Attachment in Common Sense and Doodles: a Practical Guide. Miriam Silver, $22.95

Attachment is a word used to describe a simple idea — the relationship with someone you love or whose opinions are important to you — so why is so much of the language relating to attachment so obscure, and why is it so challenging to help children who lack healthy attachment bonds?

ATTACHMENT IN COMMON SENSE AND DOODLES aims to bring some clarity and simplicity to the subject. Providing grounded information and advice accompanied by a series of simple 'doodles' throughout, it explains attachment in language that is easy to understand and describes how to apply this information in everyday life. It describes how the attachment patterns in children who are adopted or fostered differ, summarises the latest research in the field and provides advice on how to repair attachment difficulties and to build secure, loving relationships.  

Covering all of the 'need to know' issues including how to spot attachment difficulties, build resilience and empathy and responding to problematic behaviour, this book will be an invaluable resource for families and professionals caring for children who are fostered, adopted or who have experienced early trauma.

Attachment Parenting: Developing Connections and Healing Children. Arthur Becker-Weidman & Deborah Shell, $67.95

ATTACHMENT PARENTING describes a comprehensive approach to parenting children who have a history of neglect, abuse, orphanage care, or other experiences that may interfere with the normal development of attachment between parent and child. Grounded in attachment theory, ATTACHMENT PARENTING gives parents, therapists, educators, and child-welfare and residential-treatment professionals the tools and skills necessary to help these children.

With an approach rooted in dyadic developmental psychotherapy, which is an evidence-based, effective, and empirically validated treatment for complex trauma and disorders of attachment, Arthur Becker-Weidman and Deborah Shell provide practical and immediately usable approaches and methods to help children develop a healthier and more secure attachment. Chapters on sensory integration, art therapy for parents, narratives, and Theraplay give parents specific therapeutic activities that can be done at home to improve the quality of the child's attachment with the parent. And chapters on neuropsychological issues, mindfulness, and parent's use of self will also help parents directly. The book includes two chapters by parents discussing what worked for them, providing inspiration to parents and demonstrating that there is hope.

Attachment-Focused EMDR: Healing Relational Trauma. Laurel Parnell, $42.00

Much has been written about trauma and neglect and the damage they do to the developing brain. But little has been written or researched about the potential to heal these attachment wounds and address the damage sustained from neglect or poor parenting in early childhood. This book presents a therapy that focuses on precisely these areas. Laurel Parnell, leader and innovator in the field of eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), offers us a way to embrace two often separate worlds of knowing: the science of early attachment relationships and the practice of healing within an EMDR framework. This beautifully written and clinically practical book combines attachment theory, one of the most dynamic theoretical areas in psychotherapy today, with EMDR to teach therapists a new way of healing clients with relational trauma and attachment deficits. 

Attachment-Focused Parenting: Effective Strategies to Care for Children. Daniel Hughes, $37.00

An expert clinician brings attachment theory into the realm of parenting skills. Attachment security and affect regulation have long been buzzwords in therapy circles, but rarely are they effectively applied to basic parenting skills. Here, a leading attachment specialist brings attachment work inside the therapy room to the outside, equipping caregivers with practical parenting techniques rooted in attachment theory and research.

Brain-Based Parenting: the Neuroscience of Caregiving for Healthy Attachment. Daniel Hughes & Jonathan Baylin, $29.50

In this groundbreaking exploration of the brain mechanisms behind healthy caregiving, attachment specialist Daniel Hughes and veteran clinical psychologist Jonathan Baylin guide readers through the intricate web of neuronal processes, hormones, and chemicals that drive — and sometimes thwart — our caregiving impulses, uncovering the mysteries of the parental brain. 

The biggest challenge to parents, Hughes and Baylin explain, is learning how to regulate emotions that arise — feeling them deeply and honestly while staying grounded and aware enough to preserve the parent–child relationship. Learning to be a "good parent" is contingent upon learning how to manage stress, understand its brain-based cues, and respond in a way that will set the brain back on track. With this awareness, we learn how to approach kids with renewed playfulness, acceptance, curiosity, and empathy, re-regulate our caregiving systems, foster deeper social engagement, and facilitate our children's development.

Infused with clinical insight, illuminating case examples, and helpful illustrations, BRAIN-BASED PARENTING brings the science of caregiving to light for the first time. Far from just managing our children's behavior, we can develop our "parenting brains," and with a better understanding of the neurobiological roots of our feelings and our own attachment histories, we can transform a fraught parent-child relationship into an open, regulated, and loving one.

