Integrative team treatment for attachment trauma in children: Family therapy and EMDR

EMDR and family therapists can strengthen the parent-child attachment bond and help mend early experiences that drive the child’s behavior.

Book Description

“A practical guide to treating children suffering from early attachment trauma.

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.”

—Description from publisher

Table of Contents

Introduction
Part I: Case Conceptualization and Foundational Work
1. Scared Children, Not Scary Children: The Impact of Neurobiology on the Field of Attachment Therapy
2. Overview of the EMDR Integrative Team Treatment Model
3. Case Conceptualization and Treatment Planning Using the AIP Model
4. Providing the Foundational Work in the Family Therapy Component

Part II: EMDR Strategies
5. Attachment Resource Development and Other EMDR Preparation Activities
6. Adaptations for EMDR Reprocessing of Attachment Trauma with Children
7. Complicated Cases
8. When Parents Had a Difficult Childhood

Closing Thoughts
Appendix A: History-Taking Checklist
Appendix B: Useful Assessments
Appendix C: Handouts for Parents
Appendix D: Integrative Team Treatment Consult Meeting Planning Sheet
Appendix E: Therapeutic Story Outlines
Appendix F: Deanna’s Story
Appendix G: Joseph the Guinea Pig
Appendix H: The Tale of the Hamster and the Porcupine Coat

Book Access

Purchase/Subscription Required

Wesselmann, D., Schweitzer, C., & Armstrong, S. (2014). Integrative team treatment for attachment trauma in children: Family therapy and EMDR. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company. https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393708189

• ISBN: 978-0393708189