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The ChildTrauma Academy Newsletters |
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A primary goal of The ChildTrauma Academy and its partners is to help traumatized and maltreated children. In addition to our research and training efforts we continue to provide direct clinical consultation and services to maltreated children. We also work closely with several institutions with a primary mission of direct clinical service. In this issue we will highlight some of these activities. Our work brings us to many communities and gives us opportunities to see many innovative programs and projects. Some of these innovations and interventions are outside the mainstream of a conventional medical model. As highlighted in previous Newsletters, we have embraced many of these interventions and enrichment activities as part of our Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT). The more we learn about some of these approaches such as therapeutic massage and music/movement activities, the more we are impressed with their potential as key elements of a comprehensive "tool kit" for maltreated children. We appreciate the positive feedback we received from our previous Newsletters and we look forward to your comments on this Newsletter. We will continue to work hard to provide useful and timely information to help you continue to better understand and serve high risk children and their families. Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D.
In the first months of life, touch is sustaining. The
warmth, pressure and pattern of repetitive nurturing touch
provides a set of neural signals necessary for normal
physical growth. This powerful somatosensory experience
helps shape a healthy child. In our modern society, however,
the power of touch is undervalued. And no group tends to
have more trouble with healthy touch than maltreated
children.
Many researchers have documented the power of these early experiences - Tiffany Fields, Sanda Weiss, Saul Shanberg. Massage for premature infants has improved outcomes in the PICU; massage for depressed adolescents has been as effective as medication treatments on inpatient units; massage has decreased the anxiety and depressive symptoms of children with ADHD. In short, research is demonstrating that massage has a huge range of potential positive emotional and physical effects - and, most important, not just for infants. Unfortunately we are a touch-starved culture. Indeed, there are many pre-schools, kindergartens and elementary schools where teachers or care providers are prohibited from hugging or touching children! Practical application of the power of touch takes many forms. One group that we have been impressed by is the Foundation for Healthy Family Living directed by Kalena Babeshoff. This group has a number of excellent training programs which help practitioners learn how to encorporate massage and touch into their work with children and families. Another group is the Touch Research Institute affiliated with University of Miami School of Medicine. Their excellent work has been ongoing for dozens of years and is slowly being integrated into more "mainstream" clinical practice. Visit their websites and think about how you can start to integrate these healthy practices into your work.
The evolution of the developmentally-informed, biologically
sensitive therapeutic approach we use at The ChildTrauma
Academy is described in an upcoming book by Bruce Perry and
award-winning co- author, Maia Szalavitz. This book is in
the final stages of production and will be available in Dec
2006 or Jan 2007.
By using case material and the true stories of children he has worked with over the years, Dr. Perry describes the experiences that slowly shaped his thinking about neurobiology and trauma, relationships and healing, clinical practice and systemic problems. Written for the general public, this should none-the- less be a valuable resource for practitioners of every discipline.
Dr. Jerry Yager leads the Denver Children's Home, one of the
oldest and most respected institutions working with high
risk children in Colorado. With a wide range of experience
from front-line staff to policy advisor and community
leader, Dr. Yager is uniquely poised to offer insight and
direction to our program development projects.
One of the major efforts of The ChildTrauma Academy over this next year will be moving forward on a "CTA West." Dr. Gizane Indart, Director of the Denver Children's Advocacy Center, Dr. Yager and Dr. Perry of The CTA have been discussing the development of a collaborative group in Colorado - essentially a CTA West - to begin offering multi-day training institutes for clinicians and program supervisors seeking to learn more about the CTA's work with high risk children and to get the hands on, in depth training on various aspects of assessment, staffing and intervention using the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics. Watch for updates in future Newsletters.
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