Additional Resources
My Son Is Out of Control
Our 14-year-old son is out of control. He is very aggressive toward family members and we fear for our safety. We have tried family therapy and we have had counselors come to our home and work with him. It helps for a little while and then his aggression returns. We are thinking about having him placed in a residential treatment program. Is this the right decision and how do we go about getting him admitted?
Rewriting the Story
Fostering or adopting a child can be one of the most rewarding experiences as you help a child rewrite the story of their future. We sat down with Melissa Moore, a foster and adoptive parent for Nexus-Kindred Family Healing, to ask her what rewriting the story means to her and her family.
My Girlfriend Wants Her Kids to Call Me Dad
My girlfriend and I just moved in together after dating for about 2 years. She has a 13-year-old son and a 10-year-old daughter who live with us full time. They are great kids and we get along really well, but my girlfriend is pressuring the kids to call me dad and I don’t think that’s a good idea. She also expects me to discipline them when she gets upset and I don’t think that’s my role. Am I wrong about this?
Fostering Hope
t can be easy to write off foster kids as “bad kids” but I hope anyone reading this will understand the loss and trauma these kids suffer daily and how truly resilient they are to even be functioning in a society that sometimes disregards them. Being a foster parent is so much more than giving them a safe place to sleep, food to eat, and clean clothes to wear. In fact, most of these kids couldn’t care less about those things. It’s about helping them grow each day, dealing with every hard moment they go through that other kids don’t have to, validating their feelings while teaching them how to move on from them, and making it a priority to show them how worth it they are.
I'm Always Upset and Not Sure What To Do
I feel upset all of time. It has been like this for several years. Nothing seems to go right, and nothing makes me feel better. I don't know what to do.
Supporting a Child Exposed to Trauma
We know more about childhood trauma and its effect on the developing child than we ever have before. The resiliency of the developing brain provides an opportunity for us to intervene and provide healthy, safe, and nurturing experiences that grow the brain and help heal.
Is Teen Anger Connected to Childhood Trauma?
I was wondering if you could help me to better understand how early childhood trauma would affect a person’s behavior. Have you seen any correlations of certain forms of trauma and anger in early adolescence?