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Healing Connections is an essential guide for professionals and caregivers working with children who have complex needs stemming from early trauma, losses, or involvement in the child welfare system. This updated resource builds on prior foundational knowledge to deliver contemporary tools and practices tailored to today's diverse families, including foster and adoptive families. By incorporating insights from a wide range of experts, the book reflects a multi-systemic approach that addresses collective trauma and the crucial role of belonging and community in healing. Aligning with the latest evidence-based practices, Healing Connections emphasizes the importance of staying informed about recent research and advancements in the field. Whether you're a caregiver or a professional supporting children and youth, this book provides valuable knowledge and practical resources to enhance your understanding and effectiveness. Healing Connections aims to enlighten and equip you with essential strategies to foster healing and growth in children facing significant challenges. -
by Marti Smith, OTR/L, TBRI Practitioner, ChildTrauma Academy Fellow A book about an OT who studied Dr. Bruce Perry's work and Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) and found healing for her own family and the families she serves. In this three part book, Marti discusses how trauma aware research transformed her own therapy practice from behavior to connection focus. The senses are explored in relation to how adverse experience shapes our preferences and sensory processing abilities. The final section reveals resources and practical strategies to help select best practice sensory based strategies to promote healing through activity. Buy on Amazon -
by Sharon Kaplan Roszia and Allison Davis Maxon Based on a hugely successful US model, the Seven Core Issues in Adoption is the first conceptual framework of its kind to offer a unifying lens that was inclusive of all individuals touched by the adoption experience. The Seven Core Issues are Loss, Rejection, Shame/Guilt, Grief, Identity, Intimacy, and Mastery/Control. The book expands the model to be inclusive of adoption and all forms of permanency: adoption, foster care, kinship care, donor insemination and surrogacy. Attachment and trauma are integrated with the Seven Core Issues model to address and normalize the additional tasks individuals and families will encounter. The book views the Seven Core Issues from a range of perspectives including: multi-racial, LGBTQ, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, African-American, International, openness, search and reunion, and others. This essential guide introduces each Core Issue, its impact on individuals, offering techniques for growth and healing. -
Teach Resilience and Practical Strategies to Cope with Trauma by Jessica Sinarski, illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff All around us, children are carrying backpacks that are heavy with more than just textbooks. Each day, they also bear the weight of difficult life experiences and intense feelings. Zoey Harmon just wants to feel light-hearted and carefree. Unfortunately, she keeps getting weighed down by pesky "books" in her backpack, like Worry and Shame. Much to her surprise, she's not the only one! Zoey learns that the adults in her life deal with difficult feelings too! Luckily, they have some ideas that can help her set aside the books she's not meant to carry. Will it be enough to help her unload the heaviest book of all? "You look a little worried, kiddo," Zoey's mom said, giving her a squeeze. "Sometimes I need a bright thought to help me when I'm feeling upset. Here, try this." She slid a bookmark into Zoey's hand. Zoey looked down and read: Imagine with Hope. "What's this?" asked Zoey. "When we don't know what to expect, worry wants us to imagine with fear, to think about all the worst possibilities. This is a little reminder I use to think of the good things that might happen when I imagine with hope instead." While there are no quick fixes for all of life's complex problems, What's Inside Your Backpack? highlights some of the ways we can nurture resilience in body and mind. Using the metaphor of books and bookmarks, author Jessica Sinarski offers gentle, effective strategies to help children impacted by trauma. By sharing their burdens with people they trust, kids can lighten their load and realize just how strong and courageous they really are! -
by Angela Tucker An adoption expert and transracial adoptee herself examines the unique perspectives and challenges these adoptees have as they navigate multiple cultures “Your parents are so amazing for adopting you! You should be grateful that you were adopted.” Angela Tucker is a Black woman, adopted from foster care by white parents. She has heard this microaggression her entire life, usually from well-intentioned strangers who view her adoptive parents as noble saviors. She is grateful for many aspects of her life, but being transracially adopted involves layers of rejection, loss, and complexity that cannot be summed up so easily. In “You Should Be Grateful,” Tucker centers the experiences of adoptees to share deeply personal stories, well-researched history, and engrossing anecdotes from mentorship sessions with adopted youth. These perspectives challenge the fairy-tale narrative of adoption, giving way to a fuller story that explores the impacts of racism, classism, family, love, and belonging. -
