FST Techniques blend the many approaches to family systems therapy.
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One of the most difficult challenges that a therapist can face is when a child or teen is brought to treatment and their parents are engaged in a bitter or difficult divorce.
It takes a village to raise a child is an old African proverb.
Why is Nutrition Not Typically Part of Trauma Treatment?
You will be surprised to know that nutrition is an X factor to help a child’s traumatized brain.
Relapse occurs when our clients initially get worse before they get better. It is like stretching a rubber band that will snap back as soon as we let go. Over time, a child’s problem symptoms (i.e., self-harm, aggression, anxiety, extreme disrespect, etc.) that are caused by a traumatic event often become the new normal in…
High parent involvement is the key to your trauma treatment success.
Children and adolescents with oppositional and defiant behavior (ODD) are often referred to treatment because of extreme emotional or behavior problems.
Traumatized families with traumatized children often remain stuck in “now what?”
In working with mental health professionals around the world, they often tell me they are seeing increased anxiety in their clients.
Everywhere we turn, there seems to be another book or article on trauma treatment with the individual child. But there are three missing core pieces.
Trauma treatment is more challenging when the entire family is treated, not just the child. A central reason for this is based on our research on what we term as interactional trauma within Chapter 2 of Treating the Traumatized Child: A Step-by-Step Family Systems Approach. Interactional trauma takes place when there is constant bickering, yelling,…
Kill the spider describes what can happen when our client’s minds believe the lies perpetuated by a traumatic event. The result can be the stronghold of shame and require shame therapy. Cobwebs are the metaphor for the child’s trauma symptoms (i.e., depression, aggression, addiction, anger, self-harm) that medicate the stronghold of shame – the spider. Trauma…
Today, many adolescent boys feel emotionally abandoned. In Helping Young Boys Expand Their Emotional Language, Chris Lyford shares how we have redefined what it means to be female, but how we have left boys behind. Too many teenage boys and their parents are trapped in an outdated model of masculinity. Our boys cannot shed this…
Therapy cases can get labeled as “stuck” or “impossible” with clients mistakenly seen as unmotivated or resistant.
Ever see the famous ending scene in the 1996 movie “Jerry McGuire”?
Great therapy is both process and content.
How do you integrate this knowledge to move from treating the traumatized child to treating the traumatized family?
As COVID-19 continues, stress and anxiety are on the rise.
We’ve all been there. We make progress with traumatized clients and their families and then the forward momentum stops.
Mental health is a vast profession with hundreds of specializations and numerous types of clients.
We’ve all worked with difficult parents.
“Contrary to popular belief, trauma can be healed… without long hours of therapy; without painful reliving of memories; and without a continuing reliance on medication.”
As mental health professionals, we know traumatized families often are stuck in negative thinking.
“The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.” First coined by the philosopher Aristotle, this idiom embodies the spirit of the FST approach.
You know family relationships are complicated.
Mental health professionals tell me it can be difficult to translate traditional talk therapy to online therapy.
Your traumatized family can retell their trauma story by using an experiential technique called strongholds to bring about deep healing.
Your traumatized family can retell their trauma story by using an experiential technique called strongholds to bring about deep healing.
This particular topic on how to motivate tough parents to cooperate is by far one of the most challenging I’ve had in my career.
Here are five questions that we did in our research that you can use in your practice.
“Let’s find out what’s causing your stress.”
This episode of Family Trauma Step-by-Step Tools covers how to get therapy progress to really stick.
An approach that does not include the entire traumatized family can lead to relapse.
Treatment with traumatized families and children will often fail when the trauma therapist fails to both troubleshoot and conduct dress rehearsals.
Sixteen-year-old Lucy and her family are hopelessly stuck in the weeds.
I will never forget the phone call.
Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?
We have to get out of the weeds.
“Knowing is half the battle.” — GI Joe
What causes traumatized children and families to get stuck and unable to move forward?
Failure to Launch describes young adults who are struggling with the transition to adulthood.
When we think of creating family legacies and preserving family traditions, we focus on positive connections and joyous occasions. But often joy is only part of the family story.
When treatment ends, how do we prevent our traumatized children and families from relapsing?
