HELPING CHILDREN
WITH TRAUMA
We help adopted and foster children get access to the
therapy programs they need to heal and thrive.
HELPING CHILDREN
WITH TRAUMA
We help adopted and foster children get access to the
therapy programs they need to heal and thrive.
IMAGINE THE TRAUMA THESE KIDS GO THROUGH
Imagine a trauma so big, from abuse, neglect, or abandonment, that a little child becomes afraid to love. They are literally afraid that the hurt, the loss, the rejection, will be too big for them to survive. They fight to stay alive at all costs, trying to push the caregiver away before they can be rejected again.
“The kids who need the most love will ask for it in the most unloving of ways“ – Russell Barkley
Attachment and trauma therapies and other interventions can help these children heal their hearts and help them let in the love they deserve! With your donation you are helping a child to heal, that helps a family heal, that helps a community heal! Thank you!
“I just want to be able to trust that I have a family that loves me unconditionally. Right now my heart won’t let me believe that“ – 13 yr old (adopted at age 1)
“I want to be able to trust my family but I’m scared my mom will leave me. I want to feel so not alone“ – 14 yr old (adopted at age 2)
CHILDHOOD TRAUMA IS LIKE BEING CAUGHT ON A FROZEN LAKE
“In order to understand what an unattached child feels like, one must understand his perspective. Imagine that you are the young child who must cross a frozen lake in the autumn to reach your home. As you are walking across the lake alone, you fall suddenly and unexpectedly through the ice. Shocked and cold in the dark, you can’t even cry for help. You struggle for your very life, you struggle to the surface. Locating the jagged opening, you drag yourself through the air and crawl back into the woods from where you started. You decide to live there and never, never to return onto the ice. As weeks go by you see others on the ice skating and crossing the ice. If you go onto it, you will die.”
“Your family across the pond hears the sad news that the temperature will drop to sub-zero this night. So a brave and caring family member (that is you, the parent!) searches and finds you to bring you home to love and warmth. The family member attempts to help you cross the ice by supporting and encouraging, pulling and prodding. You, believing you will die, fight for your life by kicking, screaming, punching and yelling (even obscenities) to get the other person away from you. Every effort is spent in attempting to disengage from this family member. The family member fights for your life, knowing you must have the love and warmth of home for your very survival. They take the blows you dish out and continue to pull you across the ice to home, knowing it’s your only chance.”
“The ice represents the strength of the bond and your ability to trust. It was damaged by the break in your connection to someone you trusted. Some children have numerous bonding breaks throughout their young lives. This is like crashing them into the ice water each time they are moved, scarring and chilling their hearts against ever loving and bonding again.”
by Nancy L. Thomas from her book “When Love is not Enough”
OUR MISSION
Our mission is to fund the specialized therapeutic programs, camps, schools, or tools that insurance will not cover, but are necessary for these children to heal. Adopted and foster kids experience a lot of loss and a lot of trauma in their short little lives, but there is hope and healing if they can just get the right therapies or programs for their special needs. We have compiled a list of many different types of therapeutic programs, tools, and books on the Resources Page! Take a look at all of the options potentially available to help our children grow to become happy, healthy, and productive adults.
OUR HISTORY
I adopted my 2 children from Guatemala in 2008 and shortly thereafter we found out that they both had Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD), and my son had Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) as well. They both needed intensive attachment/trauma based therapy but Insurance wouldn't pay for it and I couldn't afford it. Talking to other foster and adoptive parents I found that this was a consistent problem. We have started this foundation so that no other child or family has to suffer without the necessary help like we have. Kids who don't get the help they need can end up becoming addicted to drugs, victims of sex trafficking, pregnant as teens, homeless, or in jail. Clearly this places the burden of those consequences back onto society. For example, 70% of the prison population was in foster care at one time or another. This can be prevented! You can help!
WHAT WE DO
There are many different types of programs, such as at home biofeedback and neurofeedback, therapeutic boarding schools, therapeutic respite homes, wilderness programs, 2 week intensives, attachment-based camps for the whole family, equine therapy, parent trainings, and community awareness, etc. Your doctor or therapist recommends a course of treatment and we do our best to make that path affordable to each and every family. We cover, through scholarships and grants, what insurance will not! Though we do not refer specific programs, we list a few that have been recommended on the resources page.
Want to Volunteer?
Our amazing team of full and part-time volunteers are committed to helping children in need. We take our convictions and turn them into action. Think you would be a good fit? Get in touch for more information!
THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF PROGRAMS AVAILABLE.
SEE OUR RESOURCES PAGE (REFERRALS REQUIRED FOR ALL PROGRAMS)
Equine therapy is an amazing avenue for children with special needs. Horses have an innate sense of just what the child needs and the child feels the control and power that they have inside them to work with such a powerful animal.
Play therapy and camps. Fun, laughter, and socialization is key for these children who often feel they are alone in their struggles.
Creating empathy and caring is essential for the child to thrive in a social society
Play and Imagination promote healing with hope and dreams for the future
Animals can have such a calming effect on kids. Caring for the animal’s needs helps kids experience nurturing that they may not have gotten in early childhood.
Sports and camps are just so much fun! Also instills a sense of comradery and belonging.
