Amanda Harris

Amanda Harris
Amanda Harris is a Psychologist and the Director of the Australian Child & Adolescent Trauma, Loss & Grief Network. Amanda's interests in working with children affected by trauma began when working with homeless kids on the streets of Sydney over 15 years ago. Since then she has gone on to work with refugee children and families; children, families and adults who were displaced following the tsunami in Sri Lanka and; in child and adolescent mental health services. Amanda is currently researching the impact of disasters on Australian children utilising a longitudinal data set.

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Multisystemic therapy may help prevent adolescent sexual offenders from reoffending

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Amanda Harris
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The sexual abuse of children is a worldwide problem that has lasting and sometimes lifelong impacts on the child, their family and the community. There is a substantial amount of research that now demonstrates the long term impacts of child sexual abuse which includes: The increased incidence of all types of mental health difficulties; Increased [read the full story…]

What sort of therapy helps children affected by sexual abuse? New Cochrane Review finds that more research is needed

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Amanda Harris
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Childhood sexual abuse has a devastating impact on many of the children and adolescents who are affected by it. It is a significant problem worldwide and has the potential to have serious negative impacts on mental health and physical health. Experiencing childhood sexual abuse often has negative impacts on the individual’s ability to function socially, [read the full story…]

We need to know more about how to help adults who have experienced trauma

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Amanda Harris
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People affected by trauma present in a number of different settings (Solomon et. al., 1997), sometimes immediately after the trauma, and sometimes much later when they are experiencing the effects of traumatic stress, depression, anxiety or other mental health difficulties. When trauma leads to an individual developing a post traumatic stress reaction, there is not [read the full story…]

Are the current approaches to treating traumatised kids actually making them better?

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Amanda Harris
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More and more research is telling us about the long-term negative consequences of trauma and adversity in childhood with correlations between childhood trauma and poor mental and physical health outcomes across the lifespan. So, it makes sense that there should be a good evidence base for treating the effects of childhood trauma. In February this [read the full story…]