Gift Ideas for Foster and Adopted Children
Holidays and special occasions (including birthdays) can be a lot of fun! They can also be VERY hard for families of traumatized or attachment disordered kids...especially when it comes to gifts. This is a tough subject for many families of hurt kids. I get quite a...
How do I know if I’m ready for parent coaching?
Take this quiz and find out! Coaching is an amazing process of empowerment and change. While it's true that most people would probably benefit from working with a coach at some point in their life, its effectiveness is often determined by timing and what you're...
How is coaching different than therapy?
One of the questions I get asked most frequently is "What is the difference between coaching and therapy?" It's a great question! Many people looking for help have some idea what therapy is, but aren't quite as familiar with coaching and how it works. Coaching and...
How I Found My Own Emotional Freedom
Freedom has been on my mind this week. July is a very reflective time for our family. It’s a month full of celebrations of freedom, faith, triumph, and courage. July is also the month we became a family. Our adoption trip of nearly six weeks in Eastern Europe forever...
Celebrating the Cause of Freedom
Freedom has been on my mind this week. July is a very reflective time for our family. It’s full of celebrations of freedom, faith, triumph, and courage. July is also the month we became a family. Spending nearly six weeks in Eastern Europe forever changed us. With or...
The Ultimate Secret to Helping Tough Kids Heal…
If there's any one thing about parenting her kids that I could shout from the rooftops it would be this. The most important person to get help is mom. It isn’t the kids. Yes, they need help too. But, if you have to pick one person who gets help first,...
Parenting and the Order of Operations
Back when I was in high school, I had the most off-the-wall math teacher. Let's just say he was a unique individual who had his own way of approaching life! He also had some very bizarre teaching methods. I well remember the day he introduced the concept of...
Safety First…Always! There are no exceptions.
Safety can be a tricky beast when we're parenting kids from hard places. Oh sure, it is easy for us to look around and see that our children are physically safe. They're well fed, clothed, have adequate shelter, and there are no "bad guys" coming after them. What...
Wonderful, Marvelous, and Simply Terrific!
A long time friend of mine once posted the following sentiment on Facebook: “If you can find a reason to use words like outstanding, spectacular, terrific, and superb throughout your day, you will find yourself happier than you might have thought you were.” At the...
You’ve Gotta MAKE It Happen!
It's been a WILD couple of weeks weather wise on my part of the planet. We've gone from warm and dry, to a dumping and a half of snow (2.5 feet...well past my knees…and all of it coming since Christmas Day), to bitter cold (-20 F) daytime temps, freezing rain, to now...
How Do I Find the Right Help?
One of the first things we were blindsided by when we adopted our kids was the marked lack of professional help that actually exists out there in the world for issues related to developmental trauma. We had read all the books, we did all the research, we knew what to...
RAD vs. Developmental Trauma
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet." -- William Shakespeare Ok, ok…so when we’re talking about things like RAD, Attachment Disorder and Developmental Trauma, Shakespeare’s famous quote should probably read something...
Taming the Halloween Triggers
Figuring out how to safely navigate the Halloween season with our traumatized kids has not been an easy task at our house. In fact, it took several years before we actually got it right. Our first step was figuring out why they always went bonkers around Halloween....
Skipping Halloween
One of the hardest...but also most important lessons I've learned as a mom of traumatized kids is that sometimes (fairly often, actually) we need do to things differently in order to make them work for our family. Others may not get it and they may even have some...
Halloween Costume Triggers
Halloween used to be the absolute WORST time of year for our family. Everywhere we turned there were reminders of trauma. There is no escaping them, especially at this time of year. They are in the schools, the stores, the neighbor’s yards, and all too often they even...
Why Halloween and Trauma Don’t Mix
Ahhh...It’s that time of year again! The kids are finally settled back in school, there's a delightful chill in the air, the trees are changing colors, and pumpkin spice is all the rage. Yet, seemingly without warning, the kids going absolutely bonkers! Behavior...
Child’s Information Sharing Packet Template
Without any question whatsoever, one of the most frustrating things I have experienced in parenting my kids who had a rough start in life is trying to help others on the outside understand just how complex and comprehensive the affects of early trauma exposure really...
5 Essential Parenting Strategies for Summer Success
All, Summer can be a challenging time for parents. This is especially true for parents whose children struggle with intense emotional and behavior challenges. Unfortunately, because of the unique nature of these issues, we can't do things the same way other families...
The Importance of Play
Playtime used to be fun. When my daughter was born, play came quite naturally for both of us. It was a joyous thing and we played together all the time. Knowing what I know now, it was a critical piece of our bonding and attachment. As she got a little older and was...
Is it Fair to Compare?
‘Tis the season. Social media is currently bombarded with pictures of prom, graduations, and celebrations. Additionally, there are still tributes to moms floating around, gratitudes and simple gifts, sports accomplishments, school awards, and scholarships. All of...
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