Review by Cat Wayland, Founder of International Family Magazine, ezine at www.internationalfamilymag.com
“You Can Heal Your Child: A Guide for Parents of Misdiagnosed, Stressed, Traumatized and Otherwise Misunderstood Children”
ecently I was sent the manuscript of “You Can Heal Your Child” by Dr. Reggie Melrose to give it a look for review. Of course, I cannot get to every book proposal, but this one grabbed me at the title. I can only say that I will be forever thankful to Dr. Reggie Melrose for her work in this book, “You Can Heal Your Child” and her other 2 previous books. “You Can Heal Your Child” is a necessary book for the shelves of every home and every classroom.
As a parent, educator and family editor, it is my passion to listen to the voices of all children and hear what they are trying to tell me. Dr. Melrose confirms in “You Can Heal Your Child” that children are developing, complex human beings from the early moments of fetal development and cannot be dismissed as “too young” to understand what is going on around them. Children receive information and process it even in the womb.
A child’s behavior and voice tells us how they have understood information, stress or even trauma. But sometimes we are so quick to try and give ready-made, standard solutions to our children’s cries with hugs, food, sleep and medicine. We want to normalize their lives so badly that we rush to the answers. But band-aid solutions will only push down farther the root problem, or real story the child is trying to tell us, thus causing a larger wound.
Dr. Melrose pleads the case of every child in the world to not be convicted of a “misdiagnosis” before they are truly heard. “You Can Heal Your Child” retrains our ears to our children’s voices and hear what they are really trying to tell us. If we listen, we can save our children and our family lives as well. Thank you Dr. Melrose, I will pre-order this book and your other two previous books as well.
Notes about the author and her book, “You Can Heal Your Child: A Guide for Parents of Misdiagnosed, Stressed, Traumatized and Otherwise Misunderstood Children.”
Dr. Regelena “Reggie” Melrose, http://drmelrose.com/
You Can Heal Your Child: A Guide for Parents of Misdiagnosed, Stressed, Traumatized and Otherwise Misunderstood Children, soon to be released. Available for preorders on http://www.amazon.com
Dr. Melrose is dedicated to the emotional and physical well-being of all children, and has dedicated her life to providing resources and natural solutions to parents and educators. With You Can Heal Your Child, together with her published books, Why Students Underachieve: What Educators and Parents Can Do about It (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006) and Hope & Healing: An Activities Book, Dr. Melrose seeks to help all parents asking the heart wrenching question - What is wrong with my child?
Author Bio:
My clinical experience began with adolescents 16 years ago in Montreal, Canada where I was a graduate student and intern. I worked for a dynamic and dedicated supervisor and his equally inspiring partner at St. Raphael Center, a school for acting-out children and adolescents.
Upon leaving St. Raphael Center and Montreal, Canada altogether, I embarked on a continuation of my training in Santa Ana, California at the Child Guidance Center (CGC). The families I served there were similar to those I had worked with in Montreal, highly diverse, and appreciative of the care afforded to them at a clinic largely operated through Medicare funding.
It was at the Child Guidance Center in Santa Ana where I learned very specifically about PTSD in children and the criticalness of engaging in a careful study of differential diagnoses between ADHD and PTSD. My work today has been completely shaped by my related experience with one particular boy who was misdiagnosed by his psychiatrist as having ADHD.
My entry into the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) was the single best professional experience I have ever had. I was hired by the most positive, energetic, trail-blazing lead psychologist any school district has ever seen.
When I began my work at LBUSD, I met a fellow school psychologist and clinical therapist, Maggie Kline. She gave me Dr. Peter Levine’s book “Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma,” and my personal and professional lives were never the same.
I began receiving Dr. Levine’s Somatic Experiencing (SE) sessions to heal my own past traumatic experiences and completed his three-year training program to become an SE Practitioner. I was determined to do whatever it would take to get this work into the inner-city public schools, to the students living daily on “planet trauma,” as Dr. Levine would say.
I have written a trilogy of books (“Why Students Underachieve: What Educators and Parents Can Do about It;” “Hope and Healing: An Activities Book for Adults Working with School-Aged Children;” and, “Hope and Healing: A Guide for Parents of Traumatized Children”) to enlighten others about what trauma is, what it looks like in the classroom and on the playground, how there are very basic things we can do to, at the very least, do no harm.
While writing my first book and working at LBUSD, I opened a private practice in Long Beach, California where I continue to help children, adolescents, and adults who seek trauma healing through somatic approaches.
