We provide adoptive and foster families with the tools they need to neutralize the chaos and promote healing for their hurt child. Promoting, Hope, Help, Healing, and Harmony!
Testimonials
We truly believed love and parental common sense were the most essential ingredients to successfully parent children with trauma and attachment difficulties, we learned it just wasn’t enough. Melinda became a blessing for our family. Her in depth knowledge of trauma and Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) helped us to understand new techniques and strategies to try with our children. Like other parents, we encountered children who were too guarded and too distrustful to be open to the genuine love we tried to offer them. Melinda encouraged the use of Hughes’ (2009) Model of PACE to create a new way for us to connect with our children. Melinda, you have given us the chance to make greater impact in our children’s lives. Your willingness to teach us a new way of thinking gives us a chance to be more effective parents. Thank you for all your help and for never failing to stand up for those who’ve experienced trauma.
Chris and Angela Gonzales
Melinda Charles of the San Antonio Center for Childhood Trauma and Attachment LLC is a wealth of training resources for child welfare workers. She addresses the impact of trauma in out-of-home care, adoptive placement and school settings. She has an incredible education and credentialing to back up her real life experience of raising a severely traumatized daughter. Great personal stories and excellent application of real-life skills in working with traumatized youth.
Lori St. Ama, LPC, Clinical Administrator, A World for Children
Melinda Charles has been instrumental in helping me learn new techniques to help my child she has taught me how to see my child through the trauma lens. Also she has a wealth of knowledge and resources to help with any special education issues you may be having with the education system. I would definitely recommend Melinda Charles MA, CPC she has been a great help to me and my family.
I liked the group involvement. It's good to find out how the course material affected everyone's personal life. I would like to see the course extended. Some subjects needed more than one class to explore." note: the workshop was already 20 hours!
Melody Herrera (a participant in Casey Family training)
Parent testimonial 2017 My husband & I have been through 4 years of training's for foster/adopt parents with 2 different agencies and we both agree, Melinda Charles gave absolutely the best training we've ever been too! She is phenomenal!!! She has personal adoption experience and knows firsthand that all the regular parenting tricks don't work with our children that have been exposed to trauma. She offered us so much practical advice that is very relevant to adopted children who have suffered trauma and struggle with attachmen t issues. She even made both of us almost cry on a few occasions. She also gave us ALOT of hope. I am happy to say that we have tried many of her special tips & tricks and THEY WORK!! We plan to attend every future training that she gives. We just can not get enough! 🙂
Dustin & Christie Bagwell
I’m writing to recommend Melinda Charles. I’ve known Ms. Charles for 18 months, during which she has conducted some professional training sessions for our volunteer CASA-GALs at Hill Country CASA in Kerrville, Texas.
In my dealings with Ms. Charles, she is very knowledgeable regarding trauma informed care for children, attachment issues, and developmental milestones; and how each of these has effect on the overall best care for the child as a part of the family unit. She is a friendly and informative trainer who engages her audience in thought-provoking discussion and activity.
Ms. Charles has been well-reviewed by our corps of Hill Country volunteers, and we believe her information would be very helpful to parents and foster parents of children who are in the Texas CPS system. A true trauma-informed understanding among parents and care providers will foster better outcomes for the children and families involved in DFPS lawsuits or court-ordered services.
I highly recommend Melinda Charles as an effective trainer who brings true understanding and compassion to her informational sessions. She will work to help bring families together in a positive, loving and mutually understanding manner. If I may offer additional information I welcome you to reach out to me.
Stephanie Cash, Executive Director
Ms. Charles gave the best workshop at today's conference