There are four types/areas of therapies that are emerging as important for treating traumatized children, those with PTSD or C-PTSD.

1. EMDR. The EMDRIA website defines it as: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a method of psychotherapy that has been extensively researched and proven effective for the treatment of trauma. EMDR is a set of standardized protocols that incorporates elements... more

A long time ago I complained to a friend of mine that my schedule for the day was shot, thanks to all the unexpected things that life tends to throw your way. And my friend responded… “That’s what you get for making a schedule!” I have thought of that so many times.

Well, today was one of those days. I have had a box of pictures sitting on my entry way floor for weeks, waiting to be hung on the bare walls. I keep thinking, “Today will be the day.” But thus far, that “today” has not come.

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If the diagnosis of Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) makes it into the DSM-V (due out in 2010) or even if it doesn’t, the next logical question after learning about C-PTSD is “what can be done to treat it?”

Well, there are some treatments that are successful with addressing trauma in children. The problem with traditional therapeutic approaches is that many of them require extensive talk therapy. And that doesn’t work with traumatized children for... more

I NEVER get to watch Oprah… it is on at 4 p.m. here… right in the middle of kids coming home and doing homework and wanting a snack, and me starting dinner, etc. But I might just try to fit it in today, because Oprah is doing a story on transracial adoption.

Oprah’s show today is called “Fascinating Families”, and one of the families that she is interviewing is that of Lysa and Art from North Carolina, who adopted two teenaged boys from Liberia after seeing them sing in a performance by a boys’ choir from an orphanage in Liberia. Although they had never considered adoption and had attended the concert with their daughter’s brown troop with no intentions of it being a life-changing... more

Earlier this month I wrote about our adventures in finding the right hair products for Belane. Belane has beautiful “corkscrew” curls…much looser than the hair of my black kids from the U.S. (who also have beautiful hair), and yet still much more textured than your average “curly hair”. Making things extra difficult was the fact that Belane has suffered from a severely dry scalp since we got her in Ethiopia. Products that made her hair feel nice left her scalp itchy and scratchy, and products that made her scalp look healthy, left her hair greasy and oily.

We had been doing pretty well with the “Hair Balm” from Carol’s Daughter, but I was... more

Here are a couple more news stories about the UN from Haiti over the weekend:

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) - Twenty-four hours of clashes between UN forces and armed gangs in the Haitian capital's sprawling slum of Cite Soleil have left at least five people dead and 12 wounded by gunfire, the UN mission in Haiti said.

"Four people, all likely gang members, were killed in clashes Wednesday at dawn between the blue helmets and gunmen," said a spokesman for the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).

Six people were... more

Although I have a list of favorite blogs in the works, I wanted to do an entire post about a new blog that I just found. It is written by a mother who had planned to place her daughter for adoption, but changed her mind and got her daughter back when she was seven(7)weeks old. She commented on one of my blog entries, and that is how I found her.

Her daughter was with foster parents while she was trying to decide whether to parent or not, so her daughter never went to adoptive parents. I think it is interesting to note that this occurred in Europe,... more

Journeywoman has been talking about that recent case on the news where a family was asked to leave a flight because their three year old wouldn't sit in her seat for takeoff. Today, she has a great post about when to bend, and her own story of enforcing what she felt was the correct thing to do in a situation. After I posted a comment to her site today, I realized how lengthy it was (sorry! that's kinda when someone says, get your own blog!, right?) and since she brings up a great topic, I'm posting my comment here. At what point do you as parents bend the rules, or acquiesce... more

Here's a story from Elizabeth who adopted an almost 5 year old girl.

I know that every child's adjustments are different, but our Hana had a really difficult time. Particularly, I feel she knew just enough to be angry at her father for "leaving her" but is still too young to 1. understand the real curcumstances going on, and 2. to have the emotional maturity to handle the pain and confusion of all the changes.

Just at the time in a person's life when there is experimentation with independence and self control, everything was completely out of her control. As a result, any situation where she needed to relinquish control such as being seat belted on the plane... more

News about Haiti’s inclusion as a member of the Caribbean Development Bank from the Nassau Guardian:

Recent inclusion of Haiti as a member of the Caribbean Development Bank may hold economic benefits for its Bahamian neighbor.

Arrangements for the poorest nation in the western hemisphere to take full membership in the Bank were completed last week, effectively vaulting Haiti's status in the region at the same time improving its long-term economic outlook.

"We have been working assiduously over the past two years to bring Haiti into the (Bank's) family," said its President Dr Compton... more