Help Kids Build Self-Confidence and Resilience by Jessica Sinarski, illustrated by Simone Douglas Destiny Davis carries more than just schoolbooks in her backpack. Her constant companion, Anxiety, makes everyday tasks feel impossibly hard. But when a big class project sends Destiny into a full-blown spiral, her dad steps in with a surprising solution - and a reminder that even the toughest challenges can be faced head on. This heartwarming story will help kids:- Understand the brain science behind anxiety
- Experiment with helpful coping strategies
- Build self-confidence and resilience
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If you are a parent, or you are supporting a parent, whose child experienced trauma or neglect in early childhood, Hope for Healing: A Parent’s Guide to Trauma and Attachment may hold the answers to many of your questions. This thoughtful guide, written by therapists and parents who live and work with children who have a disorder or disturbance of attachment, will help parents, family members, educators, and others learn to support children on their path to healthy, loving and trusting relationships. The six-hour DVD was designed to be used in support group settings and by therapists in the training of caretakers. -
by Dr. Barbara Sorrels and Cathy Chalmers, M.A. Once you understand attachment, parenting makes a lot more sense. The basics of child development, and the importance of attachment, will equip you to create meaningful and secure relationships that last a lifetime. You’ll discover:- What is healthy attachment How to nurture connection in various ages and stages
- The crucial differences between punishment and discipline
- How child development research aligns with biblical truth
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by Nicole Steward Solutions for tackling the deeply-rooted causes of burnout. Radical Self-Care for Helpers, Healers, and Changemakers addresses the constant exposure to heartbreak and injustice that can take a toll on the mental and physical health of those in the helping professions. After more than twenty years as a social worker, author Nicole Steward shares her own challenges with burnout and offers practical solutions to tackle the deeply-rooted causes of overwhelm that helpers face, which include compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and moral injury. Steward’s solutions go beyond mere stress-reduction techniques; rather, she offers a framework for engaging in radical self-care. Here readers will discover a way of being that prioritizes helpers and healers, so they can better serve others without sacrificing their own health and wellness. This book offers foundational strategies that challenge the current systems that contribute to the high rates of burnout and turnover in the human and social service professions. By taking radical care of themselves, helpers can take a more effective and resilient approach to their work, ultimately leading to liberation for both themselves and those they serve. -
by Mathew Portell, Ingrid L. Cockhren, Tyisha J. Noise, Julie Kurtz, & Julie Nicholson In Reducing Stress in Schools, Mathew Portell, Ingrid L. Cockhren, Tyisha J. Noise, Julie Kurtz, and Julie Nicholson provide a toolkit of actionable, evidence-based practices for PreK–12 teachers, administrators, and staff to support students’ and adults’ nervous system regulation. Rooted in the tenets of trauma-responsive education and current neuroscience, these strategies address stress-related behavioral challenges present in schools, including fight, flight, freeze, and fawn behaviors. Unique in its approach, this book raises awareness of the collective trauma caused by the pandemic, highlights the effects of racial and historical trauma, draws attention to educators' stress and burnout, and proposes strategies for stress reduction drawn from a diverse range of practitioner experience. The authors show that, in the post-COVID-19 era, as students and educators contend with unprecedented exposure to mental health stressors, research supports classroom management via relationship-building interventions. They demonstrate how alternatives to exclusionary discipline practices can promote social-emotional learning, counter learning loss, and improve student skills such as sensory literacy, resilience, and frustration tolerance. This work delivers clear guidance throughout chapters that feature real-world case studies, sample conversations, and questions for reflection and discussion. It also includes recommendations for countering resistance to the implementation of trauma-responsive practices for classroom management. Ultimately, it gives educators the tools to build schools that reduce stress and strengthen racial justice, equity, healing, and safety. -
by Bessel van der Kolk M.D. Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity. Based on Dr. van der Kolk’s own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal—and offers new hope for reclaiming lives. -
Arthur Becker-Weidman, PhD This two-DVD set (approximately three hours) explains how to assess children for Complex Trauma and disorders of attachment. The set contains:- Introduction and overview of Complex Trauma and Disorders of Attachment
- Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder defined
- Effects of trauma on development
- Domains of impairment caused by trauma
- Differential diagnosis
- Video tape of children being assessed
- Useful tests and measures such as the Attachment Story Completion Test and others
- Complete PowerPoint Presentation slides.
