An eight-year-old wanders for two nights in the forest between Bavaria and the Czech Republic before she is rescued. How do children process such an experience? A psychologist explains what helps.
from
Violetta Simon
When eight-year-old Julia was rescued from Berlin two days after her disappearance in the Bohemian Forest, many asked themselves: How did the child survive in the cold, what was going on in him, how did it cope in the frightening darkness and above all: How can it do you deal with such an experience at that age? The term trauma appears again and again in this context. Julia Asbrand, 36, is professor for clinical child and adolescent psychology and psychotherapy at the Institute for Psychology at Berlin’s Humboldt University. The psychotherapist explains why the term trauma has to be separated from a mental disorder.