Integrative Parenting: Strategies for Raising Children Affected by Attachment Trauma

Debra Wesselmann · Cathy Schweitzer · Stefanie Armstrong

Mar 2014 · W. W. Norton & Company

About this ebook

An accompanying parent’s guide filled with effective techniques to help challenging children with traumatic pasts. Designed as a manual to complement the clinician’s guide, Integrative Team Treatment for Attachment Trauma in Children: Family Therapy and EMDR, this book is written for birth, foster, or adoptive parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, or anyone who may be raising a child who has experienced attachment loss and trauma. Their severe behaviors can often leave caregivers feeling confused, frightened, hurt, and overwhelmed, as they struggle to make sense of a massive amount of information—and misinformation—that exists on attachment issues.

This book provides understanding, validation, and solutions for these caregivers. In it, the authors explain their innovative model of “team” treatment that includes an EMDR therapist and a family therapist. Best used in conjunction with therapeutic help, it walks readers through an array of parenting strategies that will lead them to a deeper understanding of their traumatized child, and better enable them to calm their behavior and improve their attachment security so they can heal.

About the author

Debra Wesselmann, MS, LIMHP, has specialized in treating trauma and attachment problems in adults, children, and families for the past twenty-three years. She is an EMDr Institute facilitator and EMDrIA- approved consultant, as well as co-founder of the Attachment and Trauma Center of Nebraska in Omaha, Nebraska.

Cathy Schweitzer, MS, LMHP, specializes in treating trauma resolution and attachment problems in children and adolescents. She has fourteen years experience in both public and private school education, ten as a counselor for the Omaha public school system. She is level II trained and certified in EMDR, and is a co-founder of The Attachment and Trauma Center of Nebraska.

Stefanie Armstrong, MS, LIMHP, is a co-founder of and member of the treatment team at The Attachment and Trauma Center of Nebraska. She has more than ten years experience as a teacher and counselor in the Omaha public school system, is level II trained and certified in EMDR, and has presented her expertise in treating and parenting traumatized children across Nebraska and nationally.