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by Joe Brummer & Margaret Thorsborne Maybe you have heard the terms 'trauma-informed' and 'restorative' - but how do you go about becoming a trauma-informed, restorative educator? This practical book outlines the values, ideas and neuroscience behind trauma-informed restorative practice and its proven effectiveness. It clearly explains key theories relating to shame, trauma and your autonomic nervous system, and explains how to apply this knowledge in practice. Examples and stories of restorative practice feature throughout to inspire and emulate, as do practical protocols, tools and systems to develop your skills as a trauma-informed educator. Critically, it also explains the personal and professional qualities you need to nurture to truly engage in trauma-informed, restorative practice, with reflection points to aid learning and self-development. Read this book and take your first steps to creating a trauma-informed, restorative classroom - even if your school isn't doing it! -
Edited by Evan Senreich, Shulamith Lala Ashenberg Straussner, & Jordan Dann Experiential Therapies for Treating Trauma offers 17 chapters, with 15 of them focusing on a different experiential psychotherapy for treating trauma, written by clinicians with expertise in that modality. No other book contains descriptions of such a wide array of experiential therapies under one cover. Readers will obtain both a comprehensive overview of the many experiential therapies that are currently utilized and specific knowledge regarding how to utilize each of them in psychotherapy practice. The authors of each chapter emphasize that in working with clients impacted by trauma, there is a need for the use of therapeutic modalities that go beyond the cognitive processes central to talk therapy and incorporate more holistic, sensory approaches that emphasize the building of a strong relationship between the client and therapist. Both experienced clinicians and students will find this book to be an invaluable resource to enhance their knowledge of how to use experiential therapies and to motivate them to obtain advanced training in modalities that spark their interest. -
Teach Kids to Figure Out Why They are Mad by Jessica Sinarski, illustrated by Macky Pamintuan What can you do when your feelings get the best of you? The students at Sunnyvale Elementary carry a lot in their backpacks - including some things you can't see quite so well, like big feelings and confusing emotions. Today, one fiery red book keeps spilling out and exploding onto everyone: ANGER! It's time for the kids to use their best detective skills to figure out what's underneath those angry feelings. Ana feels HURT when her friends don't play fair. Ben feels EMBARRASSED when he makes a mistake. Grace feels DIFFERENT when nobody chooses her for their team. When our feelings get the best of us, we need to do our best with our feelings. Become a backpack detective like Ana, Ben, and Grace! "Stop when I'm furious. Pause and be curious. What is underneath the mad? Am I lonely, stressed, or sad?" -
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The six-hour DVD follows the topics introduced in ATTACh’s book Hope for Healing: A handbook for parents of children who have disorders of attachment. -
by Greta S. Kjos, J.D., CLC I was doing laundry, making neat piles of shirts, shorts, pants, and socks. Then my twelve-year-old daughter Marit was standing next to me. "Mom," she said, "I just took a bunch of pills." When her preteen daughter became a suicide attempt survivor, Greta Kjos was living in the shadow of the deepest, darkest fear a mother could endure. But she also had a deep, dark secret of her own: at age nineteen, she had also attempted suicide. And not a single person knew. In this inspiring story, Greta shares how she survived amidst crisis and chaos―and took a courageous, intrinsically connected healing journey with her daughter. Part mental health memoir and part self-love book for women, each chapter includes a "Take a Deep Breath" section with mindfulness prompts, reflection questions, and wellness practices Greta has both experienced herself and developed in her "second act" as a life coach. Your authentic self is waiting for you―but it's never linear. There is a lot of deconstructing that must take place before moving forward. Old belief patterns and core wounds need to be examined. Relationships that no longer serve you may need to go. Careers may need to change. And yet no matter what the change is, at the core of all healing is the willingness to love yourself. The perfect companion for anyone healing their mental health and spiritual being, I Am the Ocean is a story of beginning to let the light shine through the cracks. -
