SEVERELY TRAUMATIZED SIBLINGS - A TREATMENT STRATEGY

Siblings who have suffered severe trauma and disrupted attachment rela te to one another in ways that interfere with individual development, the chance to benefit from connections with adults, the establishment of healthy sibling relationships, and the working through of traumatic experiences. The authors use case examples to illustrate four distinc t sibling patterns: ''absent, adult lockout, half and half, and trauma shield.'' The authors highlight the importance of recognizing these t ypes and then varying the therapist's treatment stance to pursue five goals. These include suspending problematic sibling relationships to c reate room for bonding with caring adults, transferring attachment beh aviors and impulses to a receptive adult, resuming healthy individual development, forming more adaptive sibling connections, and expressing shared traumatic content.