Deciding What to do After a Crime

If you are a victim of crime, you may have to cope with challenges you never expected to face. You may have been wounded or lost property you can’t afford to replace. You may be overwhelmed by fear or anger. And you may not know what to do next or where to turn for help. Victim advocates can help you figure out what steps to take and what choices you may need to make. Victim advocates include paid and unpaid service providers working in a variety of settings to respond to crime victims’ mental, physical, financial, social, emotional, and spiritual needs. Advocates can offer advice on how to stay safe and give you information on medical, mental health, and victim services in your community. Below are some of the options you may want to explore, either on your own or with the help of a victim advocate. READ MORE HERE

• Find Local Assistance – Connect Directory
• Get Help Bulletins for Crime Victims
  • Options for Victims
  • Victims’ Rights
  • Bulletins for Teens
  • When a Youth Is Victimized
  • Civil Justice for Victims of Crime
  • Victim Impact Statements
  • Crime Victim Compensation
  • Restitution
  • How Crime Victims React to Trauma
  • Trauma of Victimization
  • The Criminal Justice System
  • What is a Victim Advocate?
  • Community and Victimization
  • Grief: Coping with the Death of a Loved One
• National Hotlines and Helpful Links
• Civil Litigation – National Crime Victim Bar Association
• Coping with Trauma and Grief
• Sexual Assault Awareness Month

Male Partners of Women Who Are Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse Needed for Dissertation Research

I am Tonya Thomas, a doctoral candidate in the Couple and Family Therapy program at Alliant International University currently completing my dissertation under the supervision of Dr. Alba Nino. I am conducting a study about the therapeutic needs of male partners of women who are survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Participants in this study will be asked to share information about their experiences while in couple’s therapy with the survivor of childhood sexual abuse. This study has been approved by the Alliant International University Institutional Review Board (IRB).

I am writing to ask if you would kindly share the attached flier with others who may be interested in participating in my study, or who may have contact with potential participants. This study is focused as you will see on the partner’s experience of conjoint/couples therapy, and not on the sexual abuse survivor. Below is a bit more of what I’ll be sharing with potential participants before they are interviewed.

Below is the info presented to participants who have met criteria:

This research project is a qualitative study designed to help researchers and therapists better understand the therapeutic needs of the male partners of female childhood sexual abuse survivors. Participants in this study will be asked to share information about their experiences of therapy while in couple’s therapy with the survivor of childhood sexual abuse.

Academic and Professional Publication of this Research Study:
The results of this study will be presented in a doctoral dissertation and published in scientific journals, and may be presented at professional meetings, conferences, or published articles, as long as you are not identified and cannot reasonably be identified from it. Findings of this study may be published for professional and academic purposes. Publications will include descriptions of themes, quotes, and statements that emerge during the interviews, however names or any identifying information will not be disclosed or revealed in any published materials.

Potential Benefits:
The direct benefit to you may be that you learn more about your experience and have the opportunity to reflect on positive changes you have made in your life and your relationships. Others may benefit too in learning about your experience, knowledge, and information gained from this study. And, therapists may learn to more effectively provide assistance and therapeutic services to partners of childhood sexual abuse survivors.

Potential Risks:
There may be risks to participate in this study. Although the focus of this research study is on your experience, feelings of mild anxiety may arise after reflecting on the impact of couples’ therapy and your relationship with your intimate partner who has experienced childhood sexual abuse. Answering these questions may result in you having to reflect on painful and traumatic experiences of your relationship and the experiences you had or didn’t have in therapy.

You may temporarily feel that you are back in that time being described. If any of these occur and feel unmanageable, you may stop the interview at any time. You may also take a break at any time throughout the interview. Time will be spent at the end of the interview to answer any questions or concerns and/or process any emotions that may have surfaced during the interview. The researcher will spend whatever time is necessary to make sure you do not leave feeling emotionally overwhelmed or at risk. Resources and/or referrals to your local area will be made upon request.

Confidentiality and Anonymity Statement:
As a participant in this research study, you have the right to privacy and all information leading to identification will be kept confidential, unless otherwise required by law. *California law mandates the filing and reporting of reasonable suspicions of child (if the child is still under the age of 18) or elder abuse. Participation in this research could result in the researcher being required to report child or elder abuse. For example, if information is disclosed where children under the age of 18 are currently living with or are in close contact with someone who has been identified as abusing another person, regardless if they have or have not been legally charged, will be reported to the local child protection services or the police. It is also possible that under certain circumstances, data could be subpoenaed by court order. Additional reportable exceptions to confidentiality include suicidality and homicidality. *Indicate appropriate state for participant’s geographic location.

