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Building the Bonds of Attachment

Awakening Love in Deeply Traumatized Children

Daniel A Hughes author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Rowman & Littlefield

Published:16th Jun '17

Should be back in stock very soon

This paperback is available in another edition too:

Building the Bonds of Attachment cover

This insightful book explores the developmental challenges faced by a child after trauma and offers practical strategies for fostering attachment. Building the Bonds of Attachment is essential for caregivers.

In Building the Bonds of Attachment, the author presents a comprehensive case study that follows the developmental journey of a child who has endured years of abuse and neglect. This text serves as an essential resource for students, professionals, and parents alike, providing insights into the complexities of attachment in children who have experienced significant trauma. The narrative effectively integrates theory and research, offering a powerful exploration of how early adverse experiences shape emotional and psychological development.

Hughes emphasizes the importance of specialized psychotherapy and parenting strategies that are crucial for fostering a child's psychological growth and attachment security. The book outlines an integrated intervention model that combines attachment and trauma theories with contemporary research, along with practical principles of parenting and family therapy. This holistic approach ensures that readers gain a well-rounded understanding of the issues at hand and the methodologies that can be employed to address them.

The third edition of Building the Bonds of Attachment includes important updates that enhance its practicality. New topics such as the preparation needed for both therapists and parents prior to treatment are discussed, as well as the concept of blocked care, which sheds light on the difficulties of raising a traumatized child. Additionally, it expands on the therapeutic stance of PACE (playful, accepting, curious, empathic) and provides updated examples of dyadic developmental psychotherapy (DDP), making this edition a valuable guide for anyone involved in the care of children facing attachment challenges.

The third edition of Building the Bonds of Attachment should be vital reading for as many parents and parents-to-be as possible, not only for foster and adoptive parents. If far more parents read this book and put its teachings to practice, we would start to have a warmer, kinder world. With often breath-taking beauty, Dan Hughes conveys how connection with reflective, warm, playful, emotionally regulated attachment figures can heal children who’ve been so badly psychologically scarred. It’s a story about a little girl who trusts no one, who only knows relationships as being about power and control. She has developmental trauma disorder and presents with very extreme and challenging behavior. The new edition offers a wealth of the richest PACE examples, from one moving interaction to another until we see this little girl melt, and learn to trust and love for the very first time. Professionals and parents alike cannot fail to learn so much through the book’s powerful narrative about the crucial relational experiences that all children need in order to thrive. -- Dr. Margot Sunderland, Director of Education and Training at the Centre for Child Mental Health London
I use this book for a course I teach on Child Treatment in our MSW program. I also recommend the book to all of my master students in their advanced practice course with individuals and groups. One of the tremendous strengths of the book is its underlying ability to help guide the reader through the critical thinking process. What constitutes abuse and neglect? What are the far-reaching consequences of profound emotional and physical neglect? How does one evaluate attachment therapy? Is this working? The use of the storytelling places the critical thinking within a unique context and helps guide developing practitioners to a better understanding of very difficult principles. No matter the expertise of the reader, there is something to learn in this text, which makes the book highly valuable over time. I encourage my students to read the book at different stages of their career to maximize their understanding of attachment and the dyadic developmental psychotherapy. -- Victoria A. Fitton, Michigan State University
Katie’s story triggers strong emotions from graduate students. My students cannot wait for the next chapter and often read ahead. -- Mark Beischel, Peru State College
The ‘Katie book’, as it is fondly called by those who have read it over the years, has captured the hearts of many people. Dan masterfully uses the story of Katie to explain and illustrate the DDP model and how it is applied both in parenting and therapy. Now, in this 3rd edition, Dan has brought the story up-to-date with new thinking and discoveries he has made in the intervening time. The ideas of blocked trust and blocked care are here illustrated in a way which conveys understanding and compassion for the children and parents affected by these difficulties. Many of us, who have known our own ‘Katie’s’ and struggled with the challenges that they present, will draw hope and inspiration from this updated edition of Building the Bonds of Attachment.’ -- Kim Golding
Building the Bonds of Attachment is a must-read for foster carers, adopters, social workers, and therapists  who seek to understand how early trauma impacts the minds and hearts of children, and how they as care providers can help. Through the story of Katie, Dan Hughes shows us how dyadic developmental psychotherapy (DDP), his deeply compassionate approach to therapy and therapeutic parenting, can help children learn to trust and to discover connections that heal. This third edition brings the latest learning in neurobiology and integrates this research with DDP and PACE, illustrating how to facilitate  safety in relationships and create an environment in which children and young people can begin to feel safe to trust and make use of the help that is on offer to them. -- Deborah Page, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services

ISBN: 9781442274136

Dimensions: 231mm x 148mm x 17mm

Weight: 404g

304 pages

Third Edition