Building the Bonds of Attachment: Awakening Love in Deeply Troubled Children

Hughes, Daniel A.

ISBN 10: 0765702371 / ISBN 13: 9780765702371

Published by Jason Aronson, Inc., 2000

About this Item

Seller Inventory # BSM.19ONV

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Building the Bonds of Attachment: Awakening Love in Deeply Troubled Children
• Publisher: Jason Aronson, Inc.
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0765702371
• ISBN 13: 9780765702371
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: very_good

About this title

Synopsis

With the unmistakable authority of a clinician, Dan Hughes builds a stirring story around the composite figure of Katie-a fragmented, tormented, isolated little girl in foster care whose terror, shame, rage and despair drive her to deeds like lacing the family hamburger with her own feces-in order to expose the tragedy of the attachment-impaired child. The author also affirms and demonstrates the possibility of transformative intervention. Allison is the confident, compassionate, and controversial therapist who diagnoses and treats Katie's profound attachment disorder. Jackie is the therapeutic foster mother who fights to create a lasting bond with Katie by applying Allison's blend of affective attunement and effective discipline. Dr. Hughes speaks in both popular and clinical voices as he animates Katie's demoralizing but eventually reparative odyssey through more homes than any child should have to live in, drawing on his decades of experience with foster and adopted youngsters, their families, and the professionals who support them. Building the Bonds of Attachment: Awakening Love in Deeply Troubled Children is richly webbed with commentary on the dynamics of that odyssey, and also on the separate and tandem roles of case manager, therapist, and parent-surrogate.

About the Author

Daniel A. Hughes, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist in Waterville, Maine, where he specializes in child abuse and neglect, attachment, foster care, and adoption. He provides consultation to family services programs and also to therapists, case managers, and parents struggling with the treatment of attachment deficits in children. Dr. Hughes is the author of Facilitating Developmental Attachment: The Road to Emotional Recovery and Behavioral Change in Foster and Adopted Children.