Barb Kenney

Parent to Parent Barb Kenney

Parent to Parent is based on the experience of Dave and Barb Kenney, both foster and adoptive parents of traumatized children. Dave is a child psychologist and Barb a social worker. Parent to Parent is about emotional healing and is intended to help parents and teachers understand the effects of psychological injuries on the developing personality. It illustrates the thinking and learning of the developing child and explains how, at certain times, the traumas of childhood have specific sets of possible effects on the emerging ego. These effects impact on the personality in specific ways, which lead to predictable behavior patterns. Therefore, we can act in a strategic way to redirect growth towards well being. In this manner, we can inoculate the abused or abandoned child to significant mental disorders as adults at the same time we deal with the contemporary challenges these children bring to home and school. Parent to Parent helps traumatized children avoid becoming traumatizing adults.