Building the Bonds of Attachment: Awakening Love in Deeply Troubled Children

With the unmistakable authority of a clinician, Dan Hughes builds a stirring story around the composite figure of Katie—a fragmented, tormented, isolated little girl in foster care whose terror, shame, rage and despair drive her to deeds like lacing the family hamburger with her own feces—in order to expose the tragedy of the attachment-impaired child. The author also affirms and demonstrates the possibility of transformative intervention. Allison is the confident, compassionate, and controversial therapist who diagnoses and treats Katie's profound attachment disorder. Jackie is the therapeutic foster mother who fights to create a lasting bond with Katie by applying Allison's blend of affective attunement and effective discipline. Dr. Hughes speaks in both popular and clinical voices as he animates Katie's demoralizing but eventually reparative odyssey through more homes than any child should have to live in, drawing on his decades of experience with foster and adopted youngsters, their families, and the professionals who support them. Building the Bonds of Attachment: Awakening Love in Deeply Troubled Children is richly webbed with commentary on the dynamics of that odyssey, and also on the separate and tandem roles of case manager, therapist, and parent-surrogate.