“I hate you!”, “I don’t have to listen to you!”, “Go to hell!”, “You’re not my mother/father!”, all of these may be common phrases for children and teens who have experienced trauma, loss, foster care and adoption. Have you ever tried parenting a child who puts his fist through the wall when you ask him to do his homework? How do you parent a child who is irritable and angry from the moment she wakes up?
Children in foster care have experienced varying degrees of trauma, neglect, and multiple attachment disruptions or placements. These children have experienced overwhelming amounts of internal emotional distress at an age when they were ill-equipped to manage their emotional states or distress. The end result is that children in foster care often have lots of BIG and INTENSE emotions with little ability to articulate and express what they are feeling and why they are feeling it (by the way, many adults struggle with this as well).
Please continue reading this article by Allison Davis Maxon, M.S., LMFT, a nationally recognized expert in the fields of child welfare and children’s mental health specializing in Attachment, Developmental Trauma and Permanency/Adoption here.
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