by Deb Dana Here, for the first time, is a layperson’s explanation of polyvagal theory, an approach to mental health and well-being that has taken the clinical world by storm. A polyvagal approach to life is based on the knowledge that the autonomic nervous system is shaped by early experience and reshaped with ongoing experience. This short book offers an overview for nonspecialist readers and provides a series of exercises and meditations (practices) that allow readers to tune into their nervous systems, providing calming prompts to build and strengthen ventral vagal connections. This book includes a never-before-published comprehensive chapter on polyvagal theory, preceded by exercises that focus on mapping, reflecting, listening, deepening, creating, and connecting. Readers who want to change a pattern and find new rhythm for their nervous systems can use this material to work toward those goals. -
By Sharon Roszia and Allison Davis Maxon Based on a hugely successful US model, The Seven Core Issues Workbook is accessible and parent-friendly with brief explanations, activities and exercises. The Seven Core Issues are Loss, Rejection, Shame/Guilt, Grief, Identity, Intimacy and Mastery/Control. The workbook gives parents the ability to explore their own issues as well as their child's through varies experiential exercise and activities. Parents can identify and address their core issues in order to more effectively assist and support the child's core issues. The workbook and its exercises allow for a variety of diverse groups to use the book with ease, making it the essential tool for all individuals to grow and heal themselves and their families. -
by Jessica Sinarski This isn't your average ABC book! It's not just for learning letters. B Is for Brain teaches kids how to name emotions, handle hard moments, and get ready for all that school has to offer. From Light Up the Learning Brain author, Jessica Sinarski, comes a playful alphabet adventure that helps children build the emotional smarts they need to thrive in the classroom and beyond. Familiar friends from Riley the Brave are back in this joyful read-aloud that nurtures confidence, curiosity, and even that oh-so-difficult skill of self-control. Ideal for ages 3-5 and the adults helping them grow.
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by Jaiya John Jaiya John follows up his books Daughter Drink This Water, and, Freedom, with this aromatic delight for your soul. Fragrance After Rain is a sensitive, hopeful, intimate movement through your many seasons of tenderness, and the beautiful meaning and grace that grow from that fertile ground. If you love Rumi, Hafez, Gibran, and other classic mystic poets, here is your honey jar. This book is pregnant with balm and salve so personal and intuitively attuned, you will be certain the words were birthed just for you. Sustenance as you live through your personal moments, and through the collective moods of the world. Fragrance is a free flowing melody of petite stories and mystic whispers, a wildflower meadow you may enjoy wherever you lay yourself within it for a moment and breathe beautifully. These inspirational pieces are entirely liberated from chapters and sections, freely roaming, drifting on spirit breeze as they wish. Each word-bouquet is gathered and growing according to the sunlight, soil, and water of Love's orchestral conducting. Open this book, turn to a page, let your eyes arrive to any brief orchard of words, and allow your heart to taste the fruit and meet its craving. Whatever words you meet are the words you need in the moment. In this Fragrance story, the one who speaks, is spoken to, and is spoken about is you, BeLoved. All of this is you. This is a book of bright clouds in the sky of your life. Bringing you beauty, meaning, the downy reflection of sunlight, life-replenishing rain, and a sweet fragrance thereafter. Walk, dance, sing, and repose yourself through this aromatic pasture, and feel a peace that is both medicine and music for your soul. Be careful, dear Lover. If you sip these words slowly and savor their essence, you may become a mystic. -
A companion piece useful for working through Hope For Healing. -
by Jessica Sinarski Learn How the Brain Affects Behavior Are you ready to increase learning opportunities, reduce negative behaviors, and improve staff and student morale? Then it's time to become a brain builder! We all are aware of an alarming increase in reported behavioral disruptions in school settings. Often less understood is the critical role that the brain plays in shaping all behavior, including the challenges we face in our classrooms and beyond. Light Up the Learning Brain illuminates the many ways that teaching through a brain-based lens can breathe new life into your work. In these pages, you will discover:- how the brain's two main "operating systems" interact - and often compete
- the amygdala's vital role as an alarm system and gatekeeper
- ways that brain function is closely connected to our senses
- the power of play, curiosity, and safety in fostering brain development
- tips, scripts, and tools to make your job easier and more fulfilling
