Volume: 24; Issue: 3December 2015

Offi cial N

ewslett er of the Internati onal Society for the Preventi on

of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN

)

The LINK

Awarness for Children in Trauma (WACIT).....................P. 1A Message from the Leadership.....................................P. 2Conference Statement on Refugee Children: A Call to Ac-ti on for all Conference Delegates, ISPCAN Members and Partners.........................................................................P. 4Report from Nigeria on Strengthening Civil Society’s Re-sponse to Child Sexual Abuse.........................................P.5The Tapping Technique...................................................P.7Meet Your Councilor: Yanghee Lee...............................P.10

In this issue...

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Awareness for Children in Trauma (WACIT)Panos VostanisProfessor of Child Psychiatry, University of Leicester, UK, pv11@le.ac.uk

In any society, about one in ten children and young people up to the age of 18 years suf-fer from mental health problems

(emoti onal, behav-ioural, developmental problems; or mental illness). These rates can rise up to 40%, or even higher, if children have experienced traumati c events such as abuse and neglect, war, being raised in care or living on the streets. This highlights the huge importance of child protecti on and other welfare services be-ing closely linked with child mental health agencies. Despite the increasing public and media awareness of the impact and suff ering that child trauma causes, and which is likely to persist in later life in the absence of help, there is sti ll

substanti al fear and sti gma of mental health, as well as discrimi-nati on, which hinders eff orts to promote children’s well-being. For example, many countries do not have child mental health policies or services, whilst others do not have legal frameworks

on how to protect chil-dren most in need.

Research advances have enhanced our understanding of the extent and nature of child mental health problems among vul-nerable children such as those in public care, in contact with the courts, refugees and the homeless (Tha-bet, Matar, Carpintero and Vostanis, 2010; O’Reilly, Majumder, Karim and Vostanis, 2015). We also know a lot about the factors that place these chil-dren at risk, like their parents’ mental health and capacity to care for them, and how these risk factors impact on them. There is less, al-

beit evolving evidence on what protects children in the face of trauma, which has informed ways of helping even in the most

Internally displaced children’s performance conducted by an older girl at a shanty sett lement outside Nakuru in Kenya.

A Message from the LeadershipExecutive Council 2014-2016

Dear Members,

We bring you another editi on of The LINK with interesti ng and valuable informati on and news of ISPCAN events.

Since our last editi on, ISPCAN has held, with the assistance of Local Organising Committ ees, two very valuable regional conferences, one in Eastern Europe and one in the Asian-Pacifi c Region.

The East European Regional ISPCAN Conference was held from 27th to 30th September in Bucharest Romania, a fascinati ng city with an interesti ng history. The conference theme, “Chil-dren First! Collaborati ve and Inter-sectorial Response to Child Abuse and Neglect”, provided the framework for an engaging and valuable conference programme with plenary speakers whose experti se and knowledge challenged delegates to rethink a number of practi ce and research issues. We thank the Romanian Nongovernmental Federati on for Children for their support of this conference and Professor Dr Maria Roth for her work as Co-chair ,together with Dr Med Myriam Carazano, from the ISPCAN Council.

Of parti cular note was the special meeti ng held at this conference to discuss the plight of refu-gee children, fl eeing confl ict zones either with their parents, or even on their own. Presenta-ti ons and discussions relati ng to the suff ering of these children and families and the challenges they present to child protecti on organisati ons and services, resulted in the development of a Conference Declarati on, which we have included in this editi on of the Link.

We held our annual ISPCAN Council meeti ng in Bucharest, immediately aft er this Conference and focussed on the planning of further ISPCAN events, the ongoing development of resources to improve our responses to the preventi on of and response to violence against children, as well as how ISPCAN can bett er meet the needs of its members.

The Asia Pacifi c ISPCAN Conference was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from the 24th to 28th October, focusing on “Investi ng in Children, Every Child Counts”. Once again this confer-ence challenged delegates to consider many aspects of research and practi ce in the fi eld of child protecti on and extended our thinking as to how the incoming Sustainable Development Goals, committ ed to by the member states of the United Nati ons in October 2015, could be used to advance the preventi on of violence against children through advocacy, strategy and programme development.

