A Practical Guide to Caring for Children and Teenagers with Attachment Difficulties

This book guides childcare professionals through attachment theory and provides techniques for caring for children with attachment difficulties. It explains what attachment is, what different patterns of attachment look like in children and young people, how early attachment experiences affect their lives, and how this understanding can help childcare workers to develop therapeutic ways of caring. By understanding these issues, childcare workers are better equipped to help and support the troubled children they care for. This book shows how to promote recovery through secure base experiences in a therapeutic environment and provides solutions and methods to tackle challenging and problem behaviour, anger and the effects of trauma in children with attachment problems. This essential book will be invaluable to professionals such as residential carers, social workers and foster carers who work in a therapeutic environment with vulnerable and troubled children and young people.

Table of Contents:
Introduction.1. Patterns of Attachment. 2. The Planned Environment – an organizational representation of a secure base. 3. Ways of Caregiving – working within the frame. 4. Working for Recovery – relational representation of the secure base. 5. Working with Conflict. 6. Working with Anger. 7. Managing Challenging Behaviour. 8. Changing Problem Behaviour. Bibliography. Index.

About the Author :
Chris Taylor has over twenty years’ experience as a practitioner and manager working with vulnerable and traumatized children. He is interested in a therapeutic approach to recovery from early trauma that is rooted in attachment theory. Although he continues day by day to manage a small, therapeutic, residential unit, he is actively involved in training residential workers, foster carers, social workers, therapists and managers in an attachment perspective to residential and foster care.

Review :
This book explores the impact of attachment difficulties on the behaviour of young people and offers a therapeutic framework and approach to care that attempts to address this behaviour. It offers a valuable resource to practitioners who work directly with young people, providing them with a strategy and practical tools to manage difficult behaviour in a way that supports young people and ensures their recovery this is an excellent easy-to-read resource which can help practitioners in their work... I would thoroughly recommend Chapter 1 for those interested not just in patterns of attachment but also the implications of attachment in families where domestic violence is a feature... this book adds so many extra dimensions to the understanding of attachment and adds such extra value to the understanding of problematic attachment behaviours ad their management that it would be a shame not to have it on your bookshelf. ...this is overall an excellent, practical resource for those caring for children with attachment difficulties, and for the professionals supporting them. `An excellent book that is well written, comprehensive and easy to read. It is full of practical advice and things to make readers think about attachment difficulties in teenagers...The book makes special reference to carers working in children's homes and would make an excellent text for care home workers. However, the book is not just for those who work in children's homes, as it contains some excellent practical strategies for parents and carers as well. There are also chapters on working with anger, working with conflict and working with challenging behaviour. Highly recommended.` `This book is divided into eight easy to read, well-structure chapters each prefaced by a list of learning outcomes...Author Chris Taylor uses his own experience to provide an attachment-based model for making residential care a supportive environment for children recovering from the emotional damage done by dysfunctional families and the care system...This is a balanced and quietly persuasive text, with an admirable determination to ensure troubled children receive the highly skilled care they need...I doubt whether we are even close to having the systems, models and career structures to make a residential care revival viable, but this book may prompt us to think again.` The concise learning outcomes for each chapter make this book an ideal resource for professional development in the caring field. It may be tempting for people to go straight to the final chapters on dealing with behaviours, and it invaluable as a practical handbook; but it is well worth reading from all the way through as it will deepen the reader's understanding and empathy for children and young people with attachment difficulties. A Practical Guide to Caring for Children and Teenagers with Attachment Difficulties is an important bridge between attachment theory and research and providing appropriate care for children who are most in need. Most importantly, it reminds us that in order for these children and young people to successfully recover from their relational traumas, those providing their care must keep in mind the key concepts of attachment security. The author successfully utilizes cognitive and behavioural interventions in the context of attachment, maximizing their effectiveness and demonstrating how best to care for these children and young people. This book provides a wealth of information and practical ideas for parenting young people who have experienced early trauma and disrupted attachments. Parents and carers are given a whole approach to parenting as well as specific ideas for specific problems, and special reference is made to the often neglected issue of how to parent children living within children’s homes. This book is a treasure trove of theory and practical ideas for foster carers, residential care workers and for the professionals who are supporting them. This volume is designed to provide carers with detailed guidance to help them to understand attachment theory... Taylor offers a practical and accessible approach, bringing a wealth of experience to the task of helping carers to enable children with attachment disorders to achieve more positive, healthy and secure relationships with others. Social workers, guardians, psychologists, psychiatrists and therapists will also benefit from Taylor's creativity and clarity... This book is well constructed and successfully achieves its aim of being a very useful and practical tool for carers. Each chapter sets out learning outcomes, enabling carers and professionals to employ this text both as a readily accessible reference and a source of further ideas for care planning. A Practical Guide for Caring for Children and Teenagers with Attachment Difficulties fills a gap, offering guidance to carers and a more focal understanding of relevant issues for professionals involved in care and family work. We suspect that this book will acquire a well-worn look on the book shelf or desk of many individuals who are regularly asked to provide advice and support to carers working with vulnerable and traumatised children.