and there could be short- and long- term consequences (Dykeman, 2003). Researches showed that divorce can negatively change quality of attachment between children and parents, especially if maternal depression and high percentage of chronic conflict between parents attend (Fabbro,…

The Parent-Child Psychotherapy Program (PPP) is a multifamily group therapy intervention for parents and young children at high risk for intergenerational patterns of neglect, abuse, and disorganized attachment. A "developmental and experiential model" that incorporates principles of attachment theory, the PPP addresses parent and child needs…

The impacts of violence for young children and their caregivers are multidimensional. The story of 2-year-old Tyronne, his mother, Josephine, and his father, James, illustrates the use of a relationship-focused treatment, child-parent psychotherapy (CPP), in addressing the traumatic consequences of exposure to violence. This family's story…

This paper charts the journey made towards verbal communication with Mackenzie, a boy who was three years old at the start of treatment and diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder. In this paper, I bring together diverse areas of research and demonstrate how they inform my clinical practice. Together, these ideas created a multimodal and…

This article aims to demonstrate that it is not only the mind that needs to have the capacity to hold and transform, but also the body. Fordham's concept of the "primary self" emphasises the unity between the body and emotional states in infancy. The self is expressed through actions that bring the infant into contact with the mother and the…

Because most research on military families has focused on children who are old enough to go to school, we know the least about the youngest and perhaps most vulnerable children in these families. Some of what we do know, however, is worrisome--for example, multiple deployments, which many families have experienced during the wars in Iraq and…

This paper explores further the vast topic of child neuropsychiatric disorders--ADHD in particular. It refers to and expands on issues debated in an earlier paper "Ritalin for whom?". In that paper, it was argued that those who benefitted most from children taking Ritalin were parents and teachers struggling with uncontained and out-of-control…