Our thanks go to Dr Raj, the Chairperson of the Local Organising Committ ee. Dr Raj and her team worked unti ringly to make this conference a success.

Sadly, Steve Werner, our Executi ve Director, has had to resign due to ill-health. We are fi nalis-ing the appointment of a new ED, who I shall have the pleasure of introducing to the ISPCAN membership in the new year. However, I do want to thank Steve on behalf of the ISPCAN Coun-cil and membership for his commitment over the past year, and wish him improved health in the coming years.

Finally, I wish all ISPCAN members a safe, healthy and producti ve 2016, as we move into the new year and work together for the protecti on of children around the globe.

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PresidentJoan van Niekerk, BSocSc Hons, MMedScChildline South AfricaPresident ElectBernard Gerbaka, MDHotel-Dieu University Hospital, LebanonPast PresidentJenny Gray, OBE, Bsc, DipSW, Dip Family Therapy, Dip Higher Educati on and Train-ing, United KingdomSecretaryVictoria Lidchi, BSc, MSc, MPhil, DClin-Psych, IntMastersUnited KingdomTreasurerMartin A. Finkel, DO, FAAPCARES Institute, Rowan University, USACouncilorsRandell Alexander, MD, PhD, FAAPUniversity of Florida - Jacksonville, USASue Bennett, MB, ChB, FRCP, DTM&H, DRCOG, DCH, Dip PsychUniversity of Ottawa, CanadaMyriam Caranzano-Maitre, MDASPI Fondazione della Svizzera Italiana, SwitzerlandFigen Sahin Dagli, MDGazi University, TurkeyHoward Dubowitz, MD, MS, FAAPUniversity of Maryland, USASue Foley, BSocStud, MA, MSW, MEd The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, AustraliaFuyong Jiao, MDXi’an Philanthropic Child Abuse Prevention and Aid Center, ChinaKevin Lalor, PhDDublin Institute of Technology, IrelandYanghee Lee, PhDSungkyunkwan University, Republic of KoreaTufail Muhammad, MD, MCPS (Paeds), DCH, DCPathChild Rights and Abuse Committee, Paki-stanDesmond Runyan, MD, DrPH, FAAPKempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect, University of Colorado, USARajeev Seth, MD, DNBE, FIAP, DABP, FAAPIndian Child Abuse, Neglect & Child La-bour Group, IndiaAdam Tomison, BSc(Hons), PhD Australian Institute of Criminology, Aus-traliaPeter van der Linden, MScNeSPCAN, the NetherlandsToshihiko Yanagawa, MD, PhDSchool of Health and Nursing Science, Wakayama Medical University, JapanLegal Advisor/ParliamentarianHenry J. Plum, JD, USAExecutive DirectorSteve Werner, USA

Joan van NiekerkISPCAN President

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diffi cult life circumstances (Vostanis, 2014). Such interventi ons are parti cularly diffi cult to implement in low income countries or in societi es that have been widely aff ected by natural or human-infl icted disasters.

As no single country can provide all answers and services re-quired, even if it’s health and welfare systems are relati vely well resourced, sharing knowledge, lessons learned and soluti ons can have a dramati c and large-scale impact on children, parti cularly those living in deprived communiti es and high risk environments (Vostanis, 2010). Examples of such research include the impact of an earthquake in Iran (Kalantari & Vostanis, 2010), war confl ict in Gaza (Thabet, Tawahina, El Sarraj and Vostanis, 2008), and socio-economic deprivati on in Pakistan (Hussein, Vostanis and Bankart, 2011). Our current studies include the evaluati on of child protec-ti on training in Saudi Arabia, the mental health needs of Syrian ref-ugees in Turkey, and an interventi on for children victi ms of ethnic confl ict in Kenya.

The consolidati on of our internati onal partnerships with academic centres, services and NGOs, as well as our out-puts, enabled us to move to the next phase of our in-ternati onal child trauma programme, which we called ‘In-ternati onal Child Mental Health Trail Blazer’ and consist-ed of a number of visits, training and new collaborati ons in India, Turkey, Qa-tar, Kenya, Greece and Iran (htt ps://p a n o s v o s t a n i s .wordpress.com/).

