Donna Potter on The Problem with RAD Diagnosis, Part 1

Welcome to Attachment Theory in Action! Our podcast is dedicated to therapists, social workers, counselors and psychologists who are working with clients from an attachment-based perspective. Interviews are conducted with individuals who are doing clinical work as well as leading attachment theory researchers.

Today, host Karen Buckwalter starts her two part conversation with Donna Potter, LCSW and Professor in the Duke University School of Medicine, about the problems with RAD, or Reactive Attachment Disorder, Diagnosis.

Donna Potter, has worked with traumatized children and families since 1992 and has been an instructor for Duke University’s Department of Psychiatry since 2000. She is endorsed as a trainer by the developers of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) and Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP). She currently serves as the lead trainer and senior clinical faculty consultant for these two models for the NC Child Treatment Program at CCFH.

Ms. Potter has provided consultation to the North Carolina Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse on issues of diagnosis and treatment of Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD), including having co-written the clinical guidelines for assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of RAD. She has provided training to child welfare using NCTSN’s Child Welfare Trauma Training Toolkit and to community clinicians providing military-informed treatment to members of the military and their families through the Welcome Back Veterans Project.