The researcher will take every precaution to keep the participant’s identification anonymous by use of a pseudonym chosen by the participant or assigned by the researcher. The audio recording of the interview will be transcribed by an outside professional transcription service who has signed a confidentiality agreement binding him/her to keep all information heard through the interview confidential. No demographics or other identifying information will be provided to the outside professional transcription service. If identifying information is mistakenly disclosed during the recorded interviews, the identifying information will be removed during the transcription process. She/he will return all audio recordings and transcribed data to the researcher upon completion of this interview.

Storage of and Destruction of Data:
Demographics or any other identifying information will be stored separate from the audio recordings and transcribed data in order to keep confidentiality and anonymity of the research participant. Unedited data transcripts will only be seen by the researcher, the transcriber, and the dissertation committee chair to ensure anonymity. Upon publication of the doctoral dissertation, any and all identifying information of the participant will be destroyed by the researcher. Hard copy files with identifying information will be shredded, electronic copies with identifying information will be deleted, and the email account used for communication during the study will be deleted by the researcher. All data and audio recordings where the identifying information has been removed, will be kept by the researcher indefinitely for future use, upon signed approval by the participant on the consent form.

Contact Information:
If you have any questions regarding this research study or your participation, you may contact any of the following between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Pacific Time.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Tonya Thomas, M.S., Friends University
Doctoral Student of Alliant International University, Irvine, Ca.
714-881-9447
tthomas1@alliant.edu

Dissertation Chair: Dr. Alba Nino
Assistant Professor – Alliant International University
(858) 635-4708
anino@alliant.edu

Many people enter the therapy process with minimal awareness of their trauma history.  When the trauma survivors are dissociative, they have the ability to block out an awareness of their trauma.  They may know that their family had problems, or that their family was dysfunctional, etc, but they may believe they were never abused.

However, blocking out conscious awareness of trauma does not mean that the survivors have no effects of that trauma.  Using denial and dissociative skills does not mean that the abuse did not happen.  Denial means that the person simply is refusing to acknowledge or accept the fact that they were traumatized.  They are pretending they were not hurt, when they were actually hurt very badly.

Even if the memories of abuse are hidden from the survivor’s awareness, blocked trauma / unresolved trauma creates very noticeable and obvious symptoms that can be easily seen in their every day lives. People will enter therapy aware of some of the following symptoms, but they may not realize these complications are suggestive of unresolved trauma issues: READ MORE HERE

(PHOTO: This powerful photo of emotional pain and inner turmoil was taken by Shaylin Janelle photography. http://shaylinjanelle.tumblr.com )

The number of U.S. children victimized by abuse and neglect increased by nearly 3 percent in the latest annual reporting period, according to new federal data. According to the report released Monday by the Department of Health and Human Services, the estimated number of victimized children in the 2014 fiscal year was 702,208 — up from 682,307 in 2013. The report estimated fatalities attributable to child abuse and neglect at 1,580 — up from 1,530 in 2013. READ MORE HERE

2014 Children’s Advocacy Center Statistics Highlights 

2014 Full Child Advocacy Center Statistics

Among the over 315,000 children served by Children’s Advocacy Centers around the country in 2014, some startling statistics include:

• 116,940 children were ages 0 to 6 years
• 115,959 children were ages 7 to 12 years
• 81,025 children were ages 13 to 18 years
• 205,438 children reported sexual abuse
• 60,897 children reported physical abuse
• 211,831 children participated in on-site forensic interviewing at a Children’s Advocacy Center

Among the over 244,000 alleged offenders investigated for instances of child abuse in 2014, some startling statistics include:

• 154,529 were 18+ years old
• 26,294 were ages 13 to 17 years
• 20,040 were under age 13 years
• 95,913 were a parent or step-parent of the victim
• 127,358 were related or known to the child victim in another way
• 23,696 were an unrelated person the victim knew

¹ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Administration for Children & Families. Child Maltreatment 2013.http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/resource/child-maltreatment-2013  

² National Children’s Alliance 2013 and 2014 national statistics collected from Children’s Advocacy Center members and available on the NCA website: http://www.nationalchildrensalliance.org/cac-statistics

While there are many apps out there, the New Year brings new apps that should really be on every parent’s Blacklist. These apps, also known as Hidden or Vault Apps, pose dangers and many times go under the radar – disguising themselves as every day tools, such as calculators.