This was a great suc-cess in establishing communiti es’ views on how children can be best helped and in es-tablishing how to set up child trauma centres with limited resourc-es. The visits also highlighted the importance of integrati ng child protecti on and psychosocial support, as there was not always clar-ity on the safeguarding legislati on, responsible body and imple-mentati on; and staff or volunteers were oft en uncertain of their remit, or even of child protecti on principles and procedures. The lessons of the Internati onal Child Mental Health Trail Blazer can be applied to generate wider awareness and sustainable support in other countries, and for even more remote and marginalised child populati ons. For this reason, our collaborati ons are extending to traumati sed child populati ons in Pakistan, Rwanda and Indonesia, with further projects and visits planned.

The third phase of this internati onal programme is to raise aware-ness, establish networks, develop and deliver training, and obtain research evidence in a global campaign - the World Awareness for Children in Trauma (WACIT). So far, a number of partners have

joined this initi ati ve, mainly representi ng mental health profes-sional bodies. The integrati on with child protecti on training and interventi ons is paramount for these most vulnerable groups, for which reason we are extending invitati ons to key chariti es and organizati ons. The role of ISPCAN would be instrumental in rein-forcing child protecti on principles as evidence-based interventi on models evolve across the world.

References1. Hussein, S., Vostanis, P. & Bankart, J. (2012). Social and educa-

ti onal risk factors for child mental health problems in Karachi, Pakistan. Internati onal Journal of Mental Health and Culture, 5, 1-14.

2. Kalantari, M. & Vostanis, P. (2010). Behavioural and emoti onal problems in Iranian children four years aft er a parental death in an earthquake. Internati onal Journal of Social Psychiatry,

56, 158-167.

3. O’Reilly, M., Ma-jumder, P., Karim, K. & Vostanis, P. (2015). “This doctor, I not trust him, I’m not safe”: The percepti ons of mental health and services by unaccompanied refugee adolescents. Interna-ti onal Journal of Social Psychiatry, 61, 129-136.

4. Thabet, A.A., Matar, S., Carpintero, A., Ban-kart, J. & Vostanis, P. (2010) Mental health problems among labour children in the Gaza Strip. Child: Care, Health and Development, 37, 89-95.

5. Thabet, A.A., Tawa-hina, A., El Sarraj, E. & Vostanis, P. (2008) Expo-sure to war trauma and PTSD among parents

and children in the Gaza Strip. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 17, 191-199.

6. Vostanis, P. (2014) Helping children and young people who ex-perience trauma: Children of despair, children of hope. Lon-don: Radcliff e Publishing.

Children from tribal villages rehearsing for India’s Republic Day at Sakwar Community Centre outside Mumbai in India.

New MembersAustralia

Tracie PecicKaren Zwi

BangladeshSwapon Mondol

CambodiaJarrett Douglas Davis

CanadaMaria ForttesEsteban Gomez

GambiaMomodou Lamin CamaraEbrima ChamMamadou Wury JallowPa JobeFamara Manneh

Modou Musa NjieVictor Richards

IcelandGudridur Bolladottir

MalaysiaGhagra Diamond JesperNirmala G Purushokthaman

MontserratEnkhtuya Sukhbaatar

RomaniaSimona BoghiuSorin BrazoveanuDaniela CojocaruStegan CojocaruOana CucuAmalia Diaconu

Adriana GarcasAlexandra GalbinDaniela Maria GheorgheRamona GotteszmanViad GrigorasGabriela IorgulescuCristina NegoiescuIoana SandescuLaura Adriana Sava-GhicaCarmen ScripcaruPetronela SimionManuela Sofia StanculescuIldiko Szanto

SerbiaTanja Nedimovic

Sierra Leone

Kamara AdikalieEmile Toby

Sri LankaGillian FernandoSinha Wickremesekera

TurkeyEsma Usak

United KingdomDavid AnantaYanyan Ni

United StatesLidiana CobbStephen DiDonatoTodd Franke

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This policy statement is developed following a meeting of conference delegates to the ISPCAN European Regional Conference, held 27th to 30th September, 2015 in Bucharest, Romania, concerning children displaced by war, violence and discrimination. The conference was organised by ISPCAN in conjunction with FONPC.

1. Activities of all professionals and organisations working with children in these circumstances must apply the principles of Best In-terests identified in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 3). Further, the rights laid down in the CRC should be upheld regardless of the child’s immigration status. This applies to all children up to the age of 18 years.

