As a special education teacher, we always say “all behavior is communication.” I think that is extremely important for everyone to keep in mind, especially when working with children. I’m glad you touched on this!

As a student in school becoming a teacher being trauma informed is so important and can prepare you for more than expected this podcast was so interesting as a education student and future teacher

As a foster parent to three beautiful kids with trauma, this podcast was EXCELLENT in that it gives me hope for her future. TBRI is a wonderful way of living and learning with my kids. Such an informative podcast! Enjoyed it. Keep up the good work w/ these serious topics.

Such an interesting podcast. I cried a lot with memories of adopting our youngest son with severe RAD and how it affected our older son. I was also a full time teacher. My heart breaks that teachers are still (on the whole) unaware of how to make our children feel safe. My cousin also adopted a daughter with RAD. We are both now bringing up a grandson each, both have been severely affected by the early trauma of having parents with RAD. Child mental health services were not good in the UK 35 years ago and have proven ineffective in the last 18 years... and adult mental health services are even worse. My grandson is now 18, I took him out of school at 13 and again at 15. My cousin's grandson is 8 and because of the added recent trauma of losing his father and 6 months later his grandpa he had some outbursts at school...the school then refused to take him on his class residential. Heartbroken is not a strong enough emotion of how we felt! And we have been professional people in our working life...one medical...one educational...both with early childhood trauma experience. Professionals working with children need extensive training in early childhood trauma and attachment issues or our youngsters have no hope of a productive adulthood and the ability to break the negative parenting cycle. My son was 30 before I had a genuine hug and an I love you mum. My heart melted. You are amazing parents, constantly learning, endlessly fighting for the best for your children. Thank you xxx

This lady is an amazing woman. We need more teachers like her. I learned alot listening to this video. Aaron was listening so intently. Never thought about what Crystal said about children acting good for other people & acting out at home. Does make sense. My 16 year old granddaughter gave us trouble about going to school. All her mothers fault because she made her so dependent on her. Took her every where with her but left the other baby home. Separation anxiety. She would pitch fits for half the day at school. Now she will get up & go even when she’s told she don’t have to. ❤ this video

I was watching one of your old videos about Hannah and Alex. I would love to see you guys do a podcast on what foster care is like in your area. As I listened to their story I am just shocked that the foster care workers never caught anything going on in the home. As a previous foster care worker in Ohio , a placement had to last for six months before adoption and personally a lot of us would take our kiddos out for the zoo, ice cream, etc and so that also gave them time to open up about anything privately . It just shocks me that even workers they should have had a good bond with before adoption didn’t notice anything.

What a very interesting podcast , very informative and what an amazing person Michelle is .

Michele was a great guest to watch and learn about her story. Loved this podcast from Crazy Pieces!

What an amazing informative podcast 💞💞 I wish ALL teachers had trauma training!!

Thank you! This was the best interview. Pre- birth trauma is so real. And the whole abandonment issue is just not understood. I am an adoptive single parent with a now 24 year old. FASD and pre-birth trauma, prior to coming to me, has so greatly affected her. She is now in the mental health system and may never be able to live outside the system. What your guest said is so right on. I wish my gal's teachers had understood. I had to did for support and training. Post Institute, Jeff Noble and Honestly Adoption have been have been my biggest support/trainers.

People like you are amazing! We definitely need more people in this world just like you! THANK YOU!!!!

I was a preschool teacher and I took so many classes learing about different special needs/medical care children here in Arizona and I learn to talk to parents so I make sure if there was something I needed to know to help me in my class I would as someone or I would look up on Google to help me understand the child more, I had so many children that were in foster homes out of all my years of teaching

We need more teachers like Michele!

She has got to be one of the most inspirational and kindest souls I’ve ever ever heard! What an absolutely incredible person! This has in-lightened me so much and I’ve spoken to my partner about a trauma therapist for himself as well as so much on even our own kids as we are a family from separation 🥰 thank you soo much for this! Very much needed for this weekend 🤩🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼💛

I was adopted by my Aunt at age 15. I have a special needs son. I was pregnant with him, but he was born with Autism. He was a lot like her youngest but is doing Awesome today. He of course still has Autism, but lots of therapy over the years has helped him. This is an amazing woman. ❤

The way she talked about her kids made me want to cry

As an adoptive mum I feel to be privileged to have known about trauma before

I am glad that she shared the story of the book she chose not to read. I have an honest question regarding this. In my school district they have a huge group of parents that want books available to students that cover topics, like abuse, rape, and other serious (and less serious but equally triggering). They reason that children need to have books they can relate too or they feel alone in their struggles/difficulties. They say having those “mirrors” are necessary but the book story seems to be the opposite idea to that. I have even heard that adopted kids need to have books on adoption to normalize adoption but do they really need all these books? I’d love more insight on this.

Thank you for sharing. I think it’s good for as many people to learn as much as they can about trauma as possible, even if they don’t deal with it because you just never know

I took a child in, didn’t foster, first thing I did was take her to counseling, the system did nothing for her, which is so sad. Teachers should be taught not all children have the perfect home life.

