The Holidays with Kids Who've Been Exposed to Trauma

Does it feel like your child is sabotaging the holidays? Are there more tantrums, sullenness, and anxiety during the holiday season? We explore why and what to do about it with Rebeccca Robotham, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker at Beehive Counseling & Wellness in Connecticut. She is also an adoptee and former foster child.

In this episode, we cover:

There are many sources of trauma for children, and many adopted and foster children have experienced trauma before they come to our homes. We’re talking neglect, pre-natal exposure, abuse, domestic violence, and the actual act of being removed from your parents.
How can trauma impact children? Both physically and emotionally?
What is it about the holidays that makes it hard for kids with trauma? (change in routine, lots of people, bringing up memories, over-stimulation, change in diet, distracted parents, build up of anticipation, let down after the fact…)
What type of behaviors might you see? (more tantrums, dysregulation, “sabotaging” the holidays, sibling bickering, depression, sullenness, anxiety, …)
How can families do the holidays differently to help kids who have experienced trauma?