2. The civil society response in many parts of Europe has been encouraging and welcome. This must not, however, substitute for the humanitarian duties of the EU and all States to respond within the framework of the CRC.

3. All those working with children and youth should listen to and respect the voices of children and of families with children. They should safeguard their rights to be heard and to participate in decisions that concern them.

4. Where children and youth are in a country of transit, their basic needs for protection, shelter, nutrition, health care, appropriate clothing, religious life, education and play must be met.

5. Children and youth reaching destination countries should be supported to integrate into and be provided with mainstream ser-vices as well as the regular education system in a non-discriminatory and culturally sensitive way. At the same time they should be assessed for and provided with any necessary additional support.

6. Children should not be separated from their families so long as this is consistent with their best interests. Existing relationships, including those between youth who have strong bonds through shared experiences, should be respected.

7. Organisations (including governmental) should be encouraged to release professionals to work with these populations as would occur following a natural disaster.

8. All countries must ensure that actions conform to safeguarding standards including complaints mechanisms and effective staff monitoring. There must be an acute awareness that children and youth in these situations can become targets of sexual and other exploitation.

9. Front line professionals and volunteers who are working in exceptionally harsh conditions will require support to prevent burn out and collapse of services.

ISPCAN, FONPC and conference delegates urge all governments to address the root causes of the problem and to join forces with people advocating for effective actions to stop war and civil conflicts, genocides and oppressive regimes that violate fundamental hu-man and children’s rights.

Conference Statement on Refugee Children: A Call for Action to All Conference Delegates, ISPCAN Members and

Partners

Donor Recognition

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Recognizing contributi ons of ti me and resources

Honorary ambassadors ($50k+):

Oak Foundation

Henry Plum

Donors ($2500-$14,999):

Elsevier, Ltd. (UK)

Child AID USA

Individual & Corporate donors ($50-$2,499):

AmazonSmile

American Express Foundation

Amex Giving Program

April 2015 Child Abuse Awareness Drive

David Birtwistle

Marla R. Brassard

Alexzandria Castellanos

Sangu Delle

First Clearing

Sue Foley

Sid Gardner

Jordan Greenbaum

Kate Higgins

Anthony Knight

Mark Koehler

F. Lamers-Winkelman

John Leventhal

Michele Lorand

Suzanne Packer

Elham Panahi

Stephen Pizzey

Daniel Turner

Stephen Werner

Volunteers

Rubilene Borges

Marcela Carvalho

Elena Khomitch

Androniki Anastasia

Koumadoraki

Report from Nigeria on Strengthening Civil Society’s Response to Sexual Abuse

Child abuse and neglect has vast devas-tati ng implicati ons for individual vic-ti ms, communiti es and countries. It has implicati ons in the economic develop-ment of nati ons, physical, psychological

and social development of child victi ms and general public health. In Nigeria, there is no adequate child sexual abuse response system. This is relfected in poor epidemiological data collecti on systems on child maltreatment (sexual abuse, violence, neglect etc), a lack monitoring centres that can receive and respond to incident reports and a lack of a coordi-nated response system between civil society net-

works and government insti tuti ons. To fi ll this gap, African Network for the Preventi on and Protec-ti on against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN) the Nigeria Chapter fi rst provided technical as-sistance to the Federal Ministry of Women Aff airs and Social Development to form the Nati onal Joint Task Force (JTF) for the Preventi on of Child Sexual Abuse, Violence and Neglect. Members of the JTF were inaugurated April 17, 2014. It is chaired by the Federal Ministry of Women Aff airs and Social Development and other government and civil so-ciety networks who have a government mandate or whose vision and mission are directly or indi-rectly aimed at implementi ng the Child Rights Act (2003). The Child Rights Act is the domesti cati on of the United Nati ons Conventi on on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the African Union Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (AUCRWC). With funding from the European Union Delegati on Nigeria and the Economic Community of West Af-rican States (ECOWAS), ANPPCAN Nigeria chapter set up a pilot JTF Child Sexual Abuse, Violence and neglect response centre in Enugu State for South-east Nigeria.

