Attachment Disorder

Remember - CWAD is short for child with attachment disorder. As a therapist I often get involved in some mental gymnastics with my CWAD clients. They are OFTEN very intelligent and yet are very rigid in their thinking. The point of challenging them mentally is to help them see the illogical, irrational thinking they engage in. I certainly don't expect results from this challenging, but I have seen some results. With these children, they often need frequent repetition to re-train their brain. My parent clients are always very frustrated at how these children do not get the message even though they may have heard something 1000 times or more while other children only need instruction a few times. CWAD often enjoy manipulating people and triangulating and these issues often come up in therapy. One of the things I am best at is not being manipulated and this tends to make my child clients very angry. I tend to be pleased when children do not like me as a therapist, because that

I haven't heard much about what is going on in the world as the therapy world has been very slow due to the economy. Insurance companies are failing to provide reimbursements, the states are cutting their budgets, etc. and people have less money to spend on therapy, even though it is probably more necessary now than ever. I have had a number of families I have seen and then one of the adults lost their job and so they could not see me any more. Since I have been working in schools, the focus is much different. I have previously done trainings for staff in the schools to identify the disorder and that made a huge difference. So, when they identify it, they know something else is called for. From the larger perspective, I have not been involved on the national scene lately, so I do not hear much. There is definitely a great deal more research going on. I saw the story of a young boy - probably not a CWAD - but he grew up in Russia very afraid of his father, begging on the stree

I have been writing articles for ezine articles, etc. re: attachment disorder. My goal is to make video trainings, etc. for professionals and teachers and parents. These will all be directed specifically to the need. So stay tuned and check out my website. I have finished session 1 for families cd. The therapy field appears to be quiet lately. The states are having financial issues and not paying for services for children, insurance companies are getting stingy with mental health counseling, and the economy has hit families hard. but sometimes it comes down to an issue of survival for families. I also find it difficult to do several jobs at one time and have found myself interested in reaching more people through the internet world. A thought for the day for all those struggling families: Don't take the child's behavior personally - it is not you, it's them! Try to look at the chid more objectively. Check out my website: www.theattachmentgroup.org for further infor