Attachment, Trauma, and Healing: Understanding and Treating Attachment Disorder in Children and Families. - Review - book review

Adolescence, Winter, 2000

LEVY, Terry M., & ORLANS, Michael. Attachment, Trauma, and Healing: Understanding and Treating Attachment Disorder in Children and Families. Washington, DC: Child Welfare League of America Press, 1998. 3l5pp(p).

Attachment is the deep and enduring connection established between a child and caregiver in the first few years of life. It profoundly influences every component of the human condition: mind, body, emotions, relationships, and values. Children lacking secure attachments with caregivers may grow up to be parents who are incapable of establishing this crucial foundation with their own children. Attachment, Trauma, and Healing examines the causes of attachment disorder, and provides in-depth discussion on effective solutions--including attachment-focused assessment and diagnosis, specialized training and education for caregivers, the controversial "in-arms" treatment for children and caregivers, and early intervention and prevention programs for high-risk families. Chapters include: historical perspective; roots of attachment; personal and social competencies-the attachment foundation; disrupted attachment; assessment; corrective attachment therapy--basic theoretical and treatment issues; corrective attachment t herapy--revisit, revise, and revitalize; corrective attachment therapy--the family system; two-week treatment program; parenting the child with attachment disorder; the child welfare system and public policy. Appendixes include: intake packet; a day in the life; sentence completion form; patterns of adult attachment; symptom comparison--ADHD, bipolar disorder, reactive attachment disorder; the effective corrective attachment therapist; historical perspective; life script; and follow-up treatment plan.