Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) is an attachment-focused treatment for children and adolescents who have experienced abuse and neglect and are now living in stable foster and adoptive families. Here, Daniel Hughes and Kim S. Golding provide a practical accompaniment to their highly successful DDP text, Healing Relational Trauma with Attachment-Focused Interventions (2019). In this workbook, practitioners are invited to reflect on their experience of implementing the DDP model through discussion, examples, and reflection prompts. Readers are encouraged to consider the diversity of both practitioners and those receiving DDP interventions, and how each unique individual’s identity can be embraced within the application of DDP interventions. DDP can be practiced as a therapy, a parenting approach, and as a practice approach for those working within healthcare, social care, or education, and this workbook is an invaluable resource for readers who fall into any one of these roles.

This book both explains and illustrates how the practice of child mental health professionals can be enhanced, whatever their treatment approach, to encourage engagement, resilience and development in children with mental health problems. Alongside practical recommendations, Daniel Hughes and Ben Gurney-Smith use dialogue from clinical work to illustrate applications of these principles from Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy as well as other attachment-based practices with parents and children. This “little book” will demystify how attachment theory—one of today’s most in-demand approaches—can actually be brought into clinical work. Topics include regulating emotional states; repairing ongoing relationships; establishing an attachment-based therapeutic relationship; accepting a child’s inner life; assessing the caregiver’s need for safety, regulation and reflection; the importance of nonverbal and verbal conversations in facilitating secure attachment; and strengthening the mind of the child.

This groundbreaking book explores how the attachment- focused family therapy model works at a neural level. Investigation of the brain science of early childhood and developmental trauma offers clinicians new insights-and powerful new methods-to help neglected and insecurely attached children regain a sense of safety and security with caring adults.

Attachment security and affect regulation have long been buzzwords in therapy circles, but many of these ideas so integral to successful therapeutic work with kids and adolescents have yet to be effectively translated to parenting practice itself. Moreover, as neuroscience reveals how the human brain is designed to work in good relationships, and how such relationships are central to healthy human development, the practical implications for the parent-child attachment relationship become even more apparent. Here, a leading attachment specialist with over 30 years of clinical experience brings the rich and comprehensive field of attachment theory and research from inside the therapy room to the outside, equipping therapists and caregivers with practical parenting skills and techniques rooted in proven therapeutic principles. A guide for all parents and a resource for all mental health clinicians and parent-educators who are searching for ways to effectively love, discipline, and communicate with children, this book presents the techniques and practices that are fundamental to optimal child development and family functioning how to set limits, provide guidance, and manage the responsibilities and difficulties of daily life, while at the same time communicating safety, fun, joy, and love. Filled with valuable clinical vignettes and sample dialogues, Hughes shows how attachment-focused research can guide all those who care for children in their efforts to better raise them."

DDP is an attachment-focused treatment for children and adolescents who experience abuse and neglect and who are now living in stable foster and adoptive families. Its central interventions are influenced by enhanced knowledge about the structure and functions of the brain, as well as the latest findings regarding developmental trauma and the related attachment problems it brings.

And for years, following these tenets, the theory's focus has been on how children develop vis-a-vis the attachments-whether secure or insecure-they form with their caregivers. In the therapy room, this has meant working with individuals one-on-one, with the therapist assuming the role of the attachment figure in order to provide a secure base for treating clients' problems that arose from troubled interpersonal relationships in childhood. Here, Daniel A. Hughes, an eminent clinician and attachment specialist, is the first to expand this traditional model, applying attachment theory to a family therapy setting. Drawing on more than 20 years of clinical experience, Hughes presents his comprehensive, effective, and accessible treatment model for working with all members of a family-not simply the individual in question-to recognize, resolve, and heal personal and family problems using principles from theories of attachment and intersubjectivity. Beginning with an overview of attachment and intersubjectivity-the twin theories from which he forms his treatment plan-Hughes carefully outlines, chapter by chapter, the core principles and strategies of his family-based approach. He elaborates on the need to develop and maintain PACE (playfulness, acceptance, curiosity, and empathy)-the central therapeutic stance of attachment-focused family therapy-and supplies tips and sample dialogues for implementing this position. The importance of fostering affective/reflective (a/r) dialogue is covered in detail, as well as helping families to manage shame, understand and embrace the break-and-repair cycle of their interactions, and explore and resolve childhood trauma. Also discussed are the more procedural issues of how to incorporate parents into therapeutic conversations, when and how to question them on their own attachment histories, and how to "be" with children. Grounded in the fundamental principle of parents facilitating the healthy emotional development of their children, Attachment-Focused Family Therapy is the first book of its kind to offer therapists a complete manual for using attachment therapy with families. Extensive case studies, vignettes, and sample dialogues throughout clearly demonstrate how Hughes's model plays out in the therapy room. By showing therapists how to create a bond of psychological safety and intersubjective discovery with parents and caregivers, Hughes reveals how they, in turn, can bring about similar experiences of safety and discovery for their children.

