debor016

Here is the second article written by Dr. Steve Brown by Steve Brown, Traumatic Stress Institute Roxanne is a fictitious 27-year-old mother of six-year-old Sarah. A single mom since Sarah’s birth, Roxanne has finally found the “love of her life”-– 35-year-old Justin. He’s got a steady job, only drinks on weekends, and seems to just adore Sarah. He loves playing with her and even has been willing to babysit whenever Roxanne needs a girls’ night out. Quite frankly, Justin almost seems too good to be true. Six months ago, Roxanne and Justin were ready to take their relationship to the next level so they moved in together. Justin pays most of the rent and gas so things are looking up financially for Roxanne. They have even talked about marriage, prompting lots of chatter between Roxanne and her girlfriends about when Justin was going to “pop the question.” Sarah was SO happy when Justin moved in. She’s never really known her father and always felt jealous seeing her best friend playing wit...

This excellent article was written by my colleague Steve Brown, PsyD. Last week, a Pennsylvania Grand Jury indicted former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky for sexually abusing eight boys over the course of a 15-year period. The indictment also charged two top university officials with perjury and failure to report what they knew about the allegations. The indictment has kicked off a firestorm of media attention both in the sports world and the US at large. On November 9th, the Penn State Board of Trustees fired legendary football coach Joe Paterno and Penn State President Graham Spanier. Allegedly, a graduate assistant told Paterno that he observed Sandusky abusing one of the boys. Paterno reported this to Athletic Director Tim Curley although did not follow up later on the matter or alert legal authorities himself. The indictment stated that President Spanier was made aware of the incident reported to Paterno as well. In any particular abuse situation there is an abuse...

This is a long post that summarizes the way that the Restorative Approach provides a bridge between theory and action in treatment programs. The Restorative Approach translates what modern science has learned about trauma and how it affects the brain into specific strategies for daily interactions with the children. The following points summarize the connections between theory and daily actions. The Restorative Approach recognizes that a traumatized child’s brain is different, in that the prefrontal cortex is less developed. Because of that trauma-related difference, the child is easily overwhelmed by emotions. In treatment programs using the Restorative Approach, staff members understand that they will have to act as the child’s prefrontal cortex for awhile, teaching problem-solving rather than punishing a child for seeming to ‘choose’ to act out emotionally when the child is doing the best he can. The staff members’ brain building tasks include helping the child with selective attent...

I had a wonderful time attending the Carter Symposium. For me, the experience was composed of many parts. These included the inspiration of Mrs. Carter herself; the many interesting and intelligent people I met; some inspiring people I already knew and heard again; and the facility itself and the professional and efficient way the conference was run. My most overwhelming impression was that so many people in so many widely differing areas of the helping professions are transforming how they provide services based on our increasing knowledge about trauma. It may turn out that research about trauma, its effects and how healing takes place will be the revolution of our century! The first keynote conversations were about the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (www.nctsn.org) In addition to all the wonderful treatment and service provision projects NCSTN has facilitated, they are collecting significant data about all the clients served and all the outcomes of various forms of treatment...