TREATING TRAUMATIC STRESS IN CHILDERN AND ADOLESCENTS - KRISTINE KINNIBURGH & MAGARET BLAUSTEIN

This is a bit weird to review because I didn’t read it for the reason (I want to) I normally read books. Which is not to say that I didn’t want to read this book at all, just that I doubt it would have come up naturally given how technical and specific it is. I read the ARC manual, which is how I think of this thing, because the place I work is switching over to this model of treatment. I work in a residential facility for kids (almost all of whom are in foster care) who have behavioral issues and the company I work for wanted to adopt a “trauma informed” theoretical model to structure and focus the work. The settled on ARC, the system described in this book, and have been implementing it over the past 2 years. Last year, they sent us to a training put on by one of the co-authors, Dr. Blaustein, who explained the whole thing over 2 days. I found this training interesting and parts of it useful but maybe a bit over-thought and optimistic w/r/t the efficacy of what they were suggesting. I decided to buy and read the book since, generally, I think I consume information better that way. I also read it taking notes and highlighting sections and marking worksheets to use at work, which is a very different way to consume a book. There was a lot in this book that was helpful and I could consider using. I found some good worksheets and lists of activities and coping skills and clarifying terminology. Overall as a theory, what i think it’s getting at is pretty obviously true. That kids who experience abuse/neglect (though with the kids I work with almost always both) have had to spend so much of their life being vigilant and taking care of themselves (since they weren’t being properly cared for) that they have both failed to develop normal personal/social skills as well as developed a whole series of situationally useful but big-big-picture harmful behaviors. Basically, the longer they can feel and actually be safe and around safe adults who in control, the better. It can help create the space and calmness necessary to “catch-up” developmentally and get some sort of a handle on the trauma(s). The book has some bad implications for my job since it stresses Attachment (it’s the “A” in ARC) between the caregiver (me and my coworkers) and child, which comes over time. An especially long time since lots of these kids have been cruelly taught through experience that adults are not to be trusted. Where I work has a very high turnover rate, making it really hard for the people who work together (i.e. the kids and the staff) to know each other. In terms of criticisms, there is a very upsetting “self-care contract” where a supervisor and employee are suppose to agree on how the employee will implement “self-care” in their personal life and private time and then they sign a document. Horrifying. Also the ARC diagram is confusing. The columns imply a “lined-up" connection that doesn’t exist in the framework. I get that lots of the stuff in here is very much not for me, it’s for therapists and parents and people who run the place I work, most of all. However, it was interesting to see some of this stuff and these concerns in a big picture way, the way my bosses see it and looks at it. I wish these people would take a similar interest in what this sort of work looks like from where I’m at. 12 Trauma-Informed Models.