Haruv institute - Leading Principles in Trauma-Informed Child Representation

cry/shout/laugh...” or “I am here to listen to you and help you. Here, you are allowed to talk about and say anything.”

• Diminished emotional and cognitive expressions: Trauma has a diminishing effect. Sometimes we will get a description from the child that will sound emotionless, distant, and detached, even though the facts are difficult. This is because trauma can reduce the victim’s emotional range and can affect how they report the trauma. From a cognitive perspective, sometimes the child’s description will be a “flat” and linear explanation, as if one thing led to another (“because I did this, then that happened”). Sometimes, we will receive an explanation lacking any complexity, which instead minimizes or even eliminates the abuse or holds dramatic splits in the story between good and bad. It is important to recognize these types of descriptions as representations of the impact of the trauma on the child. It is also important to “translate” these various effects to the court, to prevent misinterpretation of the child’s responses. • Negative self-attributions: Children who experience continuous abuse, especially when the abuser is a close family member, have to face the unbearable reality of depending on an adult who, on the one hand, is benevolent and takes care of them and, on the other hand, harms them. In order to maintain coherence and internal logic in this reality, children tend to blame themselves for the situation and even justify the aggressor, defend them, and internalize the aggression towards them, for example, “Dad beats me occasionally, but only because it is important to him that I be a good student.” Feelings of guilt and shame and taking responsibility for the abuse are inherent reactions to abuse from a loved one. In some cases, this creates a self-image of a damaged being, as a kind of explanation the person gives themself for what is happening, for example, “Something is wrong with me, that’s why this is

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