Category: Article

• Article

January 10, 2020

When starting treatment, the focus typically starts by treating the traumatized child through individual therapy.   But this approach does not include the entire traumatized family and can lead to relapse. And if the trauma story is told over and over again, inevitably we, as clinicians, get this response… “Now what? After talking about our trauma, […]

• Article

January 2, 2020

I’m well aware that very few people keep their New Year’s resolutions. Making any change even when we are 100% sure it will benefit us is really difficult.  Most times,  New Year’s resolutions are dead and broken by mid-January.  They do us absolutely no good. I’m stating the obvious here, right? Well this resolution of […]

• Article

December 19, 2019

There is an excellent story on the importance of knowing where to tap told by the late family therapist, Virginia Satir: After listening to the engineer’s description of the problems and asking a few questions, he went to the boiler room. He looked at the maze of twisting pipes, listened to the thump of the […]

• Article

November 20, 2019

When treatment ends, how do we prevent our traumatized children and families from relapsing? And how do we help our families recognize the early signs of relapse before they occur? There are many articles and books written on how to begin treatment through proper assessment and diagnostic tools. But surprisingly, in comparison, there is very […]

• Article

November 1, 2019

Treatment with traumatized families and children will often fail when the trauma therapist fails to both troubleshoot “what will you do if?” scenarios with the FST Trauma Playbook (i.e., what will you do if your child refuses to go on a special outing with you?) and conduct dress rehearsals with both the parent or caregiver […]

• Article

October 8, 2019

Traumatized families with traumatized children often remain stuck in “now what?” After identifying the traumatic event and telling their story, the question is “now what?”. “What do we do in the here and now to heal our child’s trauma to move forward?” Trauma therapists often lack the tools to answer this question. In response, the […]

• Article

August 16, 2019

Sixteen-year-old Lucy and her family are hopelessly stuck in the weeds. Lucy is in treatment due to self-harming behaviors (cutting), symptoms of depression, and anxiety. She was bullied through 9th grade at school. Since this traumatic event, her grades continue to plummet, her attendance is sporadic, and she suffers from depression and anxiety. To add […]

• 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 […]