Building the Bonds of Attachment: Awakening Love in Deeply Troubled Children, 2nd Edition. Daniel Hughes, $72.95

The Circle of Security Intervention: Enhancing Attachment in Early Parent-Child Relationships. Bert Powell, Glen Cooper, Kent Hoffman & Bob Marvin, $63.95

Presenting both a theoretical foundation and proven strategies for helping caregivers become more attuned and responsive to their young children's emotional needs (ages 0–5), this is the first comprehensive presentation of the Circle of Security (COS) intervention. The book lucidly explains the conceptual underpinnings of COS and demonstrates the innovative attachment-based assessment and intervention strategies in rich clinical detail, including three chapter-length case examples. COS is an effective research-based program that has been implemented throughout the world with children and parents experiencing attachment difficulties.

Clinical Work with Traumatized Young Children.  Edited by Joy Osofsky, $28.95

Presenting crucial knowledge and state-of-the-art treatment approaches for working with young children affected by trauma, this book is an essential resource for mental health professionals and child welfare advocates. Readers gain an understanding of how trauma affects the developing brain, the impact on attachment processes, and how to provide effective help to young children and their families from diverse backgrounds. Top experts in the field cover key evidence-based treatments — including child–parent psychotherapy, attachment-based treatments, and relational interventions — as well as interventions in pediatric, legal, and community settings. Special sections give in-depth attention to deployment-related trauma in military families and the needs of children of substance-abusing parents.

Creating Loving Attachments: Parenting with PACE to Nurture Confidence and Security in the Troubled Child. Daniel Hughes & Kim Golding, $29.95

All children need love, but for troubled children, a loving home is not always enough. Children who have experienced trauma need to be parented in a special way that helps them feel safe and secure, builds attachments and allows them to heal.

Playfulness, acceptance, curiosity and empathy (PACE) are four valuable elements of parenting that, combined with love, can help children to feel confident and secure. This book shows why these elements are so important to a child's development, and demonstrates to parents and carers how they can incorporate them into their day-to-day parenting. Real life examples and typical dialogues between parents and children illustrate how this can be done in everyday life, and simple stories highlight the ideas behind each element of PACE.

This positive book will help parents and carers understand how parenting with love and PACE is invaluable to a child's development, and will guide them through using this parenting attitude to help their child feel happy, confident and secure.

Developing Attachment: Family Therapy Examples Part 1 – Adolescents. Daniel Hughes, $99.95

Developing Attachment: Family Therapy Examples Part 2 – Children. Daniel Hughes, $99.95

Developing Attachment: Family Therapy Examples Part 3 – Parents. Daniel Hughes, $99.95

Developing Attachment: Family Therapy Examples 3 DVD Set. Daniel Hughes, $259.95

Developing Attachment: Family Therapy Examples is a three-part DVD series presenting the attachment-focused treatment model developed by Dr. Daniel Hughes.  Part 1 introduces attachment and inter-subjectivity that guides Dr. Hughes' model of treatment, and demonstrates this model in two therapy sessions with adolescents and their parents.  Volume 2 looks at therapy with children and their parents and volume 3 focuses on therapy with the parents alone. 

The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are, 2nd Edition. Daniel Siegel, $54.50

This bestselling book put the field of interpersonal neurobiology on the map for many tens of thousands of readers. Daniel Siegel goes beyond the nature and nurture divisions that traditionally have constrained much of our thinking about development, exploring the role of interpersonal experiences in forging key connections in the brain. He presents a groundbreaking integrative framework for understanding the emergence of the growing, feeling, communicating mind. Illuminating how and why interpersonal neurobiology matters, this book is essential reading for clinicians, educators, researchers, and students interested in promoting healthy development and resilience across the lifespan. New to this edition:

• Incorporates significant scientific and technical advances
• Expanded discussions of cutting-edge topics, including neuroplasticity, epigenetics, mindfulness, and the neural correlates of consciousness
• Epilogue on domains of integration — specific pathways to well-being and therapeutic change
• Useful pedagogical features, such as diagrams and an extensive glossary

Facilitating Meaningful Contact in Adoption and Fostering: a Trauma-Informed Approach to Planning, Assessing and Good Practice. Louis Sydney & Elsie Price, $25.95

Most children who are fostered or adopted have some level of contact with their birth family, whether face-to-face or by letter,  yet most of the time the psychological impact of contact on the child isn't considered. This book explores what attachment, neuroscience and trauma tell us about how contact affects children, and shows how poorly executed contact can be unhelpful or even harmful to the child. Assessment frameworks are provided which take the child's developmental needs into account. The authors also outline a model for managing and planning contact to make it more purposeful and increase its potential for therapeutic benefit. The book covers the challenges presented by the Internet for managing contact, unique issues for children in kinship care, problems that arise when adoptive parents separate and many other key issues for practice.

Brimming with practical advice and creative solutions, this is an indispensable tool for social workers, contact centre workers, and other professionals involved in contact arrangements or the therapeutic support of fostered and adopted children.