• Snapchat: One of the most popular apps for sexting among teens. Sexts can be saved even though they are supposed to disappear.
• Kik Messenger:  Tweens and teens also Kik to send sexts. Predators can contact your child via Kik and send unsolicited sexts.
• Tinder: No age verification means your child could be “matched with adults on this popular dating app. Tinder has had security breaches that exposed user data and location.
• Blendr: There are no age requirements for this dating app, allowing adults to contact children. GPS features can reveal the location of your child to diligent predators.
• Down: Lets a user sort Facebook friends they are “down” to hook up with. It perpetuates “hookup” culture among young teens.
• Periscope: From their website, ” Just over a year ago, we became fascinated by the idea of discovering the world through someone else’s eyes. What if you could see through the eyes of a protester in Ukraine? Or watch the sunrise from a hot air balloon in Cappadocia? It may sound crazy, but we wanted to build the closest thing to teleportation. While there are many ways to discover events and places, we realized there is no better way to experience a place right now than through live video. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but live video can take you someplace and show you around.”
• Whisper: Whisper is an anonymous confession app. It allows users to superimpose text over a picture in order to share their thoughts and feelings anonymously. However, you post anonymously, but it displays the area you are posting from. You can also search for users posting within a mile from you.
• Ask.fm: Ask.fm is one of the most popular social networking sites that is almost exclusively used by kids. It is a Q&A site that allows users to ask other users questions while remaining anonymous.
• Yik Yak: An app that allows users to post text-only “Yaks” of up to 200 characters. The messages can be viewed by the 500 Yakkers who are closest to the person who wrote the Yak, as determined by GPS tracking.
• Omegle: This app is primarily used for video chatting. When you use Omegle, you do not identify yourself through the service. Instead, chat participants are only identified as “You” and “Stranger.” However, you can connect Omegle to your Facebook account to find chat partners with similar interests. When choosing this feature, an Omegle Facebook App will receive your Facebook “likes” and try to match you with a stranger with similar likes.
• ChatRoulette and Vine– These apps allow you to video chat with strangers.
• Poof: This app allows users to make other apps “disappear” on their phone. Kids can hide any app they don’t want you to see by opening the app and selecting other apps.

Bullying 

Burn Note  –  This is a messaging app where all messages self-destruct (delete) after reading. This app only uses text messaging. Users cannot send images or videos. Parents would have no evidence that a conversation took place. This can lead to bullying or sexting or any other dangerous practice, and parents would have no idea.

After School – The description for this app in the app store says it is an anonymous and private message board for your school. This app originally launched in late 2014. But after reports of threats of school shootings on the app, it was taken down. (Burns, 2014) It was rereleased a couple of months ago with new safety features in place. (Burns, 2015) However, we are still concerned about this app since users can still post anonymously, although there is now an option to post under your real name.

Hiding Apps

Best Secret Folder – This is an iOS app that allows users to store photos secretly. The app icon is called “My Utilities” so others don’t even realize the app is on the phone.

Gallery Lock – This is similar to Best Secret Folder, but it’s for Android users. It also offers a “watchdog” feature, which will snap a photo of the user with the front facing camera after 3 failed password attempts.

KYMS (Keep Your Media Safe) –  This iOS and Android app hides all media including photos, videos, texts, documents, and PDFs.  It is disguised as a calculator app.

Private Photo (Calculator %) – This is another app designed to hide photos. The app looks just like a calculator, except in the bottom right corner of the app icon is a % symbol. Users enter a code on what looks to be a working calculator. They can then access their storage of secret photos.

Video Recording and Sharing

Meerkat –  This app captures live streaming video through a mobile device. Users can link their Meerkat account to their Twitter or Facebook account to share their live streaming videos to followers. The problems with this are numerous. Live streaming opens the door to cyberbullying and predators.

Periscope – Similar to Meerkat. Periscope was just released this year, but users are already reporting sexual assault and bullying. (Tempesta, 2015)

Location Sharing – Click here for instructions on how to turn off location sharing on your child’s iPhone.

Foursquare –  This is an app that allows users to geotag their exact location at any time. Problems with this are obvious to us as adults. But we need to teach our children why this is so dangerous.

