Mershona Parshall
Mershona Parshall
Rather than depending on caring adults to provide warmth and safety, a survival driven child is motivated to get his or her needs met in ways that exclude relationships. Such children are often highly dys-regulated and attempt to manage internal fear states by exerting an inordinate amount of control onto their environment. This behavior may be viewed as a child’s natural reaction to survival stress as the world is perceived as unsafe and uncaring.
Attachment trauma is not always due to maltreatment. Failures in attachment may also be situational, such as an infant who is medically fragile and is hospitalized in his or her first months of life. In addition, there are always additional factors that bear on a child’s attachment resources. These include genetic factors, natural resilience, temperament, and mitigating buffers that may offer some protection against the detrimental effects of attachment trauma. An example of a buffer may be a loving grandparent.
SECONDARY DEVELOPMENTAL TRAUMA: PHYSICAL, EMOTIONAL AND SEXUAL ABUSE
Secondary developmental trauma often co-occurs with failures in attachment. The infant who is pre-verbal or the young child who is helpless to protect him/herself is left with a storm of confused feelings and thoughts about the world. Living in chronic states of danger imposes two survival based patterns in the child. At one end of the spectrum is hyper-arousal associated with flight/flight and at the other end of the spectrum is hypo-arousal, freezing and dissociation. Sometimes unseen insults such as traumatic brain injury (TBI) due to physical abuse or fetal alcohol effects go unrecognized and reduce the child’s ability to function. The psycho-social-biological effects of secondary trauma reinforce any failure in attachment, complicating the over all picture. Often these children come with a long list of diagnoses, none of which fully capture the complexity of issues of children who have experienced multiple traumas in their young lives.
TRAINING AND WORKSHOPS
A range of topics from parenting challenging children, to loss and separation, attachment issues and treatment, developmental trauma, or neurofeedback are available. Training can be tailored to the needs of a specific group.
Prior to my involvement in mental health, I worked as a professional studio and theater artist. In addition, I created, produced and performed in numerous multi-media performance art pieces in California and New Mexico. For many years I led intensive mask making workshops that were highly popular in the southwest. I used my art and expressive arts therapy skills to facilitate out door experiential workshops. Most recently I was artistic director for the “Let Rachel Speak” production performed in Cleveland, Ohio.
As an art therapist, I work with people of all ages and with individuals, couples, families, and groups. I am available for workshops that combine my years of experience in the arts, my knowledge of brain states, creativity and healing.
Article from articlesbase.com