Games and Activities for Attaching with Your Child. Deborah Gray & Megan Clarke, $22.95

Packed full of great ideas for fun games and activities, this book encourages positive attachments between a parent or carer and their child.

When it comes to choosing the best games to play with children who have difficulties attaching, it is often hard to know how to play with a purpose. This book contains fun, age-appropriate games along with an explanation of why they matter. All the games included are designed for specific age ranges, from infants to older children, and help to address particular needs in children that are known to affect attachment, including fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. It provides an easy-to-understand description of attachment and reveals the crucial role that play has in forming attachments. 

Written for parents and carers, as well as for use by professionals, it is full of strategies to help build healthy attachments in children who have experienced early trauma.

Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications, 2nd Edition. Edited by Jude Cassidy & Phillip Shaver, $70.50

This comprehensive work is more than just the standard reference on attachment — it has become indispensable in the field. Coverage includes the origins and development of attachment theory; biological and evolutionary perspectives; and the role of attachment processes in personality, relationships, and mental health across the lifespan. The second edition has been substantially revised and expanded to incorporate significant recent advances in theory, research, and clinical applications.

Healing the Hidden Hurts: Transforming Attachment and Trauma Theory into Effective Practice with Families, Children, and Adults. Edited by Caroline Archer, Charlotte Drury & Jude Hills, $35.95

With contributions from social workers, adoptive parents, adoptees, psychologists, therapists, counsellors and other related professionals, this book provides a varied and expansive approach to explaining attachment theory. The authors speak from personal experience to deliver explanations of theory, how they relate to practice and to provide practical guidance on how to improve the physical, emotional and psychological development of children in care across a broad range of professional settings. 

This book provides valuable insights relevant to practitioners within the fields of social work, health, education, the criminal justice system and any independent and voluntary sectors working with children and families.

Integrative Team Treatment for Attachment Trauma in Children: Family Therapy and EMDR. Debra Wesselmann, Cathy Schweitzer & Stefanie Armstrong, $38.95

Loss of a parent, separations, abuse, neglect, or a history of a difficult foster or orphanage experience can lead to profound emotional dysregulation and mistrust in children. Working with these children — many of whom have experienced multiple traumas and losses — can feel overwhelming. Clinicians must navigate complex case management decisions and referrals, address the needs of parents and schools, not to mention ameliorate the traumatic memories and severe behaviors that present in the kids. By working as a collaborative team, EMDR and family therapists can, together, strengthen the parent-child attachment bond and help to mend the early experiences that drive the child’s behavior. This book, and its accompanying Parent Manual, are intended to serve as clear and practical treatment guides, presenting the philosophy and step-by-step protocols behind the Integrative Team Treatment approach, so both the family system issues and the child’s traumatic past are effectively addressed. You need not be a center specializing in attachment trauma to implement this team model, nor must members of the team practice at the same location. With at least one fully-trained EMDR practitioners as part of the two-person team, any clinician can pair with another to implement this treatment approach, and heal children suffering from attachment trauma.

Also available:

Integrative Parenting: Strategies for Raising Children Affected by Attachment Trauma. Debra Wesselmann, Cathy Schweitzer & Stefanie Armstrong, $25.95

Designed as a manual to complement the clinician’s guide, this book is written for birth, foster, or adoptive parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, or anyone who may be raising a child who has experienced attachment loss and trauma. Their severe behaviors can often leave caregivers feeling confused, frightened, hurt, and overwhelmed, as they struggle to make sense of a massive amount of information — and misinformation — that exists on attachment issues. This book provides understanding, validation, and solutions for these caregivers. In it, the authors explain their innovative model of “team” treatment that includes an EMDR therapist and a family therapist. Best used in conjunction with therapeutic help, it walks readers through an array of parenting strategies that will lead them to a deeper understanding of their traumatized child, and better enable them to calm their behavior and improve their attachment security so they can heal.

Nurturing Attachments Training Resource: Running Parenting Groups for Adoptive Parents and Foster or Kinship Carers. Kim Golding, $158.95

NURTURING ATTACHMENTS TRAINING RESOURCE is a complete group programme containing everything you need to run training and support sessions for adoptive parents, as well as residential, foster, or kinship carers. Based on attachment theory, this rich resource provides an authoritative set of ideas for therapeutically parenting children along with all the guidance you will need to implement the training.

The training resource includes theoretical content and process notes for facilitators, and a range of activities supported by a CD-ROM with photocopiable reflective diary sheets, activity sheets and handouts. It is structured into 3 modules with 6 sessions per module. Module 1: Provides an understanding of attachment theory, patterns of attachment and an introduction to therapeutic parenting. Module 2: Introduces the House Model of Parenting, providing guidance on how to help the children experience the family as a secure base. Module 3: Continues exploring the House Model of Parenting, with consideration of how parents can both build a relationship with the children and manage their behaviour.