Periscope –  We mention this one again because the app has a location-sharing feature that is on by default and must be turned off. Most teens will forget to do this, or not recognize the importance of this.

Social Media

9Gag.com –  This is an image and video sharing site. Users can upload a video or image to share. Then the videos or images are voted up or down, and users can leave comments. Some posts are cute and fun. But most are not. Users can even browse the NSFW (Not Safe For Work) section. NSFW videos are blacked out until a user clicks the button to play the video. But nothing is stopping anyone, including children and teens, from seeing the inappropriate content.

Reddit Forums – This is a social media website. The app for Reddit is actually called Alien Blue. Content is organized into “subreddits” according to topics. There are subreddits dedicated specifically to porn. A user only needs to click a button confirming they are 18 to enter these subreddits.

Miscellaneous

iFunny   – This is an image based joke app. “There’s enough swearing, sexual banter, soft porn images, and rude and hateful comments to negate anything else in the mix that’s remotely funny” (Villamagna, n.d.).

Paltalk – This app allows users to communicate in a group chat via video, Internet chat and voice.

Adult Player – (We did not include the app icon as it is pornographic.) This is an android app that does not appear in any vetted storefronts, such as Google Play. Instead, users install the app directly from a website. It is said to offer free porn. But it’s actually something called ransomware. The app uses the cameras forward facing camera to secretly capture an image of the user. The user is then locked out of the phone until a $500 ransom is paid.       

Texting

 ooVoo

WhatsApp

Micro-blogging

Instagram

Tumblr

 Twitter

Vine

Chatting, Meeting, Dating

MeetMe

Skout

Other Useful Information

Lifestyle and photography categories on iTunes are the most likely categories to contain porn since iTunes doesn’t have a porn or “adult” category like Android. Apple does not allow true nudity, but people in their underwear are okay. And of course, some slip by.

Apple’s most recent update, iOS 9, has a way to hide pictures on your phone, no app needed.

How to Keep Your Kids Safe

It is necessary for parents to stay educated as new apps and social media sites become available. But obviously no parent can be on top of everything all the time. So the most important thing we can do as parents is to communicate with our children. Here are some other tips.

• BE THE PARENT. Don’t allow your child to roam free in the dangerous and unhealthy environments many of these apps provide. Click on any apps you don’t recognize on your child’s phone.
• Discuss the hidden dangers of social media that teens may not recognize. On many live streaming videos, tweens and teens can be seen giving out their full names and the city and state in which they live. Kids need to be taught not to over share on the Internet.
• Set restrictions on their cell phones and check the phone often.
• Internet filters are also a great option. But no filter will stop everything; so establishing yourself as someone your teen can talk to is vital.

This new world we live in can be scary. But if we are prepared and open with our kids, we can help them safely navigate social media.

The most important thing you can do as a parent to protect your children from dangers that are associated with the use of these apps is to talk with them frequently about their social lives. You can start by establishing yourself as an approachable parent and talking with them early and often about sexuality and romantic relationships. Without a strong bond and open communication, trying to regulate and monitor Internet use won’t be very effective. However, setting technology boundaries (when and where they access the Internet) and monitoring their online behavior can be effective if you have a strong foundation to build on. You can access a list of monitoring software I recommend here. Just remember to keep on top of it, there is no software that can eliminate risk or the need to parent. Ultimately, your goal is to raise an individual who can manage his/her online and offline behavior in a healthy way because he/she wants to. The process starts with you nurturing a strong emotional bond, leading by example and setting the boundaries. You can do it!

The Most Dangerous Apps for Kids | Family Tech Zone

5 Dangerous Apps You Don’t Know Your Kids Are Using

Banned: Most Dangerous iPhone Apps – CBS News

SOURCES:
TeenSafe
Educate Empower Kids 

Toxic Family Members Who Scapegoat

We tend to think of bullying as something that happens in the school yard amongst kids who are being mean and abusive to one another. However, over the many years of my practice I have come across cases in which the client presented with the problem and complaint that they felt picked on and excluded from their family of origin. They were distressed, anxious and depressed over this problem despite the fact that they had their own families with husbands or wives, children, careers and friends. Yet, they were experiencing life as though they were children living in their parental home.

Incredible as it might seem, there are families that scapegoat a loved one even into and including adulthood. For a variety of reasons we will explore one member becomes the target of accusations, blame, criticism and ostracism. While it’s happening, family members are totally unaware of what they are doing and would deny it if confronted with their behavior. Often, scapegoating begins in childhood and continues into and throughout adulthood.