To this end the objecti ves of this project are:

Overall objecti ve

To increase the capacity of ANPPCAN and Nati onal Council of Child Rights Advocates of Nigeria (NA-CRRAN) in partnership with public insti tuti ons that have formed a JTF against Child Sexual Abuse, Vio-lence and Neglect to jointly establish a monitoring and response system for child sexual abuse, vio-lence and neglect to support the implementati on of the Child Rights Act in Nigeria within 36 months.

The 36 months started 1st of February 2015.

Specifi c Objecti ves

To mobilize a joint response to child sexual abuse, violence and neglect by strengthening this newly

formed JTF to set up a pilot monitoring centre in Southeast Nigeria in 36 months.

One of the key acti viti es for this project is the train-ing on stakeholders (JTF members) in relevant skills for necessary for child maltreatment preventi on. This necessitated ANPPCAN and ISPCAN to collabo-rate to produce the training manual and objecti ves to facilitate the training.

Descripti on of Acti vity

This was a two day training of JTF members in Enugu Southeast geopoliti cal zone of Nigeria. The following topics were covered in the training: Prin-ciples of Epidemiological Data Collecti on, United Nati ons Conventi on on the Rights of the Child, Child Rights Act, Cultural Impediments to Child Sexual Abuse Preventi on, Working with Men, and Eff ecti ve Multi -agency, Multi -disciplinary Manage-ment of Child Sexual Abuse and Violence Cases. The training workshop took place on the 27th and 28th of May 2015.

Prof. P. O. Ebigbo broak the kola-nut as a cultural way of welcoming all the parti cipants and the Fa-cilitators from ISPCAN.

The workshop also comprised of training, group

Trainers and parti cipants

conti nued on page 6

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work/brain storming sessions. In the group work, the par-ticipants were asked, “What are the primary purposes for col-lecting data on sexual abuse, maltreatment, and trafficking in Southeast Nigeria.”

After brainstorming on the above question, the participants came up with the following answers:

1. To know the spread and trend of sexual maltreatment and child trafficking in Southeast Nigeria.

2. To know the scope and nature of child sexual abuse in Southeast Nigeria.

3. To know the victims and intervention to be provided for vic-tims in Southeast Nigeria.

4. To have evidence to show that child sexual abuse and maltreatment ex-ists in South – East Nigeria.

5. To provide infor-mation for policy and planning.

6. It serves as an ad-vocacy tool for in-tervention.

7. It provides a base-line for change implementation.

8. It provides ad-ditional data for global records.

In the second group work activity, the participants where asked, “How would the data on child maltreatment support the implementation of the Child Rights Law in Nigeria?”

The following responses were given:

1. The data would justify the need for the law to protect chil-dren.

2. It would provide the basis for active advocacy for the en-forcement of the law.

3. It strengthens the administrative arm of the law for plan-ning.

4. It reveals the need for change or improvement of strategy in the prevention of child maltreatment.

5. Data provides a platform for stakeholders in different fields to work together for a better result.

6. It gives statistical evidence of prevalence of the several forms of child maltreatment for example child sexual abuse/violence etc.

7. It helps in the identification of perpetrators of child sexual abuse and neglect.

8. Data showcases the cultural peculiarities of different com-munities and the various ways of ensuring enforcement of the Child Rights Law.

The workshop was considered a success because it helped to:

1. Create the needed platform for JTF members to start com-municating and sharing information about child maltreat-ment response and monitoring.

2. Create the foundation for setting up a child sexual abuse and violence response system for Nigeria.

3. Reawaken the consciousness of stakeholders on the need to implement the Child Rights Act.

4. Build the capac-ity of stakeholders on United Nations Conven-tion on the Rights of the Child, the African Union Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and Child Rights Act (2003).

At the end, the partici-pants appreciated that the European Union Del-egation to Nigeria and the West Africa provided the necessary funding for such an informative workshop. They also thanked ANPPCAN and ISPCAN for organizing the workshop, allow-ing them to learn more about child rights and to prevent it through data

collection and engaging boys and men in the prevention of child sexual abuse and violence.

