Families Growing Together
Heidi Pannell
Developmental trauma and it's impact
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Early trauma can have a profound and long-lasting impact on children, it affects deeply the way a child’s brain develop, and how they form relationships and manage their emotions. Children who have experienced early trauma can have a hard time; struggling to regulate themselves, cope in relationships and feel good about themselves. Behaviours linked to early trauma include being angry, oppositional, anxious, controlling and having extremes in emotions. Behaviours can be hard for parents/carers to understand and very challenging to manage. Parenting children with early trauma is demanding and stressful and parents/carers can feel demoralised and exhausted.
My work
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My work with families is focussed on increasing the connection and trust between children and their parents/carers by changing the patterns of relating to each other to help feel children feel emotionally safe and more connected. This enables children to let go of any defensive and fear driven behaviours, understand themselves more, and get closer to their parents/carers.
My work with parents/ carers is focussed on increasing understanding of why the child is behaving as they are and what their emotional needs are underneath. Parents/carers learn new ways to respond to their child which supports the child in regulation, managing feelings and general coping. Parents/carers support is focused on capacity building so that parents/carers feel better resourced and able to mange. Through my work, parents/carers feel better about themselves, and more equipped and skilled.