A revolution is under way in how we understand the nature of relationships, how we develop in those relationships, and how our brains function synergistically in connection with others. This field is known as attachment theory, and until now most of the cutting-edge insights have been written in researcher-speak and reserved for neurologists, psychologists, and others in the healing professions.

Here veteran therapist and specialist in attachment disorders Daniel A. Hughes demystifies the research for lay people. By summarizing in short, easy-to-read keys the theory and brain science that underpin our ability to form relationships, he skillfully reveals how we can become better friends, spouses, siblings, and children. For anyone interested in how to develop meaningful new relationships or how to deepen and enrich their current ones, this book makes sense of it all."

Eileen Russell offers therapists a model for drawing on their clients' innate strengths to get the most out of therapy. Without minimizing pathology, she explains what is meant by resilience in a clinical context, how to work with it, how to cultivate it, and why using it is an effective approach to healing.

In this groundbreaking exploration of the brain mechanisms behind healthy caregiving, attachment specialist Daniel A. Hughes and veteran clinical psychologist Jonathan Baylin guide readers through the intricate web of neuronal processes, hormones and chemicals that drive-and sometimes thwart-our caregiving impulses, uncovering the mysteries of the parental brain. The biggest challenge to parents, Hughes and Baylin explain, is learning how to regulate emotions that arise-feeling them deeply and honestly while staying grounded and aware enough to preserve the parent-child relationship. Stress, which can lead to "blocked" or dysfunctional care, can impede our brain's inherent caregiving processes and negatively impact our ability to do this. While the parent-child relationship can generate deep empathy and the intense motivation to care for our children, it can also trigger self-defensive feelings rooted in our early attachment relationships, and give rise to "unparental" impulses. Learning to be a "good parent" is contingent upon learning how to manage this stress, understand its brain-based cues and respond in a way that will set the brain back on track. To this end, Hughes and Baylin define five major "systems" of caregiving as they're linked to the brain, explaining how they operate when parenting is strong and what happens when good parenting is compromised or "blocked". With this awareness, we learn how to approach kids with renewed playfulness, acceptance, curiosity and empathy, re-regulate our caregiving systems, foster deeper social engagement and facilitate our children's development. Infused with clinical insight, illuminating case examples and helpful illustrations, Brain-Based Parenting brings the science of caregiving to light for the first time. Far from just managing our children's behaviour, we can develop our "parenting brains", and with a better understanding of the neurobiological roots of our feelings and our own attachment histories, we can transform a fraught parent-child relationship into an open, regulated and loving one.

Daniel A. Hughes, a leading practitioner in his field, specializes in an attachment-oriented approach to family therapy. Applying his model to children and families with a range of psychological problems, this book distills just the clinical strategies, offering practitioners a host of practical exercises and interventions on the core skills of his treatment program.

An accompanying DVD demonstrates Hughes putting these strategies to work in a therapy session, revealing the undeniable power of attachment-focused family therapy to create a safe psychological space for families to repair attachment breaks and build the foundation for a healthier future.

The way we teach our pupils and the way we run our schools is under scrutiny right now. In the midst of all the change going on, we often end up losing sight of the educative tool that is the most important of all - ourselves! Bomber and Hughes' book gives educators permission to engage with pupils relationally. They provide aalternative ways to the kinds of behaviourist models, fear-based approaches and increased levels of power, authority and control still exercised in many schools at present, which disturb already troubled pupils and further prevent them from accessing school. Bomber and Hughes have seen pupil attainment increase through their work in supporting school staff by switching their initial focus to the troubled pupil's attachment system, before engaging the pupil's exploratory (learning) system. The authors also challenge the educational myths that somehow relationships are secondary to learning, rather than essential to enabling troubled children's brains to be freed to work at their full capacity. Every child still does matter. This cutting edge book from a dynamic partnership is essential reading for all those concerned in and with the education of our children.