Wow what an incredible lady. GOD BLESS YOU Michelle. ❤

This has to be one of my favorite episodes of the podcast. It was great to hear Michele’s story!

This helped me understand my child.

Thank you! A lot of good information! It made me so sad that friends and relatives did not want to babysit kid with trauma. As a person with trauma you feel that energy. Thank you for being there for her!

I was adopted when I was 8 years old from Costa Rica!

Very interesting pod cast I JUST LOVE IT ❤ ..an adoptive mom from Brazil kisses and love

Our son had Oppositional Defiant Disorder and he was AMAZING for everyone but my husband and myself.

I'm crying listening to this, so amazing🥹🥰🙏🩷

Thank you for addressing the parts of adoption that is never addressed. The hard parts. As a single mom of 8 adopted kids, I've had to deal with those same issues as your guest. The hardest part for me was remembering that they lashed out at me because I was the safe place, and to wait until they are no longer over stimulated before parenting. I would add this for singles that plan to adopt... Make sure you have a great support system, especially for respite. We also had a school experienced that was a trigger for my oldest daughter. Her 5th grade teacher gave this assignment... Go home and make a family tree on poster board. The further back that you go, the better grade you will get. So...we go a huge poster board, I drew a beautiful tree for her to add her photos to and she put her photo on it. Then she took it to school. Now I can go back to 10 AD on one side of my family. But that is not her biology, which this was for. Her teacher told her she did a horrible job on her poster and she could have done better. She stood up and said, "I went back as far as my biology goes, so this to all the way to the beginning of my biology." I also called the priest for the parish (it was a Catholic school). He informed her teacher that she should get an A and there would be no more genealogy done in that school as it was traumatic for adopted kids. It was a small school and all of the teachers knew she was adopted as I also worked there as an aide. To sum it up...Get your support group together. File your paperwork. Enjoy the love! It's a beautiful life.

I really enjoyed watching this podcast. Michele is an amazing mother/ teacher! Very informative. Thank you for doing this podcast. God bless you all!

I love watching your KZfaq channel and podcasts

That was such a wonderful, educational, emotional and so much more podcast. Thank you on so many different levels. Aaron, Crystal and Michelle I am in awe of you.😊

Thank you both for ALL the information you both share. I really want to do what you've both done. I really can't wait for the Crazy Parenting book from you.

About two decades ago, I was at a pro life event. This young woman had a beautiful baby on her shoulder. All babies are beautiful. 🙏 Just then, the baby did what babes do. Spit up a little 😁 something was different about the Mom. I realized later. So we started talking. She told me she was married to the pastor speaking at the event. She said they had adopted the baby from a 16 year old who saw "the silent scream" and said, "i cannot do that to my baby " Can you imagine the happiness from this one brave girl? Mom? I realized why the Mom "looked different." she hadn't gone through childbirth. She had extra energy for baby (nor carrying the baby for 9 months) Please keep sharing your great story. I always remember that beaming new Mom. The treasured baby.

Great information. Great podcast. Ty

Michele is an angel 💕

i love your podcast this one is by far my favourite one as an adoptee listing to this making me understand why my parents waited to have more kids and i would love to talk to you guys about this love you

My sister had a friend's granddaughter's eighteen month old baby dropped at her house at midnight with five pampers and one sneaker. She had to fight to get vouchers for food and clothes. The baby was familiar with my sister but had gone through a lot of trauma. Her home was invaded by the police at gun point. She is now turning five this month. She is still with my sister. She doesn't see her mom as parental rights have been terminated. As I listened to the podcast, I think this little girl suffers from pre-verbal developmental trauma. My sister has asked for counseling but it has not been approved. Thank you so much for this podcast. I'm going to have my sister listen to it. It may help her get the counseling her child needs. BTW, my sister is adopting her. She's just waiting for a date. 😊

Terrific guest and topic

This was very eye opening

Wonderful, informative, beautiful podcast. Thank you. ❤

I feel like you guys should do a colab video with dellavlogs when everyone is ready because I feel like you have had a similar situation happen regarding adopting , I feel like that would make such a great healing podcast on the topic it could really help other too who are wanting to adopt

Beautiful podcast

Crystal and Aaron, I have sent in a few forms and hopes to be on the channel to tell my story and one part of my story is that I put my child my youngest son up and he will be turning 8 on June 21st and I would love to be able to tell my story about this and how it came about and how amazing his parents are!!!! If you would love to have me to tell my story, please reach out to me by phone or email. I look forward to hearing from one of you soon. I love you guys so much and thank you for what you do for all the kids out there!❤❤❤❤ Much Love Always, Kristen B 💕💕💕💕

Michelle is an amazing Woman ❤

Trauma during childhood is such a big deal. I’m learning about complex PTSD. childhood PTSD. I’m following the Crappy Childhood Fairy. This speaker is amazing! What she has gone through, wow! Suggestion: next time just leave guest speaker in upper middle so we can see responses from crystal, Aaron.

Oooh how I wish we had more of her...my youngest is in end grade and he's been struggling this year so bad 😢snd his teacher just don't seem to care at all 😢so frustrating

Loved this glad To know I wasn't the only parent that has had to fight for their baby.

