attachment and bonding center of ohio
gregory c. keck phd
Attachment
.
Reactive Attachment
Disorder and Its Treatment
The following information has been taken from "Adopting the Hurt Child", by Gregory C. Keck, PhD, and Regina Kupecky, MAT, LSW Pinon Press, Colorado Springs, 1995.
Attachment Disorder
The types of problems that adoptive parents see in their children are most likely the result of breaks in attachment that occur within the first three years. They are problems that impair, and even cripple, a child's ability to trust and bond - or attach - to other human beings.
These issues with attachment are the ones that cause the greatest problems in adopting a child with special needs. As adoptive parents attempt to attach to a child whose attachment ability is impaired by developmental delays, the attachment will either be nonexistent, distorted, or focused around negative behaviors.
Children who have suffered abuse or neglect severe enough to bring them into the foster care/adoption system may meet the diagnostic criteria for Reactive Attachment Disorder. This clinical diagnosis identifies children who have not been able to attach appropriately to a caregiver in a meaningful way.
For therapy to be effective, it must be directly related to the problems that the family and the child are experiencing. Specific problems warrant specific solutions, and boilerplate methods serve no purpose. In most cases, finding the right therapist to point out the right path is the first step toward family harmony.
We continue to hear complaints from adoptive parents that many mental health professionals blame them for their child's current problems. It is an unfortunate fact that many of those who attempt to provide treatment to adoptive parents with disturbed children know very little about issues related to adoption. This is particularly alarming when we realize that they not only fail to provide effective therapy, but also solidify the child's existing pathology and complicate subsequent therapeutic efforts. It is not unusual for us to work with families who have seen four to six other mental health professionals without results.
Since many children who have experienced neglect, abuse, and abandonment have not yet developed an internalized set of values by which they judge themselves and others, they are not able to receive and experience empathy, nor can they develop insight. They project blame onto others and onto objects. They blame their adoptive parents for causing their anger, and they blame toys for breaking. They blame things that could not possibly be responsible for anything!
Most often, children or adolescents who engage in projecting blame are those who have not yet developed a conscience. These same children are adept at engaging others in a superficial manner, thus therapists, teachers, and outsiders to the family feel that these children are easy to be around, and that they are truly misunderstood by those who should know them best -- their parents.
"Unfreezing" Development
Developmental change occurs within the context of intense interpersonal relationships.
The relationships forged in the birth family - although locked in faulty thinking and ultimately causing developmental arrest - were intense. As a result, a strong connection developed between the abused child and the abusing parent. It is important to remember this dynamic, and to understand that our positive relationships must be equally intense if they are to counteract and compete with the abusive relationships that initiated and solidified the child's pathology.
Therapy with hurt children needs to include: high energy, intense focus, close physical proximity, frequent touch, confrontation, movement, much nurturing and love, almost constant eye contact, and fast-moving verbal exchanges. One goal of therapy, then, is to approximate what occurs in the healthy attachment cycle, thus reworking the process that was so traumatically interrupted early in the child's life. Therapy that is detached, non-directive, and passive is seldom received by the child as it is intended by the therapist. It is most often viewed as cold, uncaring, uninvolved, boring, and useless.
Listen online now to Dr. Keck's latest interview
MUST HAVE BOOKS
Click
covers
for details
Check out Brothers and Sisters in Adoption by Arleta James, PCC
Click cover for
more information
Gregory Keck, PhD
Attachment and Bonding Center of Ohio
Cleveland
Office 440-230-1960
12608 State Road
Suite 1
Cleveland, Ohio 44133
Columbus
Office 614-850-9800
3966
Brown Park Drive
Suite H
Columbus, OH 43026
Home | About
Us |
Attachment | Abroad &
Back Curriculum
Application |
Lodging | Training | Articles
| Books
| Resources