Why would a family choose a loved one to bully and scapegoat? The answer has a lot to do with the concept of scapegoating and the purpose it serves. Scapegoating is often a way for families to hide problems that they cannot face. In the examples of cases I have worked with one or both parents were abusive to their children. In adulthood, scapegoating became a way for adult children to hide the fact of family history of abuse by blaming everything on one member who seemed vulnerable for attack. At times the scapegoat targeted by the sibling who was always the favorite of the family. In that way, the less favored sibling becomes the repository of everything that is wrong in the family. READ MORE HERE

10 Things to Remember About Toxic Family Members

7 Signs It’s Time to Cut (Toxic) Family Ties

The Family Dynamics of Severe Child Abuse | Psychology

“What is “toxic family of origin?

Identifying Toxic Family Dynamics

Dysfunctional Family Rules and Roles

12 Steps to Breaking Free from Being the Family Scapegoat

Best prevention means aligning resources, coordinating efforts

Child abuse prevention resources must focus on evidence-based intervention strategies and aggregating sound data, but the buck doesn’t stop there. Enhancing safety and resilience for at-risk children crosses many disciplines, including medicine, public health, education, childcare, law enforcement, child protection and foster and adoptive families.

The best prevention starts with aligning resources, coordinating efforts and engineering a safe and healthy environment to strengthen families and communities at risk. Vulnerable children require a deep investment, and police, hospitals, schools, foundations and social service agencies are only the first to help in the prevention of child abuse. Each of these organizations and coalitions gives vital support to children and families at risk, but the bottom line is: Invest in our children today, and we’ll all reap the benefits for years to come.

Editorial: Stiffen child abuse penalty (and) New ways to reduce child abuse

Abstract

Ninety-one child sex offenders were interviewed about the methods they used to target children, the age range of their victims, how they selected children and maintained them as victims, and what suggestions they had for preventing child sexual abuse. Offenders were selected from treatment programs, probation, special hospitals, and prisons. They were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. Results indicate that offenders gained access to children through caretaking, such as babysitting; targeted children by using bribes, gifts and games; used force, anger, threats, and bribes to ensure their continuing compliance; and systematically desensitized children through touch, talk about sex, and persuasion. Nearly half the offenders had no bad feelings about sexually abusing children. The implications for prevention programs are discussed.

Parental Resilience: Protective & Promotive Factors

Numerous researchers have concluded that how parents respond to stressors is much more important than the stressor itself in determining the outcomes for themselves and their children. Parents are more likely to achieve healthy, favorable outcomes if they are resilient. Resilience is the process of managing stress and functioning well even when faced with challenges, adversity and trauma. Some stressors parents face can be managed easily so that problems get resolved; for example, calling a relative or friend to pick-up a child from school when a parent is delayed. But some stressors cannot be easily resolved. For example, parents cannot “fix” their child’s developmental disability, erase the abuse they suffered as a child or be able to move out of a crime-plagued neighborhood. Rather, parents are resilient when they are able to call forth their inner strength to proactively meet personal challenges and those in relation to their child, manage adversities, heal the effects of trauma and thrive given the unique characteristics and circumstances of their family. READ MORE HERE

Alcohol is rapidly transported via placental blood flow from mother to fetus and is known to cause miscarriage and birth defects. Within two hours of maternal ingestion, fetal alcohol blood levels are similar to maternal alcohol blood levels. There is no established relationship between the amount of alcohol consumed and side effects sustained by the infant. This puzzling observation may reflect the maternal rate of alcohol breakdown via her liver.

It has been observed that alcohol consumed at any time during pregnancy may be associated with severe and permanent consequences. First trimester pregnancy alcohol ingestion is linked to the characteristic facial abnormalities of FAS as well as a reduction of intrauterine growth rate. Alcohol consumption during the second trimester also contributes to lower IQ, growth retardation in length and birth weight, as well as cognitive deficits of reading, spelling, and math. Third trimester alcohol consumption amplifies retardation in birth length and ultimate adult height potential.
READ MORE HERE

• Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) facts
• What is fetal alcohol syndrome?
• What causes fetal alcohol syndrome?
• What are risk factors for fetal alcohol syndrome?
• What are symptoms and signs of fetal alcohol syndrome?
• How do physicians diagnose fetal alcohol syndrome?
• What is the treatment for fetal alcohol syndrome?
• What are the complications and long-term effects of fetal alcohol syndrome?
• What is the prognosis of fetal alcohol syndrome?
• Is it possible to prevent fetal alcohol syndrome?
• Is it safe to consume alcohol and breastfeed?
• Where can people find more information about fetal alcohol syndrome?

