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Reactive Attachment Disorder Paper

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Reactive Attachment Disorder is a psychological disorder which effects children and adults in the United States. Reactive Attachment Disorder or “RAD”, “is a rare but serious condition in which an infant or young child doesn't establish healthy attachments with parents or caregivers” (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2014). Adolescents suffer from reactive attachment disorder in the United States due to a lack of appropriate parent care which can be cured through seeking the assistance of professionals.
RAD occurs, “when children have been unable to consistently connect with a parent or primary caregiver” (Smith, Saisan, Segal, 2016). These causes occur in a child’s “early life” (Smith et al., 2016). RAD can occur for a number of reasons. Some of these …show more content…

RAD is not easily cured, it can become a tedious process of counseling and therapy to relieve a child of RAD. Unfortunately, treatment for RAD can become difficult to find because a child suffering from RAD requires the assistance of a “clinician that has both training and experience in working with RAD” (Buenning, n.d.). Some methods of treatment for children suffering from this disorder include, “family therapy, individual psychological counseling, and parenting skills classes” (Smith et al., 2016). Some of these methods have proven to be more effective than …show more content…

One of the key elements of RAD therapy is incorporating a parenting skills class into the child’s counseling. The skills class should accomplish at least three goals. The first goal should be to “educate” the parents about their child’s disorder, the second goal should be to educate the parents to “protect” themselves from the child’s “pathology”, the third goal should be to establish a “bond” with the child through activities rather than therapy (Buenning, n.d.). By educating the parents about why their child is behaving the way they are, the parents are able to relate to their child. This assists the child in therapy because, “understanding your child often leads to increased feelings of compassion for him” (Buenning,

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