Attachment Parenting describes a comprehensive approach to parenting children who have a history of neglect, abuse, orphanage care, or other experiences that may interfere with the normal development of attachment between parent and child. Grounded in attachment theory, Attachment Parenting gives parents, therapists, educators, and child-welfare and residential-treatment professionals the tools and skills necessary to help these children. With an approach rooted in dyadic developmental psychotherapy, which is an evidence-based, effective, and empirically validated treatment for complex trauma and disorders of attachment, Arthur Becker-Weidman and Deborah Shell provide practical and immediately usable approaches and methods to help children develop a healthier and more secure attachment. Attachment Parenting covers a wide range of topics, from describing the basic principles of this approach and how to select a therapist to chapters on concrete logistics, such as detailed suggestions for organizing the child's room, dealing with schools' concerns, and problem-solving. Chapters on sensory integration, art therapy for parents, narratives, and Theraplay give parents specific therapeutic activities that can be done at home to improve the quality of the child's attachment with the parent. And chapters on neuropsychological issues, mindfulness, and parent's use of self will also help parents directly. The book includes two chapters by parents discussing what worked for them, providing inspiration to parents and demonstrating that there is hope. Finally, the book ends with a comprehensive chapter on resources for parents and a summary of various professional standards regarding attachment, treatment, and parenting.

The call for trauma-informed education is growing as the profound impact trauma has for the children's ability to learn in traditional classrooms is recognized. For children who have experienced abuse and neglect their behavior is often highly reactive, aggressive, withdrawn or unmotivated. They struggle to learn, to make positive relationships or be influenced positively by teachers and school staff. Students become more and more at risk for mental health difficulties. Teachers become more and more frustrated and discouraged as they attempt to teach this vulnerable group of students. Even though it is relationships that have hurt students with developmental trauma, it is known that they must find safe relationships to learn and heal. Forming those relationships with children who have been hurt and no longer trust adults is not easy. This book focuses on three important and comprehensive areas of theory and research that provide a theoretical, clinical, and integrated intervention model for developing the relationships and felt sense of safety children with developmental trauma need. Using what is known from attachment theory, intersubjectivity theory, and interpersonal neurobiology, the reader is helped to understand why children behave in the challenging ways they do. This book offers successes and ongoing challenges as a means to continue the conversation about how best to support some of our most at-risk youth.

Each poem is tenderly crafted, reflecting Dan's extraordinary capacity to notice and value even the most subtle and transitory movement in a child's face, indicative of what might be going on inside him or her. The poems rveal his profound understanding of the pain, hurt and yearning fostered and adopted children carry with them, and the strength and courage it takes them to begin to believe that some adults can actually be trusted. Dan Hughes also shares with the reader what triggered him to write many of the poems, giving us an intimate understanding of how he views children, relationships, the demands working with trauma places on professionals and the centrality of empathy in all our interactions. A book for anyone who has learnt from or been moved by Dan Hugghes' work or Dan Hughes himself.

A highly accessible resource for students and professionals as well as parents, Building the Bonds of Attachment presents a composite case study of one child's developmental course following years of abuse and neglect. Weaving theory and research into a powerful narrative, Hughes offers effective methods for facilitating attachment in children who have experienced serious trauma. The text emphasizes both the specialized psychotherapy and parenting strategies often necessary in facilitating a child's psychological development and attachment security. Hughes steps through an integrated intervention model that blends attachment and trauma theories with the most current research as well as general principles of both parenting and child and family therapy. Thoughtful and practical, the third edition provides an invaluable guide for therapists and social workers, students in training, and parents. Updates to the Third Edition include: *Coverage of the greater preparation given to both the therapist and parent before the onset of the treatment and placement based on our understanding of how the attachment histories of both the parents and therapists impact their engagement with the child *Introduction of the concept of blocked care to better understand the challenges of raising a traumatized child with attachment difficulties *Introduction of the classification of developmental trauma that is now commonly used to describe the challenges faced by children such as Katie *Expanded coverage of intersubjectivity with demonstrations throughout the book as to its impact on the development of the child *Stronger development of the therapeutic and parenting stance of PACE (playful, accepting, curious, empathic) since this has become a strong organizing principle for training both therapists and parents using the dyadic developmental psychotherapy (DDP) model *Updated examples of the components of DDP (affective-reflective dialogue, follow-lead-follow, interactive repair, deepening the narrative) and a discussion of the ties between DDP and new research in interpersonal neurobiology

