Don't Touch My Heart: Healing the Pain of an Unattached Child

Rating:
Summary: Extremely Helpful Metered with Common Sense
Review: I am both a counselor and a mother of a now-restored RAD child. While I agree that certain therapies, carried out in a non-ethical way are extremely dangerous and would certainly never suggest that people go the route that was taken in Colorado (not at the Evergreen centre, but by two women who acted independently of the centre-for the record), I find that holding therapy, used in conjunction with more traditional theraputic methods is extremely benificial. It is not my practice to entice others to anger, especially children. However, when a child in my care, or an adult for that matter, has clearly lost control of their emotions and is beside themselves with anger/grief, a properly structured holding experience is indeed extremely healing. I have a number of clients of various ages and with varying degrees of attachment disorders who will report that the safety of being held allowed feelings to come forth that they had previously never dared experience.
What happened to that desperate child in Colorado (again, these "therapists" were not from Evergreen; nor do I work for or am in any way associated with Evergreen) was and is clearly wrong.
As with any "new" approach to treatment, discernment and wisdom is the order of the day. This book outlines the emotional trauma of a child who cannot connect, a child struggling to understand the world in which he lives, a child desperate to escape the walls that both he and others have built around him. Foster parents, birth parents, anyone interested in "what goes on in there" would do well to read this.

Rating:
Summary: A very short read with a lot of great information
Review: I started reading this book one night, and I could not put it down. This book helped me understand the world of an unattached child. I read this book in a couple hours. It is a must read if you work with children in our society. Another exceptional book if you are interested in this subject is High Risk: Children without a consience.

Rating:
Summary: Realistic portrayal of a RAD child and the adoptive family.
Review: If you are an adoptive parent of a child with who seems intent on destroying your family and your love for the child, READ THIS BOOK. I was amazed at how accurately it described our family who adopted a child exactly like this. Not only is the description of the family accurate, but the description of the healing process is also accurate and best of all, it works.

Rating:
Summary: Start with this book if you are thinking about adoption.
Review: If you are thinking about adopting a child then you ought to read this book first. It is a story about a typical special needs child with developmental delays and how a family helps the child break through his anger and bond with his adopted family. The author removes clinical descriptions and the reader can identify their own lives through the characters in the book. If you have adopted a child and you feel more hate then love, then turn to this book for new hope.

Rating:
Summary: A Ver y Dangerous Mix
Review: In my opinion, this book represents a very dangerous mix of information, integrating a well researched area (attachment) with an untested, unresearched approach to treatment--even uses "tradional" attachment resources (mixed in the booklist)which it previously rejects. It feeds off the pain/fears of adoptive parents of attachment disordered children, suggesting in the sensationalist story that tradional psychologists/ therapists are at best inept or witless, and their treatment is ineffective, while THEIR approach is "highly effective". Where's the research, outcome measures, proof---and how does this holding down, provoking anger approach differ from abuse the children have previous experienced? Sounds like brainwashing/ cult stuff-they obey too. See Associated Press story "4 Arrested in Girl's Therapy Death", May 19, 2000--Same approach, out of same place: Evergreen, CO.

Rating:
Summary: A Ver y Dangerous Mix
Review: In my opinion, this book represents a very dangerous mix of information, integrating a well researched area (attachment) with an untested, unresearched approach to treatment--even uses "tradional" attachment resources (mixed in the booklist)which it previously rejects. It feeds off the pain/fears of adoptive parents of attachment disordered children, suggesting in the sensationalist story that tradional psychologists/ therapists are at best inept or witless, and their treatment is ineffective, while THEIR approach is "highly effective". Where's the research, outcome measures, proof---and how does this holding down, provoking anger approach differ from abuse the children have previous experienced? Sounds like brainwashing/ cult stuff-they obey too. See Associated Press story "4 Arrested in Girl's Therapy Death", May 19, 2000--Same approach, out of same place: Evergreen, CO.

Rating:
Summary: A review from a parent with a RAD child
Review: This book is a realistic view of life with an attachment disordered child, this book does NOT use scare tactics, but rather is a priceless tool in helping others to REALLY see what goes on. Our RAD son has been helped ONLY by holding therapy. Also, the therapy used in the death of the little girl in Colorado was "RE-BIRTHING THERAPY," NOT "HOLDING THERAPY." Holding therapy is not abusive, it is a nurturing way of helping a child express their rage and anger so as to get it out and resolve it. Little children don't know how to express their anger on their own. Unresolved anger eats away at them and prevents them from trusting and loving. This book is accurate in explaining the anger and the portrayal of holding therapy and its benefits. My son is on his way to love and healing thanks to holding therapy, and my friends and family now understand thanks to this wonderful book.

Rating:
Summary: A review from a parent with a RAD child
Review: This book is a realistic view of life with an attachment disordered child, this book does NOT use scare tactics, but rather is a priceless tool in helping others to REALLY see what goes on. Our RAD son has been helped ONLY by holding therapy. Also, the therapy used in the death of the little girl in Colorado was "RE-BIRTHING THERAPY," NOT "HOLDING THERAPY." Holding therapy is not abusive, it is a nurturing way of helping a child express their rage and anger so as to get it out and resolve it. Little children don't know how to express their anger on their own. Unresolved anger eats away at them and prevents them from trusting and loving. This book is accurate in explaining the anger and the portrayal of holding therapy and its benefits. My son is on his way to love and healing thanks to holding therapy, and my friends and family now understand thanks to this wonderful book.

Rating:
Summary: A Ver y Dangerous Mix
Review: This book is set up to be read with children. It tells the story of a little boy adopted as an older, hurt child. He is the product of years of abuse and neglect. Angry and destructive, he is closed off from his adoptive parents. Nothing works until he begins holding therapy and begins to heal. The child's emotions are true enough. I do not argue there, but this book is set up as propaganda for those who would have us believe that holding therapy is a panacea for the world's disturbed children.

Rating:
Summary: Work of Fiction Seemingly Masqueraded as Truth
Review: This book is set up to be read with children. It tells the story of a little boy adopted as an older, hurt child. He is the product of years of abuse and neglect. Angry and destructive, he is closed off from his adoptive parents. Nothing works until he begins holding therapy and begins to heal. The child's emotions are true enough. I do not argue there, but this book is set up as propaganda for those who would have us believe that holding therapy is a panacea for the world's disturbed children.