ABSTRACT

In this second edition of Joyanna Silberg’s classic The Child Survivor, practitioners who treat dissociative children will find practical tools that are backed up by recent advances in clinical research.

Chapters are filled with examples of clinical dilemmas that can challenge even the most expert child trauma clinicians, and Silberg shows how to handle these dilemmas with creativity, attunement, and sensitivity to the adaptive nature of even the most complex dissociative symptoms. The new edition addresses the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on children and provides tips for working with traumatized children in telehealth. A new chapter on organized abuse explains how children victimized by even the most sadistic crimes can respond well to therapy.

Clinicians on the front lines of treatment will come away from the book with an arsenal of therapeutic techniques that they can put into practice right away, limiting the need for restrictive hospitalizations or out-of-home placements for their young clients.

chapter Chapter 1|20 pages

Trauma and Its Effects

chapter Chapter 2|18 pages

An Integrative Developmental Model of Dissociation

chapter Chapter 3|8 pages

Diagnostic Considerations

chapter Chapter 4|22 pages

Assessing Dissociative Processes

chapter Chapter 5|8 pages

Beginning the Treatment Journey

chapter Chapter 6|20 pages

Educate and Motivate

Introducing the EDUCATE Model

chapter Chapter 7|23 pages

Bridging the Selves

Healing through Connections to What's Hidden

chapter Chapter 8|19 pages

“I Try to Forget to Remember”

Reversing Amnesia

chapter Chapter 9|20 pages

Befriending the Body

Somatic Considerations for the Child Survivor

chapter Chapter 10|24 pages

Staying Awake

Reversing Dissociative Shutdown

chapter Chapter 11|22 pages

Building Attachment across States

Affect Regulation in the Context of Relationships

chapter Chapter 12|17 pages

Child-Centered Family Therapy

Family Treatment as Adjunct to Dissociation-Focused Interventions

chapter Chapter 13|32 pages

Rewriting the Script

Processing Traumatic Memories and Resolving Flashbacks

chapter Chapter 14|30 pages

Countering Organized Abuse

Organized Attachment and Love

chapter Chapter 15|14 pages

Interfacing with Systems

The Therapist as Activist

chapter Chapter 16|17 pages

Integration of Self

Towards a Healing Future