ATN's 2021 Standing Strong Conference & Personal Note

Every time I'm interviewed about the trauma-informed movement or parenting with traumatic stress, I talk about the adoption community because adoptive parents have led bringing the trauma-informed movement into school systems and have been doing this work for decades. And I mention the Attachment Trauma Network (ATN) as the prime example although I recognize that many other organizations have and are doing this work as well.

Most often, teachers, principals, social workers, adjustment counselors, and nurses are recognized for shifting the education sector, (and should be as they have done and are doing amazing and important work), but too often the grassroots leadership and expertise of parents, who are almost always working for free, in a passion for transformative change to improve the experiences of students, have gone unacknowledged and uncelebrated.
But some organizations include parents, as the audience for conferences, as well as openly sharing parenting issues and struggles as part of the work being done, and include parent expertise at every level.

The Attachment Trauma Network has been at this work for a long time, as have other organizations, but unlike most organizations, they center the expertise of parents, particularly kinship, adoptive, and foster parents, even as they also do meaningful work to transform the education system. It's from them that I learned about attachment, healing, and trauma in a way that changed my parenting and enhanced my healing, because they helped me to understand that it would be hard for me to be a "good enough" parenting without addressing not just the abuse I'd experienced as a kid, but the trauma of neglect and abandonment, as well and that the focus of my healing should be on addressing my issues and not hoping to "fix" my child.

Another thing I learned from them, that has inspired me as a trauma survivor, is how fiercely protective they are of their children and how much they will advocate for the needs of their children, and how shamelessly they will do so. They (and I guess I can say we, as I'm also an adoptive parent) help educate ourselves, our families, doctors, nurses, daycares, individual educators, and later, have worked to transform the entire school system. I was lucky to work at ACEs Connection (now PACEs Connection) where I was able to learn about sector-specific work, and the way non-profits often collaborate to work with each other in specifics and communities because before that my focus had been entirely on the way we transform trauma in our personal lives and spheres, individually, in our families, and as part of whatever spiritual, political, and recreational communities we are in.

What I love about ATN and this upcoming conference, is that the role and experiences of parents are centered. I believe this movement must be co-created by and with parents, families, survivors, and community members who do this work with, for, and because we know the personal impacts of trauma and not only in our professional work and lives. And I appreciate how much this movement has changed so that we can do this work in ways that acknowledge and help merge and integrate our personal and professional selves rather than separating or compartmentalizing them. So, please consider sharing about and attending this upcoming conference.