There is increasing awareness that many children who present behavioral challenges have experienced relational trauma. These youngsters are not well served by traditional interventions in schools, treatment settings, and communities. Adults responsible for these young people often get drawn into conflict cycles and coercive interventions that only…

Youth in pain often show self-defeating and destructive patterns of behavior which should be seen as calls for help and positive support. Instead, deep-seated brain programs and cultural beliefs about discipline can trigger angry or avoidant behavior by adults who deal with these young people. This brief introduction to the Conflict Cycle…

Children with serious emotional and behavioral problems often present challenges that far exceed what seems to be manageable. Despite the best intentions and efforts, youth move through multiple failed services because of the lack of progress, the "failure to adjust," and a presumed need for a higher level of care. Renewing Our…

In the behavioral science literature, successful childhood socialization is termed Positive Youth Development (PYD). Young people themselves are active agents in charting their own life course (Jackson, in press). However, the responsibility for socialization begins with families and is shared by neighbors, faith communities, educators, youth…

The National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Chil­dren's (TLC) 24-year history of working with children and families has provided the experience necessary to make recommendations about how to best respond and intervene with survivors of violent as well as non-violent incidents. Professionals working with youth must appreciate that there is…

Since the early 1950s, trends in children's mental health have moved care from residential and office-based treatment to community-based interventions. The Pressley Ridge Treatment Foster Care (PRTFC) program was developed in 1981 in response to these trends. Currently, Pressley Ridge provides PR-TFC treatment in 15 programs in six states and the…

The Teaching-Family Model was one of the earliest approaches to be supported by an extensive research base. As it has evolved over four decades, it retains the focus on teaching and learning but incorporates a strength- and relationship-based orientation. The model is also unique in gathering ongoing practice-based evidence to insure quality.

One of the biggest challenges facing Aboriginal populations increasingly is being called "intergenerational trauma." Restoring the cultural heritage is a central theme in the book, "Reclaiming Youth at Risk." That work describes the Circle of Courage model for positive development which blends Native child and youth care philosophy with research…

"Caring communities" is a great sounding line, but what does it really mean? There are many ways that communities which present themselves as caring make life easier or worse for those who live there. For centuries in Germany, there have been religious groups who claim to care for each member. By definition, this is circumscribed caring as it…

Emphasis on neuropsychiatric frameworks of conceptualizing troubled youth is increasing. This focus leads to more biologically-based interventions. As such, the use of psychotropic medications is skyrocketing, while the utilization of psychosocial strategies is diminishing. Yet overall outcomes seem to be faltering. Admissions to outpatient,…

In work with troubled children, it is important to distinguish between emotional problems that are social in origin and those of a biological or medical nature. Over the past 50 years, many mental health professionals have come to believe that these problems are primarily biological and thus should be treated pharmaceutically. This disease model…

The most important task of teacher-counselors in Re-ED programs is to build a trusting relationship with youth. Hobbs defined trust between child and adult as "the glue that holds teaching and learning together, the beginning point for re-education" (Hobbs, 1994, p. 22). This trusting relationship, the foundation for all other Re-ED principles,…

A series of books by a classroom teacher offer an alternative to the curriculum of control with challenging students. Torey Hayden, a former teacher of children with emotional and behavioral disorders, has authored eight books chronicling her day-to-day work in special education and child psychology. Hayden's stories are remarkable for their…

The Behavior Intervention Support Team (BIST) is a proactive school-wide behavior management plan for all students, emphasizing schools partnering with students and parents through caring relationships and high expectations. The BIST program is well-grounded in behavioral theory and combines strength-based and resiliency principles within the…

Despite the numerous, disparate, and often unfair demands placed upon educators to be all things to all students, they need to be prepared to teach better behavior every day. Perhaps of even greater importance is finding ways of becoming tougher in not giving up on them when they say and do things that are annoying, obnoxious, and inappropriate so…