Category: Article

• Article

July 15, 2019

Why is Nutrition Not Typically Part of Trauma Treatment? Despite the advances of nutritional therapy over the last 30 years, there is often limited to no inclusion of nutrition as part of the trauma treatment for children and families with PTSD. However, diet and nutrition can serve as powerful tools to influence change in both […]

• Article

June 19, 2019

The FST Trauma Safety Playbook I will never forget the phone call. Sarah, a highly competent trauma therapist, contacted me and said: Scott, I am stuck with this family. I have been seeing them for over ten months with little to no significant change. Fifteen-year-old Leon is now involved in both the juvenile justice system […]

• Article

May 12, 2019

Why Feedback from Clients Matter Feedback comes in different forms, positive and negative, however, no matter what, it should always be constructive. Sure, it’s mostly subjective, but whenever I ask for feedback, I am “amazed” by how often people use absolute terms and words during sessions I’ve been a part of. They are eye opening […]

• Article

April 12, 2019

It Takes a Village to Raise a Child It takes a village to raise a child is an old African proverb. It means that a child needs both the immediate and extended family to overcome adverse experiences like trauma and to grow up in a safe and secure environment. Unfortunately, traditional trauma treatment often only […]

• Article

March 11, 2019

Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg? The chicken-and-egg expression refers to situations in which it is unknown what happened first, or what situation caused the other. In trauma treatment, a critical chicken-or-the-egg decision occurs after the diagnostic assessment. Trauma therapists must choose to begin with one of the following goals for therapy: Stabilize […]

• Article

February 12, 2019

We Have to Get Out Of the Weeds   Weeds return when roots are not pulled. In the same way, our clients’ traumatic symptoms (the weeds) return when we fail to identify and treat the root causes.  When this happens, our traumatized children and families in family trauma treatment experience first order change or change […]

• Article

January 25, 2019

“Knowing is half the battle.” ~GI Joe You’ve seen the stressed-out family. Someone is crying, another is fidgeting and then there is the angry one! If only you could show the family how stressed they are and what was causing the stress. Well, now you can. At the Family Trauma Institute, we’ve found that knowing […]

• Article

December 29, 2018

High Parent Involvement is the Key to Your Trauma Treatment Success Without parent involvement in your trauma treatment, child relapse rates skyrocket. To prevent relapse, it is important to begin building relationships before you meet with the family. That is why the FST| Family Systems Trauma Model incorporates the Motivational Interview (MI) Call Technique. Sobering […]

• Article

November 11, 2018

What causes traumatized children and families to get stuck and unable to move forward? How can we change the outcome of impossible cases? Over a 30-year career in mental health, I’ve set forth to answer these questions. My personal quest began after my first major treatment failure when I received this message from a mother:  […]

• Article

October 26, 2018

Failure to Launch describes young adults who are struggling with the transition to adulthood. They have an inability to leave home and support themselves. This trend is reaching epidemic proportions. For example, a recent study cited in Psychology Today reported that 45 percent of young adults in the state of New Jersey between the ages […]