As reported by both the American Association of Universities and the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault, with few exceptions, educators and school administrators are falling short in the struggle to make our campuses safe places for women and men alike. An recent investigation by the Pulitzer Prize winning Center for Public Integrity concluded, “Students found ‘responsible’ for sexual assaults on campus often face little or no punishment from school judicial systems, while their victims’ lives are frequently turned upside down.”

As part of the heightened effort to respond to the crisis of campus-based sexual assault, the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault outlines a number of critical steps that institutions must take to lower and eventually eliminate sexual assault on campus. Among the Task Force’s key recommendations are the following: READ MORE HERE

Reported child sexual abuse has risen 60% in last four years

ENGLAND/WALES – There has been a 60% increase in child sexual abuse reported to the police over the past four years, according to official figures which make public for the first time the scale of the problem in England and Wales. A House of Commons library analysis based on freedom of information releases by individual forces shows that the number of offences of child sexual abuse reported to the police has soared from 5,557 cases in 2011 to 8,892 last year.  Child sexual abuse includes grooming, facilitating abuse and child rape. READ MORE HERE

UNITED STATES STATISTICS:

Statistics on child abuse | NSPCC

Child abuse and neglect – World Health Organization

The national incidence study of child abuse and neglect

National Council On Child Abuse And Family Violence

One in 14 children have at least one parent behind bars and children in these situations suffer from low self esteem, poor mental and physical health, and other problems, a national research organization says. Child Trends, an organization based in Bethesda, Md., is releasing its report Parents Behind Bars: What Happens to Their Children? on Tuesday. The group hopes the findings will prod prisons, schools and lawmakers to make changes that will help young people who have incarcerated parents. READ MORE HERE

TRAUMA RECOVERY UNIVERSITY: The #NoMoreShame Project
HOSTS: Athena Moberg and Bobbi L. Parish

Dreamcatchers for Abused Children is proud to announce “Trauma Recovery University” as an amazing resource for child abuse survivors. Athena Moberg and Bobbi L. Parish are trauma recovery coaches who host Live Interactive Video Broadcasts, Twitter Chats, Google Hangouts, and Facebook support groups that anyone is welcome to join at any time. These resources are aimed at survivors of childhood sexual abuse, but they would be helpful for survivors of any kind of childhood abuse. These women offer free online support and have helped thousands of survivors thus far. You can also watch their many child abuse survivors video archives on their YouTube channel.
_______________________________________________________________

What started out as The #NoMoreShame Project, created by survivors and Authors, Rachel Thompson, Bobbi Parish, and Athena Moberg, originally existed to advocate for survivors of childhood sexual abuse by helping them tell their stories. Trauma Recovery University is now…Your Official Child Sexual Abuse Social Network: Come. Watch. Receive. Comment. Share. 

They have shared, grown, loved, and listened to survivors in 54 countries. Their first anthology, Discovering True, published Monday, November 17, 2014.  These are YOUR stories, fellow survivors. You are brave!  Volume I was made available November, 2014 on Amazon http://bit.ly/DiscoveringTrue

Treatment for Abused and Neglected Children: Infancy to Age 18

The following manual provides an overview of the treatment of sexually abused, physically abused, and neglected children and is provided by Child Welfare. Child development is briefly reviewed and the study of developmental psychopathology is described. Aspects of child development are considered, including intrapersonal development, interpersonal development, physical development, sexual development, and behavioral conduct development. Consequences of abuse and neglect, assessment of maltreatment, the therapeutic process and the role of the therapist, treatment issues and specialized interventions, and case management are addressed. The manual provides a glossary of terms and list of resources for more detailed information. READ MANUAL HERE

7 Ways Childhood Adversity Changes Your Brain

Early emotional trauma changes who we are, but we can do something about it. If you’ve ever wondered why you’ve been struggling a little too hard for a little too long with chronic emotional and physical health conditions that just won’t abate, feeling as if you’ve been swimming against some invisible current that never ceases, a new field of scientific research may offer hope, answers, and healing insights. READ MORE HERE