MINNEAPOLIS, MN—Certified Educational Planner and Therapeutic Placement Consultant Gail Curran, MS, MBA, CEP, will host an extraordinary workshop on attachment disorder this fall at the Association for Training on Trauma and Attachment in Children (ATTACh) 33rd International Conference Sept. 30–Oct. 2, in Minneapolis, MN. This year’s conference theme is “Together We Heal: Restore. Relate. Educate.” All parents of adopted and foster children and professionals in the attachment and developmental trauma and adoption field are encouraged to attend.

Curran owns Optimal Edu Options, an Arizona-based education consulting agency experienced in finding the best educational and therapeutic options to meet a family’s needs. She’s also a board member for ATTACh, and about 60 percent of Optimal Edu Options’ clients are adopted.

Curran will present a touching and enlightening case study in conjunction with two of her clients who saw great success thanks to her assistance: Jessica “Jess” Larsen and her mother, Carolyn. The session, “Flight or Fight: An Adoptee’s Journey to Healing,” on Saturday, Oct. 2 at 8:30 a.m., will detail how Jessica and her family have fought bravely to get help for Jess and her developmental and physical trauma, to repair their battered relationship, and to ensure Jess will lead a healthy, happy life with support thanks to a correct diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder, her family, and effective therapy.

Curran wrote her thesis on attachment disorders in children who experience trauma, loss, and separation from biological caregivers, so she was acutely skilled in knowing how to communicate effectively with clients such as Jess. In 2018, Curran attended an 80-hour, post-graduate online certification course designed to build the capacity of mental health practitioners to repair childhood attachment wounds and trauma. The professional training was developed by Deborah Gray for ATTAch.

However, Jess’s story is more complex and heart-wrenching than most. It begins with Jess’s birth to a mother who could not care for herself, let alone a child, and her immediate placement into a Russian orphanage, where she was diagnosed with failure to thrive at 11 months.

Jess’s childhood and adolescence were marred by emotional deregulation and further trauma — she fell from a second-story window at age ten. As a result, she severed her spinal cord, leaving her permanently disabled. Despite her parents’ efforts to find therapy and help, Jess’s issues worsened throughout her teens, including when she was using drugs.

Thanks to Gail Curran’s help, Jess was able to get treatment, and although there were setbacks, she’s thrived thanks to Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. She graduated from high school, is attending college, and is living at home and feeling the best she ever has. “I’ve learned so many coping mechanisms, more regulation tools that I’ve had in my whole life.”

Jess added, “Gail was the one person who genuinely cared for me.”

ABOUT OPTIMAL EDU OPTIONS

Optimal Edu Options is an Arizona-based education consulting agency whose experienced team has the expertise necessary to effectively support your family and child in finding the best educational and therapeutic options to meet your family’s needs. Visit online at optimaleduoptions.com.