James Donaldson on Mental Health - What Is Traumatic Separation?

Long-term risks of traumatic separation The effects of traumatic separation can persist even after a child and their caregiver are reunited.

Traumatic separation, like other adverse childhood experiences , puts kids at risk for a host of long-term medical and mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, attention issues, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) .

But Downie notes that not everyone who experiences traumatic separation develops PTSD.

“Just because someone’s experiencing trauma now doesn’t mean that it’s going to become a PTSD diagnosis,” she says.

“A lot of the behaviors that we’re talking about are normal and expected.

There’s an adjustment period when a separation happens.” But if symptoms persist or escalate over several months, a child may need more serious support.

Treatment for a trauma diagnosis While not every child who experiences a separation may receive a trauma diagnosis or require treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) — and the more specific trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) — is the “gold standard,” says Downie.

TF-CBT is specifically for children experiencing trauma-related symptoms .

An important component of TF-CBT is creating a trauma narrative, where kids create a story about what happened to help them process it.

“But if you have a child who is not ready to process and integrate that trauma, you can’t force the pacing of the treatment,” she says.