Working within a school attached to a therapeutic community I ensured staff were consciously aware that the behaviour is not the problem but the child’s answer to the problem/question. So their role was determining what the question was that they were answering by their behaviour. It was easy to describe this using the example of children at the checkout in a supermarket. They saw sweets there and started having a temper tantrum.The temper tantrum is answering the problem of I want sweets. I’ve a 50/50 chance of getting them so let’s throw the temper tantrum and see what happens….

Yes yup behind behavior is issue

Hi Crystal. Love. U guys

Love this conversation. I'm slightly distracted by the transition of the guest box. Is it possible to just keep a consistent split screen in the future? I love you're podcast. Thanks for sharing your lives with us. ❤

Neat travelled 2x to China to adopt

And it’s not going to hurt me or anything like that it’s very good or bad It depends on the way you look at it.

I love this lady and her way of thinking. The things she does for students is amazing. And of course, for her children too. The only thing that bothered me was her saying she tells the teachers she'll do a couple problems for homework but isnt gonna do 5 pages. I think its sweet and I do get it. But at the same time, I think its important for children to realize they have to do hard things sometimes. You can't constantly protect them from hard things, things they don't like, etc. Even if they're tired or don't want to. I mean, I'd make sure she could relax and unwind first but, I'd say she needs to understand her mom can't fix everything for her. She's 15 so close to college age, if thats the route she chooses. Good luck telling a college professor she isn't gonna do homework like that. Not trying to be ugly at all, just giving my opinion.

In family-systems therapy there is an "identified patient" that often gets scapegoated for issues that all family members are contributing to in some form or another. If one person is experiencing trauma, the whole family is experiencing trauma.

I have 2 adopted children I love them both as if they were my biological children

Michelle was great

Trauma therapy needs to be stressed and we need to be educated on it

Thank you I have two adopted children they are adults noe but My daughter has RAD very server. I can't even have her around My grandkids because she's threatened to hurt them. Unfortunately I I have to spend time with her away from the rest of the family because is danger to them.

I adopted my son when he was one he still suffers from trauma

Thank you for making this podcast! I hope you guys will keep the screen of the other person still net time, the movement of the screen with Michele made me a bit seasick.

Can you link the pod cast she touched on ?

The stuff the lady is talking about her daughter was what my daughter go through everyday day but she has ASD .Would you known any podcast that is for parents that has ASD

Trauma is a full mind+body+emotional experience. Whether we are cognitively aware, or can verbalize it is not a factor in how we cope or are resilient - at least not until we feel safe enough and have developed those skills (language, worldview) to face it. And even then, if we treat it solely as a "mental" problem we are missing the mark completely. The term 'psyche' has etymological roots in soul. Trauma must be approached from a deeper level than mind alone.

Crystal. I want to know. What is your advice in Parenting a kid with ADHD. My son is 16 and iam really struggling. I have to check daily his backpack if he did homework. I help him with him studying for exams. My husband doesn't belief there is a thing like ADHD. He says I am spoiling my son. But my son can't follow any instructions. Should I pull back and let him learn to do it all by himself. He already failed grade 8. In S. A if you fail Maths you faile the grade. We dont have summer schools and extra credits and all that

Very interesting podcast. Though, I kept getting distracted by then transition being done with the guests video. A split screen or just have it placed at the top would have helped me

I live in a little country town in Australia and our schools now dont hand out home work to kids they believe the do enough through the day at school

How do you tell the difference between trauma and autistic traits with a young child you have adopted?

So good teacher didnt read a book triggers a child in the class

I don't normally comment, but I really feel the need to comment. I understand that there is trauma with kids that are adopted, but everything your guest is describing is Autism. I'm not saying the child didn't experience trauma or isn't affected by what she experienced, but I really feel sorry for her child that her Autism isn't being recognized to get the proper support. I have two teenagers with Autism, and my girls struggle with many of the same things. I also have a lot of family members with Autism, and I understand foster kids as my parents were foster parents while I was growing up. She mentioned her daughter misunderstands facial expressions and gets upset. My youngest does the same because of her Autism and recognizing emotions with facial expressions, and yes kids with Autism need to be taught to recognize facial expressions and emotions. Also she mentioned about how her daughter will hold it together at school and the behavior comes out at home with her. Again, that is very common with Autism. Especially girls with Autism. It's called "masking". The stuff she said about disciplining, and how normal ways don't work (which is also very common with Autism). I also have to say it isn't fair or accurate to refer to a child who has mental health because of trauma as neuro diverse because they're not neuro diverse. That's a chemical imbalance, not neuro diversity which is something you're born with.

If I say something to you, I don’t want to be judged or anything like that and it’s a little personal I don’t want to talk but I don’t want to say anything in the comments

I don't know where this young lady lives but what about Joe? I think they would be great together.

I love you ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Did any of your kids go to counseling

Sad sad left to asleep on wooden board

Oh pre verbal what

Don't u think them kids belong in there own race to understand

Asthma considered special needs

Hated how the lady kept on moving all over the screen that was extremely annoying.

can i give you piece of advice when you do interview like that don't zoom in and out like that it get really annoying just pick a spot and just leave it