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By Misty Gray

Executive Director/Healing Hearts Child Advocacy Center

Imagine, a young child enduring the painful agony of physical abuse and the profound trauma that follows. A million questions rapidly run through their mind, along with a sense of shame and guilt.  Their thoughts and feelings begin to disconnect and cause behavioral changes. As a result, the child now faces multiple responses that impact their daily life, along with vast amounts of stress. Deteriorating relationships cause trust to become something of the past. The child withdraws within themselves while showing signs of depression and anxiety.

The multidisciplinary team approach is critical in responding to these types of cases and evaluating the needs of the children involved.  Referrals to a local child advocacy center allow a child to tell their story of abuse and engage in services that will begin their healing journey.  A multidisciplinary team of professionals comes together to discuss the next steps in their investigations, safety concerns, and resources available for the child. One major concern of the team must be the child’s mental health and stability.

Mental health therapists available at a local child advocacy center use a variety of trauma-focused modalities when working with child abuse victims.  One of the most common, Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), is used to guide children through the effects of abuse by managing their traumatic memories and emotions. Therapists can provide emotional stability by teaching children to connect their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. TF-CBT is an evidence-based- approach that provides a safe, supportive environment to allow the child to express their memories of the abuse. A therapist’s first goal is to mentally stabilize the child while building on the child’s skills and typically involves addressing distorted beliefs and decreasing negative thoughts and behaviors related to their abuse. The child learns healthy coping skills through open dialogue about the abuse. The child and therapist work together on processing trauma through the creation of a trauma narrative. The therapist can then educate the child and family on their reactions to the traumatic events and the effects of trauma. Sharing the trauma narrative with the caregiver allows the caregiver to have a better understanding while providing support to their child. Evidence-based assessments (Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children) are used throughout the process of therapy to measure post-traumatic stress and as a guide to treatment planning and monitoring progress.

According to the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study, childhood trauma has a high correlation with unhealthy adults.  A large amount of trauma and stress affects our brain development and immune system, ability to form healthy relationships, and increases the risk for chronic diseases. It is imperative to treat child abuse to decrease the physical and psychological effects of trauma. Decreasing distorted beliefs, self-doubt, and negative coping skills, and helping the child not to dissociate themselves from their trauma allows the child to have a chance at hope – hope for a better future, hope to heal, and hope to be whole.

This awareness campaign is part of a statewide initiative of the Children’s Advocacy Centers of Mississippi to educate communities on this important issue.