Alone we are strong...together we are stronger!
All for One and One for All.
Nigliazzo Family Motto
In our home, the above quote is on our wall. As a mother and attorney serving children with attachment disorder, I frequently work with families and clinicians who would do anything to help their children heal, but have not found help despite considerable efforts. That has to change.
The material on this site was not gained from a book or research. It was gained from life, from walking a road. The minute we adopted our fourth child, it was evident she needed an advocate as much as a mother. From adoption subsidies to court proceedings to IEP law, it seemed that the advocacy never stopped. Worse yet, sometimes we had to advocate with the very agencies designed to give us help.
While raising a child with significant special needs is daunting, advocating for those special needs is often even more overwhelming. I fondly remember explaining to my dear husband that I could not continue any longer. I was past my burnout point.
After I explained that I had nothing left, he said, "Michele, anyone can play three quarters of the game. It is the winner who can play all four. You are in the fourth quarter. Stay strong and you will win the game."
With his cheerleading speech embedded in my mind, I kept going for our daughter. I prepared and filed briefs; I researched; I worked. When I wasn't advocating, I was handling the chaos at home that attachment disorder inevitably brings. Six months later, I was again "at the end of my rope." Truthfully, I didn't know if I was ever even given a rope and, if I was, I certainly didn't know where to find it in the chaos of my life.
I went back to my husband. "OK, I made it through the fourth quarter and I am still getting tackled. I am tired and I am done. You said I was in the 4th quarter. Is it over yet?"
My husband, who understood and shared my pain and exhaustion, said:
"Sorry, I forgot to tell you that OVERTIME is the killer...."
What OVERTIME?
As a parent or clinician of a child with attachment disorder, you are very familiar with "OVERTIME." You are not only familiar with it, you have lived it for months and years and lifetimes on end. Helping a child heal from early trauma requires understanding and living in an OVERTIME world where you are never quite enough, never have enough, and wonder if you can ever endure enough.
At the Nigliazzo Advocacy Center, we understand your challenges. We feel your pain. We have met many of you, reach out to all of you, and ask you to believe in a dream. A dream of joining parents and clinicians, OVERTIME advocates with heart, knowledge, endurance and strength, as an advocacy family to change the world - one traumatized family at a time.
We hope you will take our invitation to join us. Not only will we present resources and training which will help you personally advocate, we hope to empower you to educate others so that, in time, the world will be a better place for children and families dealing with attachment disorder and complex trauma in children.
Individually, we may feel weak, but our team was trained in OVERTIME and, together, we are strong.
Michele Nigliazzo
Founder
Nigliazzo Advocacy Center for Attachment Disorders
The material on this site was not gained from a book or research. It was gained from life, from walking a road. The minute we adopted our fourth child, it was evident she needed an advocate as much as a mother. From adoption subsidies to court proceedings to IEP law, it seemed that the advocacy never stopped. Worse yet, sometimes we had to advocate with the very agencies designed to give us help.
While raising a child with significant special needs is daunting, advocating for those special needs is often even more overwhelming. I fondly remember explaining to my dear husband that I could not continue any longer. I was past my burnout point.
After I explained that I had nothing left, he said, "Michele, anyone can play three quarters of the game. It is the winner who can play all four. You are in the fourth quarter. Stay strong and you will win the game."
With his cheerleading speech embedded in my mind, I kept going for our daughter. I prepared and filed briefs; I researched; I worked. When I wasn't advocating, I was handling the chaos at home that attachment disorder inevitably brings. Six months later, I was again "at the end of my rope." Truthfully, I didn't know if I was ever even given a rope and, if I was, I certainly didn't know where to find it in the chaos of my life.
I went back to my husband. "OK, I made it through the fourth quarter and I am still getting tackled. I am tired and I am done. You said I was in the 4th quarter. Is it over yet?"
My husband, who understood and shared my pain and exhaustion, said:
"Sorry, I forgot to tell you that OVERTIME is the killer...."
What OVERTIME?
As a parent or clinician of a child with attachment disorder, you are very familiar with "OVERTIME." You are not only familiar with it, you have lived it for months and years and lifetimes on end. Helping a child heal from early trauma requires understanding and living in an OVERTIME world where you are never quite enough, never have enough, and wonder if you can ever endure enough.
At the Nigliazzo Advocacy Center, we understand your challenges. We feel your pain. We have met many of you, reach out to all of you, and ask you to believe in a dream. A dream of joining parents and clinicians, OVERTIME advocates with heart, knowledge, endurance and strength, as an advocacy family to change the world - one traumatized family at a time.
We hope you will take our invitation to join us. Not only will we present resources and training which will help you personally advocate, we hope to empower you to educate others so that, in time, the world will be a better place for children and families dealing with attachment disorder and complex trauma in children.
Individually, we may feel weak, but our team was trained in OVERTIME and, together, we are strong.
Michele Nigliazzo
Founder
Nigliazzo Advocacy Center for Attachment Disorders
