Children's Mental Health

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. Here at Nexus Family Healing, our employees, therapists, and foster parents continuously work with youth who have experienced different types of trauma, which often include abuse or neglect. We’ve compiled a list of books that speak about child abuse and trauma that may be fitting for children of different ages. 

A list of books to help caregivers/parents and their child learn more about child abuse, trauma, and trauma-informed practices together.

You may have heard phrases such as “childhood trauma” or “traumatic experience”. But what really is trauma? And how does it affect us? Unfortunately, childhood trauma is incredibly common as one in four children in our community will experience a traumatic event before the age of 16.

Exposure to continuous trauma causes the body’s alarm system to be easily triggered, releasing stress hormones that interfere with reasoning and activate that flight, fight, or freeze response. Children cannot learn or get along with friends or family members when living in a constant state of fight, flight or freeze. Rather, their goal is to survive.

Over the past several years humanity has learned how to become resilient in isolation. Many of our face-to-face interactions and relationships were severed during COVID and as a result, we have developed long-term habitual loneliness. So how do we recover? To state it simply, a first step is "do then feel".

Prepare a family emergency bag with your children to reassure safety and protection in case of an emergency.

Natural and man-made disasters in recent news can cause stress, especially for children. As a parent, it’s important to remember that your reactions to these disasters can impact the way your child views the world around them. Remain calm, give yourself time to process and create a plan that works for your family.

Luke Spiegelhoff, Clinical Director Specialist, shares information on the types of self-harm, warning signs, differences between self-harm and suicidal ideation, and how to help someone who struggles with self-harm.

We started the Dear Dr. Michelle advice column at the height of COVID as an additional way to provide free, accessible help to those who may need it while navigating our new environment. As we transition back to pre-pandemic days, our Dear Dr. Michelle column is coming to a close. As a final hurrah, we wanted to share a list of our top ten most visited advice articles over the past two and half years.

February is National Library Lover’s month, so we asked our staff members at our different agencies what mental health books are their favorite for children. See their recommendations below and learn a little bit about how reading can positively impact your child’s mental health and overall development!