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Country Partners

ArgentinaAsociación Argentina de Prevención del Maltrato Infanto-Juvenil – (ASAPMI)

AustraliaNational Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN)

BelarusINGO “Ponimanie” (“Understanding”)

ColombiaΑsociación Contra El Maltrato Infantil (AFECTO)

Denmark Danish Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (DASPCAN)

GermanyGerman Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (GESPCAN)

Hong KongAgainst Child Abuse (ACA)

IcelandNordic Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect – (NASPCAN)

ItalyItalian Network of Services for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (CISMAI)

JapanJapanese Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (JaSPCAN)

Kingdom of Saudi ArabiaNational Family Safety Program (NFSP)

The NetherlandsAssociatie Stop Kindermishandeling Netherlands Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ASK NeSPCAN)

RomaniaRomanian Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (SENECAN)

SingaporeSingapore Children’s Society

SpainFederation of Associations for Prevention of Child Mistreatment (FAPMI)

TurkeyTurkish Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (TSPCAN)

United KingdomBritish Association for the Study and Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (BASPCAN)

United StatesAmerican Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC)K

continued on page 8

Sue Foley, MSW, MA, MEd.

Jenny Rose, MMH (Child and Adol), BSW, BA Welf. Dip Bus, Cert IV TAA

Introduction

I was asked to share about my interest in “tapping” as a form of treatment for trauma memories, for this edition of The LINK and readily agreed.

Abuse and trauma are horrible and persistent parts of many people lives and in my humble opinion, we need to find,

test and implement effective and short-term interventions to help people recover quickly and reduce their emotional pain!! Dr Bessel Van Der Koll (who attended the JaSPCAN conference held jointly with ISPCAN in Nagoya in 2014) also comments that EMDR and Tapping are very helpful processes and people may need oth-er body oriented approaches as well, such as yoga.

I am a Clinical Social Worker with over 40 years post graduate experience in trauma identification and treatment. I have been trained in all the standard models of therapy and would like to tell you about another less well-known one, which has provided great success for many (but not all) clients, families and colleagues.

I myself struggled when confronted by issues that triggered the (adult) PTSD symptoms of my own neglect, abuse and trauma his-tory. Usually these issues were authority figures or policies in the work place that I felt were unfair and this really started me cry-ing!! I have been effectively treated for these PTSD symptoms by Dr MacKinnon, whose work I discuss in this article.

The Context

Many of the families with whom I have been involved through-

out my career have children with chronic illnesses, mental health difficulties and trauma from illness or injury or abuse. One or more of the children’s family members are also affected by past or recent experiences of trauma, including illness, abuse, loss of a family member or significant friend (which may also include a pet). These issues are very troublesome when working in caring and educational settings, and deactivating the trauma symptoms and triggers are essential for adequate functioning and wellbeing. There is a lot of interest in treatment methods that utilise somatic interventions and treatments (such as yoga or sensorimotor psy-chotherapies) and various forms of graded exposure.

Seeing the pain that trauma symptoms cause, I have wanted to discover a range of ways of intervening quickly that will help peo-ple begin to function safely and with satisfaction on a daily basis. This is not a stand-alone therapy; one of the goals is to, perhaps, make them more amenable to other forms of therapy (such as family therapy, art therapy, school based programs, group pro-gram or social skills development).

Additionally, many children in our mental health services and child protection services have parents with unresolved grief and trauma, and a systemic approach to improving the well-being of children requires a whole family approach. So, when a colleague social worker – with lots of academic validity — told me about the work of Dr Laurie MacKinnon (an internationally respected family therapist), I was ready to explore. My first contact with her was about professional supervision and the answer was she was only doing supervision for groups, so my second and third approaches was for attending the course and accessing some personal ther-apy.

And my professional journey began there.

The Tapping Technique

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There are many models of therapy that use a process known as “tapping”, with some being very rigorous in terms of evidence-based therapies. Dr MacKinnon began her journey following Dr Van Der Kolk’s who advocated for the ethical practice of reducing the pain of as many people as possible affected by trauma. His call is that we use multiple modalities, as required. He is also keen to ensure we use brain, body and movement based strategies, not just cognitive or talk based therapeutic work.

