debor016

My book, Trauma Informed Treatment: The Restorative Approach, is coming out this spring, published by NEARI press. Here is what Kay Saakvitne, PhD said about it: Dr. Saakvitne is the author of Risking Connection, Trauma and the Therapist, Transforming the Pain, and many other books, chapters and articles: "Pat Wilcox conveys the accumulated wisdom of her years working with children too often overlooked by others in this remarkable and inspiring book. The Restorative Approach has the potential to radically change child mental health treatment (and parenting) for children with challenging behaviors and histories of trauma. Integrating current research on trauma and treatment with practicality, compassion, and ethics, Wilcox presents a compelling case for the Restorative Approach as a best practice in trauma-informed child treatment. The book is exceptional in its many detailed clinical examples of effective interventions making it immediately accessible and useful to...

Mercedes is ten years old. Her developing brain was affected in utero by medications that her mother was taking. She experienced neglect and domestic violence while growing up. She has been in several placements and received various episodes of treatment. `Her mother, Maria, who also has three other children, has remained committed to her and has been involved in her care. Mercedes was placed in residential treatment, and she and her mother were working on reconnecting. Meanwhile Maria is trying to manage her job as a cleaning woman, caring for her three children at home, and taking some courses to become as nurse’s aide. This is a dream she has had for a long time and she is excited to be making progress. In the program, Mercedes was one of the more difficult residents. She quickly became extremely agitated when her needs were not met immediately, and was often severely violent with both staff and other residents. The program was helping her by having a single staff assigned to her. W...

Exciting news! The Traumatic Stress Institute announces the completion of the Risking Connection© Training Curriculum for Foster Parents. This curriculum would also be appropriate for teaching biological or kinship parents. The development of this curriculum is consistent with Sidran and the Traumatic Stress Institute’s philosophy of adapting the Risking Connection© ideas for various populations. The Foster Care curriculum joins Risking Connection® in Faith Communities: A Training Curriculum for Faith Leaders Supporting Trauma and adaptations for primary care physicians and for domestic violence treaters in expanding the scope of the Risking Connection© philosophy. The release of Risking Connection© for Foster Parents comes at a particularly opportune time. In Connecticut as well as across the nation states are relying less on residential treatment to treat their most stressed children and youth. Instead, they hope to develop foster families for these youth. The key to the children bei...

I have neglected my blog for several reasons. Among them are: 1. I am in the final editing stages of my book, and that has taken every writing minute. 2. Big changes have been happening at my beloved agency involving a lot of time and emotions 3. And let’s not even get into the injured knee and the abcessed tooth.. Now it’s time to check in again and I’d like to hear from you. What has been going on in your wold? How has your implementation of trauma informed care been going? What are the stress points? Any dilemmas that you would like help with? Have you been affected by budget cuts and if so, how does it affect your provision of trauma informed care? Any recent success stories? I would reall like to reconnect with you. I can even throw in a copy of my book A Kid’s View of Trauma, a book to use for psycho ed for kids about trauma for anyone who responds. So please, hit comment below and respond to these questions. I look forward to hearing from you and to restarting and revitalizing t...