Pediatricians & Child Psychiatry

Biography

Biography: Fadak Al Saleh

Abstract

As a family therapist, working with traumatized-attachment children we’re not focusing only on the experience of trauma itself, but we’re considering also the issue of family system, its bonds and its safety, as they should be discussed and integrated into the work. “Children and adolescence with complex trauma require and approach to treatment that focuses on several dimensions of impairment,” by Cook et al. 2005 in Becker-Weidman & Hughes 2008. The focus of our discussion will be mainly on the traumatized children, aging between 6 to 12, who are exposed to the outer world traumatic events, and how their experiences with trauma affects and is affected by their family relationships, along with their impact on their school performance. Beside dyadic developmental psychotherapy-which is a family based attachment theory that helps children and families deal with attachment disorders and complex trauma effects-Family system approaches emphasizes on the importance of family communication and their relationships. Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy is also an evidence-based treatment that works with families and children to assist on the effects of traumatic events. Integrating the interventions of these three theories during therapy sessions, we can help these damaged children form a secure attachment between them and their caregivers and create a safe environment for the family to build their relationships in a more reliable family atmosphere. Also to help build a bridge of the two environments of school and home to provide support for those children in who are effected by traumatic events and treat them as what Becker-Weidman and Hughes (2008) illustrated; that being exposed to complex trauma without receiving a good treatment causes a variety of impairments in different areas in the children’s lives including attachment, interpersonal relationships and many others.