It was that one moment: poetry and reflections on a life making relationships with children and young people
by Dan Hughes
Dan Hughes is the revered clinical psychologist and founder of Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP)- developed to treat children and young people who have experienced complex developmental trauma including neglect and abuse. DDP can be offered to children and/or with caregivers.
With over forty years’ experience working in this area- Dan Hughes skillfully, with a delicate eye and observant heart shares the stories of the children he worked with. He often wrote the poems at the end of the day, trying to process the devastating experiences they had endured.
This reflective poetry journey is an extraordinary insight into the acute workings of trauma and attachment, with haunting poems narrated through the eyes and hearts of children.
This is first and foremost a collection of poems, told in first-person voice- as readers we enter the worlds of the children Dan Hughes worked with. We experience the impact of horrific abuse, neglect and multiple care-giving failures. We experience the deep trauma and fear this causes, and how the scars continue to impact on future relationships. And yet, there are heart-warming glimmers of hope, like the belly laugh of an adoptive dad- where once a fist was raised in the home of a child, laughter now rejoices.
