10 Interventions for Attachment and Traumatic Stress Issues for Young Children (birth-5 years)

Although mental health professionals acknowledge that clinical issues often look different in young children, treatment practices rely mostly on adult literature and there is heavy reliance on verbalizations of children’s experiences. These mostly miniaturized forms of adult treatment are often scaled down using younger language and vocabulary, but still rely heavily on discovering ways to encourage the verbal communication of children. Further, There are major deficiencies in the mental health care delivery system for children, such as neglect and fragmentation of services create obstacles to effective service provision for this population. Recently, scholars have begun to explore early childhood development and effective counseling interventions, the role of traumatic stress in the presentation of emotional and behavioral symptoms, and the prevalence of attachment issues for young children (Frazier, West-Olatunji, St Juste, & Goodman, 2009; Wolfgang, West-Olatunji, Frazier, & Barrett, 2012) . Following a brief overview of these key advances in what we have named as pediatric counseling, we offer 10 evidence-based counseling interventions that stem from our work with young children over several decades. Finally, we assert that the counseling profession needs to extend our reach down the developmental pipeline to become leaders in addressing the needs of young children. To that end, we offer recommendations for practice and research.