Dr MacKinnon’s PHD involved families affected by abuse and neglect. It was very compassionate and urgently sought ways in which people with a trauma history could access relief from their pain, by processing the traumatic memories and beginning to manage their life more effectively. As a result of my experience and that of my colleagues (including child and family psychia-trists), we have organised to have the whole of our teams (the willing ones) trained in a basic two-day workshop to learn how to incorporate Dr MacKinnon’s model of ‘Radical Exposure Therapy (RET)’ in their day-to-day work with clients. It has subsequently been shared with clinicians in Australia and in Canada. Publica-tions about the practice help to illustrate the processes. Many colleagues have also attended the advanced course. I have now used it on the phone, videoconference and in person. I presented ‘Way Out There’ in 2013 at the Melbourne APPCAN conference with a lot of interest.

I have used RET in single and multiple sessions with young peo-ple, adults and a few children, (and even with a family group). As it is a very new process, with limited research available evaluat-ing the research; there is still a lot of scepticism, but many clients and clinicians see that there is a future in this model of therapy. As a recent trainee commented when she was a model client in the training, “I was converted from a total sceptic to a believer after I myself experienced it!” Single sessions can help people feel substantially better and able to attend to issues such as legal pro-cesses, attending school meetings, improving their understand-ing of their children’s needs, and improving their parenting skills.

In addition to Dr McKinnon’s model, there are many other prac-titioners of a model called EFT tapping, for example the Tapping Solution by Nick Ortner. This process uses a slightly different pro-tocol and for people with significant trauma histories and symp-toms, is less well accepted by clinical professionals. They often seem to use a number of marketing strategies and link this pro-cess to wealth and achievement rather than to clinical goals.

However, “tapping” in itself is a rhythmic process that in a cli-ent’s words yesterday, “feels like a long meditation in a very short space of time”. In summary, though a “trauma-memory-process-ing session” needs strategically planned sessions, establishment of a trust relationship, and good mental health skills to assist if the client becomes very overwhelmed. That is “trauma-memory-process” requires careful set up of the issues to be addressed, trust in the therapist and identification of somatic and emotions associated with the troubled memory.

Experiences

I feel much more measured and settled after my sessions. I cry less, and I can stand up in the face of confronting situations - most of the time. I continue to deal with life’s challenges in a therapy setting and have recently been interested in additional somatic approaches to confidence and strength, such as that demonstrat-ed in the Amy Cuddy Ted Talk.

I have used “tapping” with some extraordinary results for clients (see CD’s account below). I believe that Laurie’s RET model has a high level of merit to be considered. Dr McKinnon has used RET Tapping with a range of clients including people suffering trauma associated with separation, abuse and in other traumatic grief situations. She has also provided advanced training for using it with obsessions and addictions also with good effect.

A message from C.D. (a client, professional, and parent) - who ran away from my first session but has subsequently found it very helpful for herself!

I was first introduced to tapping (the RET model) and thought it was extremely strange, and I felt very skeptical- my fears, emotions were real and needed answers, and I didn’t (and still don’t!) understand how tapping could help “fix” what I was going through. (Comment: CD found the setting up process of identify-ing trauma history to be very confronting, and it disrupted our relationship for a few weeks).

It felt odd, and at first, I really had to force myself to persevere, as I felt awkward and uncomfortable. However, I was at a point where my reactive emotions where just overwhelming me. My “cup” was full and each new piece of my baby (4 years old) girl’s medical information and challenges just engulfed me. I had no control and the “roller-coaster” that my emotions were on was out of control! I was facing important discussions, and I needed to be able to function and interact without having grief and sadness (associated with past personal issues) flooding over me.

I was taught how to do this thing called tapping- Initially I was able to feel calm in the moment and control my tears, later with more practise, I am able to tap before I approach a stressful situ-ation and maintain the feeling of safety. One of the sessions was by videoconference and was very emotionally draining, but within two days, I was relaxed enough to go the movies with my neigh-bour — something I had not done for a long time.

Sometimes I have even been able to “modify” the tapping and tap on my lip or face or side in an unanticipated intense situation to get the same focus and use this to regain/maintain composure.

As a Trauma RN in an emergency department, I have even been able to utilise aspects of tapping with panicking relatives in stress-ful situations, and with a puzzled look on their face, they have been able to regain their composure and calm until assistance ar-rives. I have no idea why it works — tapping looks crazy, it feels weird — but it helps and now, hey, I’m a fan! - CD

My experience is that RET and EFT do not work for everyone but for some it is an awesome opportunity to progress in their life journey with a much, much, greater degree of internal safety and peace. One of the psychiatrists and I discussed how to work with a child who was fainting because of his distress. She and he sat or lay on the floor and used the RET processes. Another colleague who trained at one of the hospital sessions with Dr MacKinnon has contributed to the improved wellbeing of older people with mental health problems and children struggling with respite be-cause of the trauma of abuse and neglect.

