ABSTRACT
Children who were chronically traumatized at an early age may have incurred so much damage that a thorough preparation is needed before they are ready to start processing their traumatic experiences. This preparation is called stabilization. It is hard to motivate these children to process their trauma because they usually avoid anything related to their traumatic memories. It all happened a long time ago and they have found ways to live with it. They don’t realize that their symptoms are caused by their experiences in the past. Sometimes the therapist may be unaware of what they have been through, because they never talk about it, and suspicions based on their symptoms may be all there is to go on. Broaching the subject may cause their stress levels to rise very sharply.
