Control-Mastery and Trauma

• Call for questions and comments....... by Jessica Boitman, 10/14/98
  
  

Dear Jessica,

Once again we meet in cyberspace! I hope you're well.

I'd love to see a discussion of Control-Mastery theory and the treatment of severely abused children. I currently offer training workshops on "Control-Mastery and Working Collaterally with Parents." The response has been wonderful as clinicians learn new ways of explaining the possible meanings of their children's troublesome behaviors. Parents also feel empowered as they take their child's behavior less personally and more as the way in which their child is looking for help in mastering a conflict. I've considered doing a training for an agency that deals with severely abused children/victims of crimes. Over the last two years, I've also been thinking about trying to both deepen and expand an understanding of trauma which is rooted in the insights of Control-Mastery theory and evolutionary theory--one which stresses the interpersonal, altruistic roots of pathogenic processes in children. I would love to see a discussion of how people think that Control-Mastery insights can be/are being applied to the treatment of severely traumatized children. Of course, in this case we're not talking about the development of pathogenic beliefs/response scripts (in Tomkins' language)over long periods of time, but of the tremendous impact of an acute trauma on the development of pathogenic processes. In other words, I'm interested in what others think Control-Mastery can teach us about how severly abused/victim witness child clients present in therapy, and what we, as clinicians, need to know to be most helpful.

Thanks!

• Trauma and children? by Jessica, 11/4/98