Promoting Attachment with a Wiggle, Giggle, Hug and Tickle: a Programme for Babies, Young Children and Carers. Fiona Brownlee & Lindsay Norris, $29.95

Practical and easy to use, this resource is for practitioners working in early years settings to help children aged 0-2 to develop secure and positive attachments with their parent or carer.

Designed to be flexible for one-to-one or group work, the resource features fun and engaging activities involving singing, movement and sensory activities in a structured but playful environment. It explains the significance of positive attachments in a child's early years, and equips practitioners with skills and techniques to help encourage bonding. It will be of particular interest to those working with parents needing additional support such as vulnerable and adoptive or foster families. The resource is accompanied by online materials - songs to sing along with, and film clips of signing to help parents and carers improve communication. This programme will help parents to become more attuned to the needs of their child, and aid the child's emotional, social and cognitive development. 

With additional guidance on how to run the programme as a group, this resource will be easy to use for any health, education or childcare practitioner in specialist and mainstream settings.

Real Life Heroes: a Life Storybook for Children, 2nd Edition. Richard Kagan, $49.50

REAL LIFE HEROES is a therapeutic resource that helps children overcome the difficulties they may face, including divorce, separation, placement, learning problems, serious illness, and hospitalization. The workbook highlights and preserves for children the moments in their lives when “important” people — family, friends, and community — showed kindness, caring, understanding, and courage, giving the child a sense of value that can promote transformation of troubled children from victims into tomorrow's heroes. The life storybook is especially useful for work with children in foster and adoptive families and group care programs.

Romania’s Abandoned Children: Deprivation, Brain Development, and the Struggle for Recovery. Charles Nelson, Nathan Fox & Charles Zeanah, $33.95

The implications of early experience for children’s brain development, behavior, and psychological functioning have long absorbed caregivers, researchers, and clinicians. The 1989 fall of Romania’s Ceausescu regime left approximately 170,000 children in 700 overcrowded, impoverished institutions across Romania, and prompted the most comprehensive study to date on the effects of institutionalization on children’s wellbeing. ROMANIA’S ABANDONED CHILDREN, the authoritative account of this landmark study, documents the devastating toll paid by children who are deprived of responsive care, social interaction, stimulation, and psychological comfort.

Launched in 2000, the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) was a rigorously controlled investigation of foster care as an alternative to institutionalization. Researchers included 136 abandoned infants and toddlers in the study and randomly assigned half of them to foster care created specifically for the project. The other half stayed in Romanian institutions, where conditions remained substandard. Over a twelve-year span, both groups were assessed for physical growth, cognitive functioning, brain development, and social behavior. Data from a third group of children raised by their birth families were collected for comparison.

The study found that the institutionalized children were severely impaired in IQ and manifested a variety of social and emotional disorders, as well as changes in brain development. However, the earlier an institutionalized child was placed into foster care, the better the recovery. Combining scientific, historical, and personal narratives in a gripping, often heartbreaking, account, ROMANIA’S ABANDONED CHILDREN highlights the urgency of efforts to help the millions of parentless children living in institutions throughout the world.

Theraplay: Helping Parents and Children Build Better Relationships through Attachment-Based Play, 3rd Edition. Phyllis Booth & Ann Jernberg, $72.00

THERAPLAY is a pioneering application of attachment theory to clinical work that helps parents learn and practice how to provide the playful engagement, empathic responsiveness, and clear guidance that lead to secure attachment and lifelong mental health in their children. This third edition of the groundbreaking book THERAPLAY shows how to use play to engage children in interactions that lead to competence, self-regulation, self-esteem, and trust.

Treating Traumatic Stress in Children and Adolescents: How to Foster Resilience through Attachment, Self-Regulation and Competency. Margaret  Blaustein & Kristine Kinniburgh, $52.95

Grounded in theory and research on complex childhood trauma, this book provides an accessible, flexible, and comprehensive framework for intervention with children and adolescents and their caregivers. It is packed with practical clinical tools that are applicable in a range of settings, from outpatient treatment centers to residential programs. Rather than presenting a one-size-fits-all treatment model, the authors show how to plan and organize individualized interventions that promote resilience, strengthen child-caregiver relationships, and restore developmental competencies derailed by chronic, multiple stressors.

Understanding Transitions in the Early Years: Supporting Change through Attachment and Resilience. Anne O’Connor, $38.50

There are many transitions that children experience before they are five, including the first major transition from home to an early years setting. UNDERSTANDING TRANSITIONS IN THE EARLY YEARS explains why transitions matter and provides practical guidance on how to support young children’s developing emotional resilience and equip them to embrace change in the future.  Including case studies, examples of good practice and questions for reflection this thought-provoking text emphasizes the little things that practitioners can do for the individual children in their care to help them feel secure and confident when dealing with change.