Early neglect. A perspective from preverbal trauma

Healthy development is interrupted when the individual is not exposed to continuous affection from birth. The lack of security pervades the whole development. Realising this experience in the therapeutic context should be the first goal. To do this, we will learn to recognise, in the assessment phase, the symptoms of early trauma of neglect and how this affects development. We will focus on the importance of the stabilisation and consolidation phase, and how to bridge gaps in maturation and attachment security.

We will propose a double intervention in parallel, on the one hand with the child and on the other hand with the family or caregiver. We will look at the importance of psycho-education for the family, providing information on how trauma from neglect affects the development of their children, helping them to understand why children behave in a certain way. This is essential in order to properly reflect on early emotional states that have not been followed or inferred by anyone. From here we will see the importance of creating a coherent narrative that is heard by the whole family.

We will collect the difficulties presented by these children and/or adolescents during the different stages of their maturity. We will understand how there are stages of maturity that stagnate, hinder their development and influence their behaviour in the present. Only if the family unit can understand these obstacles will it be possible to push and encourage the development of all emotional states. We will see how from an EMDR perspective we can help to integrate the different states and how to enrich family relationships. We will use clinical cases to help understand and conceptualise this intervention for children with early neglect trauma