“Somebody Had to Help These Kids”: Forrest Lien on Listening to Parents and Holding on to Hope Through Developmental Trauma

Forrest Lien, LCSW, shares a quiet conversation with a parent during a morning gathering before the start of a previous NavRAD — a moment of connection before a full day of learning and healing begins.

This story is part of our Bridging the Gap Series, where parents’ lived experiences meet professional insight to build understanding and change.

Outside the main session at NavRAD — the biennial event hosted by RAD Advocates for families navigating developmental trauma — the hallway hums with quiet urgency. Parents compare notes, share exhausted laughter, and find people who finally get it. During the breaks, keynote speaker Forrest Lien, LCSW, often stands nearby, chatting with parents who stop to share their stories. Others wait patiently, hoping for a few minutes with the clinician who seems to understand what so few do.

Parents seek him out not for quick fixes, but for understanding. His lifelong drive to help children and families has shaped decades of work in child welfare, clinical treatment, and training — and continues today through his consulting and educational work.

From Student to Specialist in Developmental Trauma

Lien’s professional journey began with a simple desire to help children find stability and belonging. Before graduate school, he worked in residential treatment centers and foster care programs, where he witnessed the same heartbreaking cycle — children moving from placement to placement without ever finding stability in a forever family.

While earning his master’s degree in social work, a guest lecture by psychiatrist Dr. Foster Cline introduced him to developmental trauma. “I started connecting what I was seeing in foster care and residential programs to what Dr. Cline was describing,” Lien recalls. “It made sense why these kids weren’t making it in families.” Read: "What Reactive Attachment Disorder Really Looks Like Inside the Home." 

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After graduate school, Lien joined Casey Family Programs in Tucson, a national organization helping foster children achieve permanency through family-based care. There, he sought out an experienced clinician to mentor him in supporting children with developmental trauma and their families. Graduate school had taught him theory — but developmental trauma required listening to parents and seeing the patterns no textbook captured. What he learned at Casey strengthened his resolve to reach more families.

Building a Treatment Model That Felt Like Family

After working in residential treatment centers early in his career, Lien realized that the most common approaches to reactive attachment disorder fall short. They rely on point systems and compliance, creating the illusion of progress. “Kids comply because there’s no attachment figure,” he explains. “Then they come home and fall apart — and their parents get blamed.” The same misunderstanding, he adds, can happen in outpatient therapy when clinicians misread the family dynamics and unintentionally align with the child instead of stabilizing the parent-child relationship.

Determined to build something different, Lien founded the nonprofit Institute for Attachment and Child Development treatment model in Littleton, Colorado. He understood that children with reactive attachment disorder needed to go back to the developmental milestones trauma interrupted. “Reactive attachment disorder forms before age three,” he says. “They need re-parenting — limits and safety that help a child learn to trust.”

At the Institute, children didn’t live in facilities. They lived in the real homes of therapeutic treatment parents. “The therapeutic parents at the Institute were gifted in the role,” Lien says. “They understood the pushback and manipulation that come from early trauma. They stayed calm, avoided power struggles, and taught, day by day, what trust and safety in a family feel like.”

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The most critical part of the model, however, was that the therapeutic parents were not the child’s own caregivers. For children with developmental trauma disorder, the primary caregiver often becomes what’s known as the nurturing enemy — the person trying to love and nurture the child but who triggers trauma in the child's brain.Read: "What It Feels Like to Be a Nurturing Enemy to a Child With Reactive Attachment Disorder."

While children learned to trust and follow guidance at the Institute, their own caregivers worked simultaneously on their healing — addressing the post-traumatic stress, fear, and exhaustion that come with parenting a child with developmental trauma disorder. That intentional healing allowed them to return to the relationship later with more stability, safety, and emotional bandwidth.

Graduate school had taught Lien theory — but developmental trauma required listening to parents and seeing the patterns no textbook captured. What he learned from parents strengthened his resolve to reach more families.

Institute staff including therapists and neurofeedback practitioners also supported the children. Meanwhile, local community school administrators and law enforcement in the community worked closely with Institute staff to reinforce the program's structure and boundaries. Together, they formed what Lien called a circle of security — a unified team working from the same playbook so children could not split adults or fall through the cracks.

After six to nine months, most children were able to return home with both parents and children better equipped to continue building genuine connection.

Collaboration With RAD Advocates

During his years at the Institute, Lien met Amy VanTine and her family. Like countless parents parenting a child with reactive attachment disorder, VanTine had struggled to find understanding from professionals. What she found through Lien’s work was validation — someone who finally saw the full family experience.

Years later, VanTine founded the nonprofit organization RAD Advocates to bring that same blend of insight and compassion to other families, while pushing for systemic change in the places where support often falls apart. Among the families she supported was Heather Houze, whom she referred to Lien’s program. Houze also found clarity and direction there — and later joined the leadership team of RAD Advocates.

Those early relationships laid the groundwork for a long-standing partnership. Today, Lien, VanTine, and Houze continue to collaborate through advocacy, education, and clinician training to help families find safety, understanding, and hope.

Bridging the Gap Between Families and Effective Treatment Solutions

“Is there help for my child? Can our family make it? Can you fix this?” Lien still hears these questions regularly. After he retired, the Institute closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and mismanagement. While disappointed that the model no longer exists, he now provides assessments and consultation to guide families toward realistic next steps — often referring them to RAD Advocates for advocacy and ongoing support.

He deeply respects the role of parent-led advocacy. “Parents are going to be the ones who make the difference,” Lien says. “It’s the moms and dads who find someone in policy or leadership who will finally listen.” RAD Advocates gives families credibility in systems that often misunderstand them — and gives professionals a way to truly hear what parents have been trying to say.

The Attachment Through the Lifecycle: Etiology, Assessment and Training is available now and includes continuing education credits here.

Ryan Brunner, a psychology professor who has parented a child with developmental trauma, serves on the RAD Advocates Educational Committee. He knows firsthand the importance of having supportive professionals who understand the disorder. “Attachment disorders and reactive attachment specifically are incredibly counterintuitive and difficult to understand,” Brunner explains. “Having people on the side of these families is incredibly important.”

By elevating parent voices and bringing professionals into the conversation, Lien and RAD Advocates share a goal: transforming lived experience into tomorrow’s effective treatment solutions so families are no longer left to navigate developmental trauma alone.

A Legacy of Listening in Developmental Trauma and Reactive Attachment Disorder

The lessons Lien learned by listening to parents continue to shape how professionals understand and approach developmental trauma. His newest training series, now offered through RAD Advocates, reinforces a message he has carried for decades: begin by listening to parents — and strengthen the family base. Learn more about the training here.

What began decades ago in his clinical work — and later through collaboration with Amy VanTine and Heather Houze — has grown into a shared commitment to bridge the gap between families and professionals. Together, they work to ensure parents are heard, believed, and equipped to help their children heal.

For every parent who’s ever been doubted, and every professional who chose to listen instead, there’s proof that healing begins in that space. It’s where empathy meets expertise — and where hope takes root again.

Working with or parenting children with reactive attachment disorder? You don't have to do it alone.

Learn about our parent and professional support from here.

▶️ Watch Forrest Lien’s full interview, recorded at NavRAD, to learn how listening to parents has shaped his lifelong work in developmental trauma.

[Interested in vintage content? Watch legacy interviews from when the Institute was open, including some with RAD Advocates CEO Amy VanTine.]