The call for trauma-informed education is growing as the profound impact trauma has for the children's ability to learn in traditional classrooms is recognized. For children who have experienced abuse and neglect their behavior is often highly reactive, aggressive, withdrawn or unmotivated. They struggle to learn, to make positive relationships or be influenced positively by teachers and school staff. Students become more and more at risk for mental health difficulties. Teachers become more and more frustrated and discouraged as they attempt to teach this vulnerable group of students. Even though it is relationships that have hurt students with developmental trauma, it is known that they must find safe relationships to learn and heal. Forming those relationships with children who have been hurt and no longer trust adults is not easy. This book focuses on three important and comprehensive areas of theory and research that provide a theoretical, clinical, and integrated intervention model for developing the relationships and felt sense of safety children with developmental trauma need. Using what is known from attachment theory, intersubjectivity theory, and interpersonal neurobiology, the reader is helped to understand why children behave in the challenging ways they do. This book offers successes and ongoing challenges as a means to continue the conversation about how best to support some of our most at-risk youth.

A highly accessible resource for students and professionals as well as parents, Building the Bonds of Attachment presents a composite case study of one child's developmental course following years of abuse and neglect. Weaving theory and research into a powerful narrative, Hughes offers effective methods for facilitating attachment in children who have experienced serious trauma. The text emphasizes both the specialized psychotherapy and parenting strategies often necessary in facilitating a child's psychological development and attachment security. Hughes steps through an integrated intervention model that blends attachment and trauma theories with the most current research as well as general principles of both parenting and child and family therapy. Thoughtful and practical, the third edition provides an invaluable guide for therapists and social workers, students in training, and parents. Updates to the Third Edition include: *Coverage of the greater preparation given to both the therapist and parent before the onset of the treatment and placement based on our understanding of how the attachment histories of both the parents and therapists impact their engagement with the child *Introduction of the concept of blocked care to better understand the challenges of raising a traumatized child with attachment difficulties *Introduction of the classification of developmental trauma that is now commonly used to describe the challenges faced by children such as Katie *Expanded coverage of intersubjectivity with demonstrations throughout the book as to its impact on the development of the child *Stronger development of the therapeutic and parenting stance of PACE (playful, accepting, curious, empathic) since this has become a strong organizing principle for training both therapists and parents using the dyadic developmental psychotherapy (DDP) model *Updated examples of the components of DDP (affective-reflective dialogue, follow-lead-follow, interactive repair, deepening the narrative) and a discussion of the ties between DDP and new research in interpersonal neurobiology

Attachment Parenting describes a comprehensive approach to parenting children who have a history of neglect, abuse, orphanage care, or other experiences that may interfere with the normal development of attachment between parent and child. Grounded in attachment theory, Attachment Parenting gives parents, therapists, educators, and child-welfare and residential-treatment professionals the tools and skills necessary to help these children. With an approach rooted in dyadic developmental psychotherapy, which is an evidence-based, effective, and empirically validated treatment for complex trauma and disorders of attachment, Arthur Becker-Weidman and Deborah Shell provide practical and immediately usable approaches and methods to help children develop a healthier and more secure attachment. Attachment Parenting covers a wide range of topics, from describing the basic principles of this approach and how to select a therapist to chapters on concrete logistics, such as detailed suggestions for organizing the child's room, dealing with schools' concerns, and problem-solving. Chapters on sensory integration, art therapy for parents, narratives, and Theraplay give parents specific therapeutic activities that can be done at home to improve the quality of the child's attachment with the parent. And chapters on neuropsychological issues, mindfulness, and parent's use of self will also help parents directly. The book includes two chapters by parents discussing what worked for them, providing inspiration to parents and demonstrating that there is hope. Finally, the book ends with a comprehensive chapter on resources for parents and a summary of various professional standards regarding attachment, treatment, and parenting.

This book shows how to work successfully with emotional and behavioral problems rooted in deficient early attachments. In particular, it addresses the emotional difficulties of many of the foster and adopted children living in our country who are unable to form secure attachments. Traditional interventions, which do not teach parents how to successfully engage the child, frequently do not provide the means by which the seriously damaged child can form the secure attachment that underlies behavioral change. Dr. Daniel Hughes maps out a treatment plan designed to help the child begin to experience and accept, from both the therapist and the parents, affective attunement that he or she should have received in the first few years of life. Hughes' approach includes: -Using foster and adopted parents as co-therapists -Teaching differentiation between old and new parents -Overcoming the perception of discipline as abusive -Framing misbehavior, discipline, conflicts, and parental authority as important aspects of a child's learning to trust. All children, at the core of their beings, need to be attached to someone who considers them to be very special and who is committed to providing for their ongoing care. Children who lose their birth parents desperately need such a relationship if they are to heal and grow. This book shows therapists how to facilitate this crucial bond. A Jason Aronson Book