Help!

Dear Maureen, Usually therapist and psychiatrists have on-call people to cover when they are away or check their messages regularily, so I'd contact them first through their services and let them know it is urgent. I'd also encourage you to get an evaluation/second opinion. I don't know who you are seeing, but there are certainly various levels of competancy among professionals. If you are considering residential placement, you should think about either Villa St. Maria or InterMountain, both of which use an attachment model. You can get information about both on the website of the Association for the Treatment and Training in the Attachment of Children at [url]http://www.ATTACH.org[/url] Best wishes,

on residential facilities using the attachment model. I will check them out!

Let me know how it works out. Best to you and your family:)

Maureen, I too would ask, what type of attachment therapy have you tried? There are a lot of different approaches out there. What works for 1 kid is not going to work for another. We tried traditional therapy. Then worked briefly with a holding therapist who did it the old way. He held my son against his will and induced rages. Don't know if it would have eventually helped my son because he moved after 5 months. But I can tell you that my son was no better in that time. Next attachment therapy was Theraplay. I love the stuff. And to me it really made a lot of sense for attachment issues. But, by itself it did not help my son. We had a false "cure" and he was "successfully" discharged from therapy to go back to even more violent rages 5 minutes after his last appointment. What worked for my son was a combination of approaches. We worked with Art, and I would say this even if he wasn't the moderator!: Art's approach is wonderful. I was very comfortable with his work with my son. My son was a willing participant in therapy or therapy ended. Rages were not induced. They sometimes came from within my son, but were not brought on artificially. In addition to the holding therapy, Art used other approaches such as EMDR, when apprioriate. At home, Art trained me to implement the Nancy Thomas program. Initially I though I would just do part of it, but very quickly realized that my son needed the full approach. I was off work for 5 months, essentially placing my son in therapy 24/7. To enhance the nurturing part, we did a some of the Theraplay stuff at home. When I finially agreed to medicate what I now know is bipolar, my son improved dramatically & started cooperating with therapy. Within 6 months he was healthy enough to stop therapy. It's now been over 1 year. My son still has his struggles, mainly due to bipolar and Sensory integration issues. But he is pretty close to a healthy kid. He enjoys life, he's a lot of fun (well, most of the time - like any 9 year old!!). And most of all, He Is Fully Attached. He actually seeks me out to help him when he is hurting. He wants my comfort when he is upset or sad. When he's really mad, he stomps to his room (like any 9 year old!!). He no longer attacks me, he no longer trashes my house!!! I'm not sure if all kids can achieve his level of success. I feel very fortunate that my son was motivated to heal. He really wanted to figure out this love thing. The work on his part was immensly hard, but somehow he found the drive to do it. My son was severly neglected, not as likely that significant abuse was an issue. Other kids may have scars that are just too deep and too impossible to heal. But all kids deserve the best effort at trying and I admire all the awesome moms I have met that persevere. Hang in there Maureen, and don't give up. Whatever you give your child, they will be better off than if nothing had been done! DimasMom

Dima's Mom makes some good points. I'd not thought to raise the issue of "type" of "attachment therapy." There are many types just as psychotherapy is too broad a description. For some types of attachment therapy there is good evidence to back efficacy and for others there isn't. Some types work better with certain kids. I describe what I do as Affective Developmental Psychotherapy (aka attachment therapy). The focus is on early relational trauma, resolving the trauma using affective attunement and a structured environment to help the child regulate his or her affect dyadically. Theraplay is an excellent intervention for children once the traumas have been resolved and there is a beginning attachment to build upon. Intrusive "attachment therapies" are really not considered reputable. Two week intensives are often an excellent way of opening up a child so that the work can begin. Sometimes weekly or twice weekly treatment is just not intense enough. Best of luck