Product Description

Kate Cairns is a social worker by profession who has also, over a 25-year period and along with her husband and birth children, fostered 12 other children who remain part of their family group. In this compelling book she draws on the wealth of her personal and professional experience to offer a vivid glimpse into family life with children who have experienced attachment difficulties, loss, abuse and trauma, and shows in a range of everyday situations how the family responded to the powerful feelings and difficult behaviours the children displayed. Drawing on knowledge and ideas that helped her make sense of this experience, the author includes suggestions for carers and professionals on what may be observed in children with unmet attachment needs and post-traumatic stress disorders, and what can be done to promote recovery and develop resilience.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23364 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 180 pages

Book review, Adoption & Fostering, Vol 26 No.1, Spring 2002
...a great achievement, beautifully written. It renders complex experiences and scientific detail in an acccessible but precise style.

From the Publisher
We think this is a remarkable and compassionate book, offering powerful insights into the strong feelings and difficult behaviours likely to be displayed by children who have experienced overwhelming stress. Anyone at BAAF who has read it thinks it's a great read and recommends it highly.

About the Author
Kate Cairns is a social worker and teacher who works as a trainer consultant for BAAF Southern Region. She is also the author of 'Surviving Paedophilia' (Trentham Books, 1999) and various articles. She and her husband have three birth children as well as 12 foster children.

Customer Reviews

Attachment, Trauma and Resilience
A fantastic book, well written in a friendly easy to read manner. As a foster carer, i found it very useful and especially liked the fact that it is written in a way which allows you to access the section required without having to re-read the whole book. She writes from experience and gives examples which as foster carers, we can identify with and learn from. The book gave us a deeper understanding of where the children we care for are coming from. The book gives us examples of how to help these children overcome some very traumatic episodes of their lives.

invaluable for foster carers
This book is a must read for foster carers, it is extremely helpful when dealing with children who have difficult issues affecting their lives

Excellent!
As a trainee Psychodynamic Counsellor I found Kate's book most informative and very readable. She writes with great understanding and depth of knowledge. A very human book, and a good companion to Winnicott's attachment work, I believe this is well worth keeping for reference too.