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When Dad Got Scared: A child's guide to adults after trauma
Leo DeBroeck, author
This book is intended for family members and counselors help young children understand trauma. The book describes the story from the perspective of a child of a parent with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This helps the child understand how the parent may behave as a result of high stress and trauma experiences. It explains how the parent may change over time and how therapy is a slow, but helpful, process that can be even more difficult to the parent and child. Trauma effects every part of a person, including the relationships they have with children. When anyone close to a child, especially a parent, has been affected by trauma it can be toxic, harmful, and overwhelmingly stressful for the child to not understand it. Part of healing from any kind of trauma is understanding it. This book aids young children who need to heal from the effects of trauma of those close to them. It teaches young children that even though there can be volatility of adults after trauma they are still loved and cared for by the adult. This book shows that healing from trauma can take a lot of work and time, but it is possible. It builds resiliency for the child to be able to understand how others can heal. Everyone wants our children to grow up feeling safe and loved which means we must be able to show our children how to handle feelings of insecurity and emptiness. Children are constantly trying to make sense of the world around them. This shows them a view of trauma that makes sense to them and instills the view that the world is a safe place to be.