For many, the holiday season is a joyful one – the popular song “Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas” comes to mind – but for children who have or are experiencing trauma, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year’s Eve, and other celebrations represent a season of emotional pain. The barrage of festive sights, sounds, and smells meant to evoke magic and merriment can prompt anxiety, loneliness, and grief in children. And the social pressure and messaging focused on happy family time can be a source of distress for them, either because they may have lost one or more caregivers, or family members have caused them trauma.
Share This Post!
Protecting Children from Sexual Abuse in the #MeToo Era
By Nickolas Agathis, MD Do you keep up with any modern social movements, such as #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter or #KeepFamiliesTogether? The conversations surrounding them are still grabbing widespread attention through social media [...]
Immigrant Health is Interpersonal
By Amanda Venta, PhD Waves of Latinx immigration to the United States have changed in recent decades, and our scientific literature is only beginning to catch up. Regional violence and unrest [...]
Essential Elements of a Trauma-Informed Juvenile Justice System
NCTSN Trauma-informed policies and procedures make juvenile justice organizations safer and more effective by ensuring the physical and psychological safety of all youth, family members, and staff and promoting their recovery [...]
How Childhood Trauma Can Impact the Brain
Written by Kaytee Gillis, LCSW A recent study published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging finds that childhood trauma can lead to disruptions in two main regions of the brain, the default mode network (DMN) and [...]
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: The Missed Diagnosis
National Institute of Health Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is frequently under-diagnosed in maltreated samples. Protective services information is critical for obtaining complete trauma histories and determining whether to survey PTSD symptoms [...]
Types of Therapy for Childhood Trauma Explained
Medically reviewed by Akilah Reynolds, PhD — Written by Mandy French on August 30, 2023 Childhood trauma can affect people in various ways. There are many therapy options to help treat the effects of this trauma. A [...]