Hello @Harry_Flanagan!
I’m glad the thread is still short enough that I could look through the whole thing pretty quickly, because I was wondering about the pracitical purpose behind your question.
Your mention of the Gensis Process was helpful, as I took a look at their website to see what it’s about. I thought this was a helpful descriptor:
Genesis integrates Biblical principles for personal change, proven relapse prevention techniques, cognitive therapy, and the latest neurochemistry research to comprehensively address, heal, and transform people damaged by self-destructive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
That reminded me of two of the adoptive parenting books I read (maybe partially read) years ago, that both discussed working with kids exposed to early life traumas, including their adoption. I found the term “stress-shaped brain” most helpful and this particular quote was worth the price of the book (well-almost):
”A child whose brain has been shaped by stress expects danger and reacts immediately, without conscious thought. These expectations and reactive behaviors persist regardless of how nurturing and loving subsequent caregivers may be. Having a stress-shaped brain is like seeing through eyeglasses that make the whole world look threatening. The condition also interferes with a child’s autobiographical and other types of memory and her ability to “make sense of the world” through rational thought and understanding such concepts as cause and effect. Stress responses interfere with attention, visual and auditory focus, and learning abilities in general. This is the “simple explanation for why internationally adopted children have difficulty with identiy, connection and emotional and behavioral self-control, the cornerstones of development.
From Parenting Your Internatioanlly Adopted Child: From Your First Hours Together Through the Teen Years / Patty Cogen, The Harvard Common Press, 2008. page 17.
Later in this chapter the author directs attention to books in the bibliography by Daniel Hughes, Daniel J. Siegler and David Ziegler.
Ziegler’s work is likely most related to the work you are doing: Traumatic Experience and the Brain, Phoenix, AZ: Acacia Publishing Inc., 2002.
The other book from my shelf is Beyond Consequences, Logic and Control : A Love Based Approach to Helping Children with Severe Behaviors by Heather T. Forbes and B. Bryan Post, Beyond Consequences Institute, 2002. The bibliography may be of interest, if the rest of the book is not.
I’m glad to hear you are exploring these issues outside of the traditional “biblical counseling” model, which seems not prepared to deal with the kinds of behavioral and psychological issues that are related to trauma.