Broken Promises: The Battle to Find Help for Kids with Aggression
Although it’s often hidden, countless families experience the unrelenting stress of living with a child who displays extreme aggression. Due to limited mental health resources and the innumerable barriers families face, caregivers are left alone, and families are fractured. Tragically, these children may face poor educational outcomes, hospital, police and judicial system involvement, child welfare intervention, and youth homelessness, all due to lack of appropriate and timely supports.
Part memoir and part critical reflection, Broken Promises: The Battle to Find Help for Kids with Aggression sheds light on AFCCA (Aggression Towards Family/Caregivers in Childhood and Adolescence), a unique form of domestic violence. Co-author Christen Shepherd shares her daunting fight for services for her family in a broken and siloed system. Along with counsellor Lisa Highfield, some of the major themes of AFCCA are discussed. Readers will find insightful interviews, research, and brave parents lending their voices.
Not without hope, this book highlights effective strategies for support, from Non-Violent Resistance training to community involvement. Broken Promises is a reminder to parents they are not alone, and is a call to arms, encouraging policy makers and service providers to create meaningful and effective programs that support families and their vulnerable children.
Also by Christen Shepherd and Lisa Highfield
The Promise: Truth From the Trenches of Adoption
When Christen Shepherd adopted four children from foster care, she jumped into the treacherous waters of raising traumatized children. Because of mammoth tantrums, explosive rages, destroyed rooms, and unending grief, the Shepherds enlisted the help of a Child and Youth Counsellor, Lisa Highfield.
Part memoir, part manual, The Promise: Truth from the Trenches of Adoption is a raw and compelling read. It offers insight into the behaviours of adopted and foster children, and gives hope to struggling parents who are at a loss after bringing wounded children into the family.
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Available on lulu.com
About the Authors
Christen Shepherd is a writer, death doula, and mother of six. She holds a degree in Anthropology from Western University and a post-graduate certificate from the Humber School for Writers. In 2013 she co-authored The Promise: Truth from the Trenches of Adoption, and in 2024 assisted famed American art forger Mark Landis with his memoir, Self-Portrait of a Master Art Forger, published by Sartoris Literary Group. Her latest publication is an exploration of childhood aggression within the home, particularly how it affects caregivers. Broken Promises: The Battle to Find Help for Kids with Aggression is out now. She is a registered member of the End of Life Doula Association of Canada, and sits on the board of directors for the new non-profit Heart Space.
For more information: www.christenshepherd.com
Lisa Highfield is a graduate of Fanshawe College’s Child and Youth Counsellor Program, and a graduate of Western University at Kings College with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Thanatology. She completes her Masters of Social Work at King’s College in June 2025. Lisa spent many years working in group homes, secure custody, and in child welfare, where she supported at-risk children and supported foster and adoptive families. Through Lisa’s work experience, she recognized service gaps for families in crisis and founded Healing Hearts, a counselling service.
She has started the nonprofit Heart Space, to ensure equitable access to counselling and support services. In an effort to better serve the families she supports, Lisa is a Reiki practitioner and a certified Yoga and Yoga Tune Up® instructor, and is expanding her counselling practice to include a variety of healing modalities, focusing on grief and loss. Lisa is also the co-author of The Promise: Truth from the Trenches of Adoption, which offers valuable insights into the complex behaviours of foster and adopted kids and the need for support, while giving hope to struggling families. Her newest book, Broken Promises: The Battle to Find Help for Kids with Aggression discusses childhood aggression within the home.
To connect with Lisa or learn more about her programs visit her website: www.healing-hearts.ca
Please join us for the official book launch of
Broken Promises:
The Battle to Find Help for Kids with Aggression
May 31, 2025
1:00- 4:00
Quiet Earth Farm, 1681 Hunt Rd., Dorchester, Ontario
Join us in conversation:
2:00 Guest speaker Angela Geddes MSW "Complex Mental Health and Neurodevelopmental Disorders: The Urgent Need to do Things Differently."
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3:00 Join authors Christen Shepherd and Lisa Highfield in conversation about the need for support for families experiencing
childhood aggression in the home.
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Live music, food trucks, cash bar, book signing.