There are so many stories I could share and you may be still sceptical? That is a common response. Clinicians need to feel very calm and comfortable whilst they lead people through the words and process. An example of the beginning of the process is: ‘Even though when I see myself telling my mother about the sexual abuse by my father, and she tells me I am lying, and I feel

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so rejected, I deeply and completely accept myself”. Please see the references provided or various publicati ons with further examples of protocols and strategies. I want my clients and families to have a happy life at least some of the ti me, and I want their dominant story to not be pain. This process seems to help some of them, including me!!

References

1. htt p://www.radicalexposure.com/#!about-laurie-mackin-non-phd/cc8x

2. Van der Kolk, Bessel, The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformati on of Trauma, 2015, Penguin; and Van der Kolk, B, When Talk is not enough (in various video materials).

3. Ogden Pat, Fisher Janina, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, 2015

4. Beauchamp, J, An Interview with Laurie MacKinnon PHD, 2012 ANZJFT Special Award Recipient: ANZJFT, 34, 75-86.

5. James, Kerrie and MacKinnon Laurie, Integrati ng a Trauma

Lens into a Family Therapy Framework: Ten Principles for Family Therapists, ANJFT Vol. 33 (3) 2012 199-209.

6. MacKinnon, Integrati ng Radical Exposure Therapy with a Family Therapy framework, ANJFT 35; 244-260.

7. Laurie K. MacKinnon, Laurie K, Trust and Betrayal in the Treatment of Child Abuse, 1999.

8. *Church D et al, The eff ects of Emoti onal Freedom Tech-niques on stress biochemistry: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 200 (10):891-6.

9. Foley Sue, Way Out There, htt p://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/conferences/2013-accan/presentati ons/Foley2nd.pdf.

10. Ortner, Nick, TheTappingSoluti on.com;

11. Found at Ted.com. Dr Cuddy is a Social Psychology Profes-sor at Harvard University.

Meet Your Councilor: Yanghee Lee

Professor Yanghee Lee is currently serving as the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar. She has been a member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2003 -2013 and has served as its Chair from 2007-2011.

She has been the guiding force in the drafting, negotiation, and adoption of the 3rd Optional Protocol to the CRC on Communications Procedure. A national of the Republic

of Korea, Professor Lee has been with Sungkyunkwan University since 1991 in the Department of Child Psychology and Education. Professor Lee is a member of Executive Council of ISPCAN and Executive Board Member of UNICEF National Committee of Korea, and other non-profit organiza-tions. She is founder and President of the International Center for Child Rights as well as the Korean Association for Children with Disabilities.

She has served as Co-Guest Editor for 3 Special Issues of Child Abuse and Neglect Journal and con-tinues to serve as a member of its Editorial Board. She also served as Guest Editor for the Interna-tional Journal of Children’s Rights Special Issue (Nov. 2010) and is currently a member of its Editorial Board. Professor Lee has been the recipient of many recognitions and awards including the 2007 Year of the Woman Award (Korea); 2009 Order of Civil Merit (Suk Ryu Medal), the highest recogni-

tion given to a civilian in South Korea for her work in protecting and promoting the rights of children worldwide; 2011 Hyo Ryung Award for her dedication to children and their well-being; and in 2015 Youngsan Diplomat Award for her dedication to human rights.

The LINK is published triannually by the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN)Editor: Victoria Lidchi

ISPCAN Executive Director: Steve WernerLINK Design & Production: Niki Bornes

© 2015. All rights reserved by ISPCAN, a membership organization with representatives from 110 nations committed to child abuse and neglect prevention. Views expressed in The LINK are not necessarily endorsed by ISPCAN.

For more information, contact ISPCAN: 13123 E 16th Ave., B390 • Aurora, Colorado 80045 • USA

Tel: 1.303.864.5220 • Fax: 1.303.864.5222 • Email: ispcan@ispcan.org • Web site: www.ispcan.org

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