C.A.R.E. promotes healing in traumatized and attachment-resistant children by working as a team with their parents.

What is attachment?

Healthy attachment starts before birth.  Mother and baby engage in a series of interactions in which each is responding to cues from the other.  This attachment process has most of its implications during the first 12 months of a newborn's life.  As the mom (primary caregiver) successfully responds to the baby and meets his needs, whether emotional or physical, a secure attachment is created between the mother and her baby. 

When, for whatever reason, a baby does not have his or her needs met in a consistent, timely and appropriate manner, deficiencies in the attachment process can occur.  These deficiencies, when left untreated, can turn into life-long problems in building healthy relationships.

What causes attachment problems?

Some children never form attachments with their birth parents due to abuse or neglect.  But attachment is also negatively impacted when an infant suffers unrelieved pain due to illness, prematurity or injury.  Children whose mother is unavailable to them early in their infancy are also at risk. Any events and conditions that can traumatize a child, put that child at risk for attachment problems.

Attachment-resistant children have strong and scary beliefs that the world is an unpredictable place that that no one will ever be able to meet their needs.  The subsequent feelings of anger, hurt and distrust can manifest themselves in some very dysfunctional ways.