Foundations, Trauma, and the Child's Voice in Sibling Relationships

Foundations, Trauma, and the Child's Voice in Sibling Relationships is the essential foundation for trauma-informed assessments of sibling relationships in care and permanence planning. This book provides professionals with the theoretical, legal and emotional tools to challenge their assumptions and understand the child's context. With rich case material and deep psychological insight, this volume offers a new lens through which to understand what children say, and don't say, about their siblings, and why these insights are crucial to ethical decision-making. The authors' other publication A Trauma Model for Assessing Siblings develops from this text to deliver a rigorous, trauma-informed framework for assessing and supporting sibling relationships in a range of care-giving settings. It is an invaluable guide for therapists, counsellors, social workers, child welfare professionals, and indeed anyone involved in making decisions regarding the placement of children.

Tim Woodhouse is a senior trauma-informed therapist, consultant, and clinical supervisor with over four decades of experience in children's social care, psychotherapy, and assessment. He served for 16 years on the NSPCC's Child Sexual Abuse Consultancy and helped set up the first children's SARC at St Mary's Manchester. He is the founder and clinical lead of Tiptoes Child Therapy Services, working nationally across adoption, fostering, residential care, court-directed assessments, and interventions. Tim is a Level III Certified Sensorimotor Psychotherapist, Level III Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapist, EMDR practitioner, and a BAPT-registered Play and Filial Therapist. He is also a registered social worker and ABE-approved interviewer, known for bridging relational depth with clinical precision. Norma Howes is a highly experienced and respected independent child protection consultant, therapist, expert witness, clinical supervisor, trainer, and author with over four decades of work in trauma-informed assessments, therapeutic interventions, and children and families social work. Her clinical specialism spans complex trauma, dissociation, forensic assessment, and attachment-focused therapy within foster care, adoption, and high-risk family systems. She is also a Sensorimotor Psychotherapist and EMDR practitioner.

Part 1: Foundations: Values, Attitudes, Beliefs and Biases 1. One Hand Clapping: Coherence in Fragmented Practice 2. The Mirror in the Room: Self-Awareness in Sibling Decisions Part 2: The Children's Context 3. Siblings in the Shadows: When One Child Suffers 4. Shattered Bonds: Trauma's Impact on Siblinghood 5. Between the Lines: Children's Voices on Sibling Relationships Part 3: Evidence and Ethics: Research, Law and Policy 6. The Myth and the Measure: What Research Really Tells Us 7. Law and Paradox: Policy, Courts and Sibling Futures Part 4: Trauma and Development: Body, Brain and Behaviour 8. Incubated in Terror or Held in Mind?: Attachment, Regulation and Developmental Trauma 9. Brains Under Siege: How Trauma Shapes Development and Behaviour 10. Bound by Fear: How Trauma Hijacks Attachment 11. The Quiet Parts Loud: Children's Voices in Sibling Decisions Part 5: Hearing the Child: Listening, Validating and Understanding 12. Between Truth and Survival: Forensic Neutrality. Therapeutic Empathy, and the Discipline of Hypotheses 13. Conversations on the Edge: Staying Within the Window of Tolerance 14. Entwined and Unravelled: The Dynamics of Sibling Conversations 15. Hold the Adult, Help the Child: Conversations with Parents and Carers 16. Between the Ship and the Anchor: The Pull of Sibling Ties 17. Echoes of Separation: Adults Reflect on Siblings Lost and Togetherness