Don't Touch My Heart: Healing the Pain of an Unattached Child [Paperback]

Lynda Gianforte Mansfield (Author), Christopher H. Waldmann (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 121 pages
• Publisher: Pinon Press; 1st edition (July 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891098208
• ISBN-13: 978-0891098201
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #814,617 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A review from a parent with a RAD child, June 12, 2000

By 

A Parent of a RAD Child (U.S.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don't Touch My Heart: Healing the Pain of an Unattached Child (Paperback)

This book is a realistic view of life with an attachment disordered child, this book does NOT use scare tactics, but rather is a priceless tool in helping others to REALLY see what goes on. Our RAD son has been helped ONLY by holding therapy. Also, the therapy used in the death of the little girl in Colorado was "RE-BIRTHING THERAPY," NOT "HOLDING THERAPY." Holding therapy is not abusive, it is a nurturing way of helping a child express their rage and anger so as to get it out and resolve it. Little children don't know how to express their anger on their own. Unresolved anger eats away at them and prevents them from trusting and loving. This book is accurate in explaining the anger and the portrayal of holding therapy and its benefits. My son is on his way to love and healing thanks to holding therapy, and my friends and family now understand thanks to this wonderful book.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Extremely Helpful Metered with Common Sense, May 1, 2002

By 

JdW (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don't Touch My Heart: Healing the Pain of an Unattached Child (Paperback)

I am both a counselor and a mother of a now-restored RAD child. While I agree that certain therapies, carried out in a non-ethical way are extremely dangerous and would certainly never suggest that people go the route that was taken in Colorado (not at the Evergreen centre, but by two women who acted independently of the centre-for the record), I find that holding therapy, used in conjunction with more traditional theraputic methods is extremely benificial. It is not my practice to entice others to anger, especially children. However, when a child in my care, or an adult for that matter, has clearly lost control of their emotions and is beside themselves with anger/grief, a properly structured holding experience is indeed extremely healing. I have a number of clients of various ages and with varying degrees of attachment disorders who will report that the safety of being held allowed feelings to come forth that they had previously never dared experience.
What happened to that desperate child in Colorado (again, these "therapists" were not from Evergreen; nor do I work for or am in any way associated with Evergreen) was and is clearly wrong.
As with any "new" approach to treatment, discernment and wisdom is the order of the day. This book outlines the emotional trauma of a child who cannot connect, a child struggling to understand the world in which he lives, a child desperate to escape the walls that both he and others have built around him. Foster parents, birth parents, anyone interested in "what goes on in there" would do well to read this.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very short read with a lot of great information, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Don't Touch My Heart: Healing the Pain of an Unattached Child (Paperback)

I started reading this book one night, and I could not put it down. This book helped me understand the world of an unattached child. I read this book in a couple hours. It is a must read if you work with children in our society. Another exceptional book if you are interested in this subject is High Risk: Children without a consience.